‘92 REPUBLICAN CONVENTION : Buchanan Seen but Not Heard in Texas Two-Step of Intentions : Speaker: He’s staying mum for now, but supporters assert he’s in Houston only to back Bush, and maybe also to test the waters for 1996.

HOUSTON — It was just like old times. Patrick J. Buchanan, the erstwhile candidate for President, hopped out of a sedan here into the arms of a few dozen chanting supporters and a throng of jousting reporters. He smiled, offered a pleasant “glad to be here” and then did something entirely out of character.

His mouth clamped shut, he walked on by.

With no praise of his own campaign and no criticism of his nemesis, President Bush, he ignored the cameras to which he had gravitated for nine months and hewed to his vow to stay mum on the sidelines until his nationally televised speech tonight to the Republican Convention.

But with his arrival here Saturday, the former television commentator still roused his faithful to cheers, drawing ovations from scores of partisans that subsided only after he wedged himself into the elevator of his airport hotel and was whisked skyward.

The scene represented not only what has become of Buchanan’s candidacy--for the moment, dead silence--but also how the Bush campaign hopes to keep the former candidate: uncritical and wowing the troops.

Buchanan has come to Houston with two goals. First, he is here at the behest of Bush, who called Buchanan more than two weeks ago to ask him to speak. Second, he is here to test the 1996 waters.

Exactly what Buchanan will say is a closely held secret. His speech is scheduled for 6:55 p.m. PDT. As recently as June, as his candidacy met its formal demise in the last of the primaries, Buchanan was still feistily predicting a rambunctious appearance here.

“We go to Houston, my friends, not to swear fealty to King George,” he told supporters gathered in June in New Hampshire, the site of his best showing of the campaign. “We go to Houston to tell them that the little rebellion that started here has turned into a revolution.”

In recent weeks, however, that rhetoric has been shelved. The former candidate will endorse Bush tonight in a gesture that the President hopes will help smooth his jagged relations with party conservatives.

Greg Mueller, Buchanan’s spokesman, said that he read the speech, and it will be “touching and moving.”

“It makes people proud to be Republicans and proud to be Americans,” he said, adding that “it’ll obviously endorse the President.”

Not that Buchanan intends to paper over his differences with Bush, which were magnified in their skirmishes from New Hampshire to California. Rather, aides said that Buchanan’s storied rhetorical firepower will be directed at Democratic presidential nominee Bill Clinton and his running mate, Sen. Al Gore of Tennessee.

“If you’re going to be a leader, you can’t be decisionless, you can’t be AWOL in the 1992 election,” Mueller said. “Now it’s time to come around, to unite the family again and go after public enemy No. 1, Bill Clinton.

“There’s no doubt that Pat Buchanan . . . will step up on stage and still have differences with George Bush. But there’s bigger differences with Clinton and Gore.”

Buchanan has pledged to do nothing to harm Bush between now and Election Day. But what happens after Election Day is Buchanan’s second agenda for this week. Houston is a testing ground of sorts, wherein he is expected to look for reaction to another presidential bid in 1996.

Among Buchanan partisans gathered here for the last official act of his 1992 campaign, there is little doubt which way they wish to turn. Tom Williamson, who served as Colorado chairman for the campaign, whooped it up as Buchanan passed through the lobby of his hotel.

“It didn’t end once we didn’t get the nomination,” he said afterward. “If he runs again, there’s going to be a huge contingent in place to help him out.”

For this convention, Buchanan’s official forces are less a huge contingent than a footnote. He is holding 78 delegates out of a total of 2,210--not enough to give him any official play on the convention floor.

The candidate himself is beyond the reach of supporters or reporters. He spent Sunday practicing his speech and “collecting chits” in private meetings, an aide said. The usually loquacious Buchanan declined all pre-convention requests for interviews and will not speak publicly until after his address, the aide said.

His schedule will pick up Tuesday, however, and he is expected to host a midweek barbecue that aides said will draw more than 800 supporters.

Politics has not been entirely on the front burner for Buchanan since his last campaign swing during the California primary. Shortly after the June 2 primary, he underwent surgery to replace a malfunctioning heart valve. Aides said that he has almost fully recovered and is once again jogging daily, as he did throughout his campaign.

Although Buchanan did not arrive until the weekend, his team worked actively in last week’s platform hearings. The results sparked a resurgent enthusiasm for supporters who had bemoaned the fate of the party under Bush.

“It was almost a Buchanan platform,” spokesman Mueller said with an air of wonderment. “Real strong stuff got in this one.”

While several Buchanan planks were rejected--including those calling for federal spending cuts and for an end to foreign aid--the former candidate’s forces claimed victory on one of his pet concerns.

The platform, which is scheduled to be approved by the full convention today, calls on the federal government to “equip the Border Patrol with the tools, technologies and structures necessary to secure the border.” Although the Bush forces differ in their interpretation, Buchanan took the language as a signal of approval for his proposal to build a wall along the border to stem the flow of illegal aliens into the United States.

The conservative commentator’s forces also took heart that the party, despite a contentious conflict, stuck with its opposition to abortion.

Buchanan most recently addressed his political future as the primaries came to a close and he was asked if he plans to run again in 1996.

“It’s possible, but you really don’t know,” he said in an interview with The Times. “I mean, I had no idea I’d be here in ’92. . . . These things are really unpredictable. I’ve had a good run anyhow. That’s how I look at it.”

But the mostly young crew that joined up with Buchanan when his surprise candidacy began just weeks before the New Hampshire primary are of a more certain mind-set. One clue was the last four digits of the telephone number they selected for Buchanan’s Houston headquarters: 1996.

As Buchanan arrived at his hotel Saturday, Dan Giroux, his former campaign spokesman, was sporting a bright white polo shirt with a red-and-blue insignia reading: “Buchanan for President Campaign Team.”

Pointing to his shirt, he sought to dispel any doubt about his hopes for the future.

“Just add ‘ ‘96,’ ” he said.