Pat Buchanan was hardly a “moral voice” for the GOP. He fared quite poorly in the GOP primaries that year, although he did get some notoriety after winning in NH. The major point is that he has been effectively drummed out of the Republican party, and his participation in subsequent presidential campaigns has been as a third party candidate.
I think SJackson was mocking Buchananites who constantly put him on a pedestal similar to how Obamaites put the Obamessiah put him on a pedestal.
Of course he was. He delivered the keynote speech at the 1992 convention, his culture war speech, which was widely acclaimed. This after his tepid dabbling in Holocaust denial. And yes, plenty of Republicans recognized the mistake, and felt it contributed to the Bush defeat. Just as plenty applauded it. He wasn’t drummed out of the party, he left.