Republicans defend it as a pragmatic restatement of what they've always believed.
What is remembered as the disastrous Houston convention of 1992 would have seemed much less hard-edged if it had not included Pat Buchanan's ''culture war'' speech, and those involved in that convention insist they didn't know what the conservative firebrand was going to say. Buchanan is not even in the party this time, and this Bush campaign is riding much closer herd on those who will speak. It really is nothing new for Republicans to present a less conservative image and for Democrats to act less liberal at their conventions in an effort to win over the broad middle of the American electorate. And yet the party's platform and the list of those who will speak clearly does indicate that at least in the face it presents to America, the GOP has turned the page from the era when the party openly pursued so-called ''wedge issues'' to divide traditionally Democratic conservative voters from their party. Phyllis Schlafly, a conservative stalwart whose edge has never been in question and who was attending a fund-raiser for House Republicans Bob Barr of Georgia and Dan Burton of Indiana, did not appear entirely thrilled by the new tone of the party Monday.