Rush was reading Bob Dole’s account of his history with Newt. I am not sure that Rush was attacking or just going with the current news cycle. It leaves him an out if he has to support Newt later.
By the way, I thought Bob Dole was a terrible candidate for president. Everyone knew he was going to lose. They ran with him anyway.
I will have to admit that the so-called government shutdown of late '95 was handled much better, PR-wise, by the Dems than the GOP. This didn't help Dole at all, but it was never clear, at least to me, what he was proposing to differentiate himself from Clinton, anyway.