Bush Regrets Bob Jones U.

George W. Bush hopes to turn the corner with Catholics about his visit to Bob Jones University in South Carolina.

Bush has been under steady criticism for visiting the Bob Jones campus last month. The Christian conservative school in Greenville, S.C. bans interracial dating. And the son of school's namesake once called the Catholic Church a "Satanic Cult."

On Sunday, the Texas Governor released a letter to the leader of New York's powerful Catholic community, Cardinal John O'Connor. As first reported by Rich Lamb of WCBS-AM in New York, Bush wrote in the letter, "I should have been more clear in disassociating myself from anti-Catholic sentiments and racial prejudice" at Bob Jones.

In Austin, Tex. later that same day, Bush reiterated what he said in the letter, reports CBS News Correspondent Lee Cowan.

"This was a missed opportunity and I regret it," Bush told reporters.

Even so, the Governor would not go so far as to say he regretted going to the school in the first place.

The Bob Jones visit helped Bush in South Carolina, where he won the GOP primary there. But then it hurt Bush in Michigan, where he lost that state's primary to his Republican rival, John McCain. In Michigan, McCain used the visit against Bush in a telephone calling campaign that turned out Catholic voters for the Senator.

"Governor George Bush has campaigned against Sen. John McCain by seeking the support of southern fundamentalists who express anti-Catholic views." the McCain ad ran.

Bush called the Arizona Senator's tactics "sleazy".

"This is a man who says he talks the straight talk. This is a man who talks the parse talk. I resent this kind of campaigning! The campaigning of pitting one religion against the other has got to end in America." said Bush.

McCain said the calls didn't accuse Bush of bigotry, only the people Bush was turning to for support. The Senator told said it was in response to telephone calls the Bush camp had already been using on him.

"Phone calls were made describing me and my family in a way that was outrageous. It was part of what most view as the nastiest campaign in the history of South Carolina, and Governor Bush is going to have problems with that for a long time." said McCain.

CBS News Correspondent Jacqueline Adams reports Bush was following a 20-year-old GOP tradition when he courted conservative Christian voters at Bob Jones. Ronald Reagan, Bob Dole, and Dan Quayle all campaigned there, despite its controversial history. But times have changed -- and for Bush, his visit turned out to be a disaster.

As McCain approaches the crucial New York and California primaries on March 7th, his lieutenants are threatening to hammer Bush again over the Bob Jones visit.

"We put out a Catholic voter alert (in Michigan) and we may do it again," said McCain strategist Mike Murphy on CBS News' Face The Nation on Sunay.

Reverend Dr. Calvin Butts of Harlem's Abyssinian Baptist Church in New York City said this campaign year is different than recent ones, because finally, the Christian Right seems to have retreated from the political stage.

"Religion is playing less of a role or less of a direct role than it played, shall we say, in the election of Mr. Reagan," he said.

It's ironic, Butts says, that the self-described "compassionate conservative" is the first Republican candidate who's being held to account for the intolerance and bigotry which Butts thinks have formed the core of the fundamentalist Christian crusade.

"If the evangelicals embraced him because he went to Bob Jones University, then God help us all."

And in delegate-rich New York, the Bob Jones visit has already caused the defection of one Republican congressman from Bush to McCain: Peter King of Long Island.

"The message is he was willing to look the other way at a bigoted institution to get the votes of hard core fundamentalists in South Carolina who could be anti-black, anti-Catholic," said Rep. King.

The Congressman believes that Catholic voters nationwide will be as offended as he. On Tuesday, Virginia and Washington state hold their GOP presidential primaries. And in Virginia, religious conservatives appear to remain powerful. That state's governor, Jim Gilmore, is a Bush backer who hopes McCain will get his comeuppance.

"Frankly, I just think it's sort of a smear tactic that has no place in American politics and certainly has no relevancy to Governor Bush," he said.