Sen. Sam Brownback, a Kansas Republican, told New Hampshire crowds yesterday that he isn't just any conservative. In his first visit as a presidential candidate, he introduced himself as a "bleeding-heart conservative."

"America is best when she's good," he said, using Ronald Reagan-like rhetoric while speaking to 30 employees at Oracle Corp. in Nashua. "It's that fundamental goodness that makes America great, and that goodness to me is based upon our belief that every single person is unique, beautiful and sacred."

Brownback, who supports a flat tax, a constitutional amendment banning gay marriage and the reversal of Roe v. Wade, stressed his conservative record with Midwestern folksiness.

During a speech, he held up two volumes of the federal tax code, each one bigger than a Bible.

"This system should be taken behind the barn and be killed with a dull ax," said Brownback, the one-time vice president of the Future Farmers of America.

He said he wants taxpayers to have a choice between paying through the current system, with itemized deductions and complex forms, and using a flat tax. He also wants to offer Americans a choice between entering the current Social Security system and setting aside that money in private savings accounts.

But Brownback, a converted Catholic, has also taken positions beyond party orthodoxy. He called himself "pro-life" and "whole-life," a term that referred to his efforts to end human-rights abuses.

He spoke about his travels to Sudan and his support for more effort to help stop genocide in Darfur. Instead of a troop increase in Iraq, he said, the war there needs a political solution. And he said that illegal immigrants should have a path to U.S. citizenship.

He praised the dozen immigrants in the crowd at Oracle's Nashua office, where more than a third of the engineers come from China, India and other countries.

"You make us strong," he said. "You make us great. This is a nation of immigrants. . . . Thank you for helping us build a new box, a new mousetrap, for taking this nation to the world."

He said he supports building a fence along the Mexican border to help stem illegal immigration, but he said that immigration reform needs to account for the millions of illegal aliens already here.

For conservative activists yesterday afternoon in Manchester, Brownback emphasized his positions on "values" issues - abortion and marriage.

Brownback, a former high school quarterback, used a football analogy to explain the need for an amendment defining marriage.

"This is a tough debate . . . but it shouldn't stop us from discussing this," he said, speaking at Fratello's Ristorante Italiano. "It's like Peyton Manning and the Indianapolis Colts without having a line in front of them. I don't think he completes very many passes if he doesn't have a line. This is basic blocking and tackling. We need to have stronger families, stronger commitments, and the last thing we need to do is redefine marriage."

The line drew applause from the audience, which included members of New Hampshire Right to Life, Cornerstone Policy Research and the Nashua Christian Academy, which has picked Brownback as its graduation speaker.

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