Brownback charts own path

(Pat Greenhouse/Globe Staff)

Presidential candidate Sam Brownback is interviewed by the Boston Globe editorial board.

Republican Sam Brownback, trying to energize his languishing presidential bid, is reaching across the political aisle to some unusual political bedfellows.

"We're trying some different plays," the Kansas senator told the Globe editorial board today.

This week, Brownback will join an unnamed Democrat to offer a resolution for Congress to apologize for slavery and segregation. Brownback said he expects a tough fight on the resolution -- which will not include any call for reparations -- but said that the apology is "not a sign of weakness, it's a sign of strength."

Already, with Democratic presidential hopeful Joe Biden, Brownback is pushing a plan for a federal system in Iraq -- with strong Kurdish, Sunni, and Shia regional governments -- as a way to end the bloodshed and allow US troops to withdraw from combat patrols.

Brownback also praised Democratic Senator Edward M. Kennedy of Massachusetts for leading the push for the immigration reform bill, even though he acknowledged that his support for a guest worker program has hurt him among Republicans. "It's been very hard," he said, saying that he had been "beat on" for his immigration stand more than for his stands on every other issue during his political career combined.

Brownback said he also met recently with rock icon Bono to discuss ways to provide more aid and focus more attention on Africa, including encouraging pharmaceutical companies to do more research on "neglected diseases" such as malaria.

"It's both good and right," Brownback said.

While the US needs to do more to alleviate the humanitarian crises in Africa, it also needs to stop the spread of Islamic governments friendly to Al Qaeda that could provide safe havens for terrorists, he said.

In the wide-ranging interview, Brownback also discussed his opposition to abortion and to capital punishment as part of his "whole life" ethic. "I view life as sacred. I view it as sacred from the very beginning. I view it as sacred to the very end."

But there were two issues he would not touch -- his conversion four years ago from evangelical Christianity to Catholicism, and who he might endorse if he drops out of the race if he doesn't finish at least fourth in the Iowa caucuses.