Posted on 01/26/2012 10:12:01 AM PST by Windy City Conservative
The Romney campaign sends along a statement by Bob Dole pasted below. Relations between Dole — an establishment figure in the party — and Gingrich were well known to be tense during the 1990s. Here it is:
I have not been critical of Newt Gingrich but it is now time to take a stand before it is too late. If Gingrich is the nominee it will have an adverse impact on Republican candidates running for county, state, and federal offices. Hardly anyone who served with Newt in Congress has endorsed him and that fact speaks for itself. He was a one-man-band who rarely took advice. It was his way or the highway.
Gingrich served as Speaker from 1995 to 1999 and had trouble within his own party. Already in 1997 a number of House members wanted to throw him out as Speaker. But he hung on until after the 1998 elections when the writing was on the wall. His mounting ethics problems caused him to resign in early 1999. I know whereof I speak as I helped establish a line of credit of $150,000 to help Newt pay off the fine for his ethics violations. In the end, he paid the fine with money from other sources.
Gingrich had a new idea every minute and most of them were off the wall. He loved picking a fight with Bill Clinton because he knew this would get the attention of the press. This and a myriad of other specifics helped to topple Gingrich in 1998.
In my run for the presidency in 1996 the Democrats greeted me with a number of negative TV ads and in every one of them Newt was in the ad. He was very unpopular and I am not only certain that this did not help me, but that it also cost House seats that year. Newt would show up at the campaign headquarters with an empty ice-bucket in his hand — that was a symbol of some sort for him — and I never did know what he was doing or why he was doing it.
In my opinion if we want to avoid an Obama landslide in November, Republicans should nominate Governor Romney as our standard bearer. He has the requisite experience in the public and private sectors. He would be a president we could have confidence in.
Of course since we know the ethics charges have been debunked, we can’t believe anything else he says. Not to mention the American Spectator article says Newt fought Dole when Dole wanted to leave the option of raising taxes in the 1984 party platform.
http://spectator.org/archives/2012/01/24/reagans-young-lieutenant/print
Specifically in focus was Gingrich’s fear that the Republican RINO/Establishment members on the Platform Committee — specifically this meant people like then-Kansas Senator Bob Dole (the chairman of the Senate Finance Committee) Connecticut Senator Lowell Weicker, and Virginia Senator John Warner — would somehow try and moderate the Reagan Revolution with calls for tax increases or somehow lessening the Reagan demand for American military superiority over the Soviet Union.
Gingrich’s fears were realized in spades. All hell broke loose as Senator Dole — carrying the prestige of the chairmanship of the Senate’s tax writing committee — insisted on an open-ended plank on taxes that would accept a tax increase as a “last resort.”
Newt Gingrich raised holy hell. What Dole was proposing was a violation of the Reagan 1980 platform, a gross violation of Reaganomics, and just plain dumb. With Democratic nominee Walter Mondale already out there pledging to raise taxes, this was effectively caving in to Mondale. Bob Dole, Newt snapped at one point, was nothing other than the “tax collector for the welfare state.”
Ouch.
This sentence was the proximate cause of the fury:
We therefore oppose any attempts to increase taxes which would harm the recovery and reverse the trend to restoring control of the economy to individual Americans.
At the insistence of Gingrich and Kemp and in an amendment proposed by Loeffler, a sentence that kept the door open for tax increases had a comma added to it after the word “taxes.”
The sentence now read subtly but considerably different: “We therefore oppose any attempts to increase taxes, which would harm the recovery and reverse the trend to restoring control of the economy to individual Americans.”
The Gingrich work product? Making certain that Ronald Reagan was not put on record leaving the door open for any more ill-fated tax increases. Dole was furious with the young Newt — and, it might be noted, recently made a point of endorsing Mitt Romney. Hmmmmm.
Bob Dole knows why Bob Dole lost in 98, Bob Dole knows Newt and Bob Dole likes Mitt, Bob Dole thinks Obama is a nice guy personally, Bob Dole dosen’t think Bob Dole would ever say anything bad about Obama, Bob Dole knows Obama and Bob Dole thinks only Mitt has the establishment behind him, because Bob Dole had the establishment behind him.
Need anymore be said?
Geeez - what’s wrong with these geezer ex-military types? You’d think they would know better. There’s no fool like an old fool, my old man used to say.
;D
Phew! What an embarrassing death.
And compared with today's regime, how would that change things?
Hey Bob, Dawgreg thanks you for your service to our country and now Dawgreg has a request of you Bob......please go away. Your time has come and gone and I mean that in the nicest way.....(well, kinda). :)
For forty years the Democrats held power. The Republicans occasionally were thrown a bone, given cover and some pork to keep their constituents quiet. Meanwhile the congress was enriching themselves at the expense of the nation. The centralized government kept growing and growing…
In 1980 Ronald Reagan is elected President. Newt Gingrich, elected in 1978, jointed with others to ally with President Reagan and build the Reagan Coalition, the Religious Right, and the Republican majority - the Reagan Revolution - which directly led to the downfall of the Soviet Union, the Contract with America, government reforms, less government, tax cuts, a balanced budget, and the great, long-standing Reagan economy
Gingrich becomes Speaker of the House and the Democrats went nuts! Budget cuts, less pork. For the first time in a very long time the Republicans actually had to govern and take responsibility. The Dems were outnumbered.
The 1998 budget was scheduled for a $1 Billion cut and congress saw the gravy train leaving the station. No more getting rich at the public’s expense.
So it became “get rid of Newt Gingrich” even to the extent of manufacturing lies about him. He was exonerated of all those phony ethics charges, but the media continues to smear him year after year after year.
And now, older and wiser, he is back with plans to shrink the size of government, devolve Federal power back to the States, and the corrupt in Washington, D.C., are AGAIN trying to save the status quo.
They see their gravy train leaving the station.
So all these old farts are coming out of woodwork to stop Newt Gingrich.
Senate Majority Leaders Robert Joseoh “Bob” Dole, Tom Daschle, George Mitchell, and Howard Baker Jr., in 2007 founded the Bipartisan Policy Center, a non-profit think tank that works to develop policies suitable for bipartisan support.
Besides Dole being involved in the Bipartisan Policy Center, his legacy also includes a commitment to combating hunger both in the United States and around the globe. In addition to numerous domestic programs, along with former Senator George McGovern (D-South Dakota), Dole created an international school lunch program through the George McGovern-Robert Dole International Food for Education and Child Nutrition Program, which helps fight child hunger and poverty by providing nutritious meals to children in schools in developing countries. This program has since led to greatly increased global interest in and support for school-feeding programs — which benefit girls and young women, in particular — and won McGovern and Dole the 2008 World Food Prize.
The older Republicans remember when courtesy and compromise was followed in Congress. It was the Democrats who’ve destroyed it and are in the process of destroying our Republic.
So, what are We going to do about it?
I remember when Newt called Dole “the tax collector for the welfare state”.
I guess Dole is still pissed.
Dole’s little crack about the empty ice bucket was a symbol of frugality. Newt honored someone for saving wasted tax money and hoped that it could inspire more cost-saving ideas. British politicians tranitionally sat on wool to remind them of wool’s importance. Such a quaint tradition most likely went far to help bring Britain’s greatness.
I’ve never been a big fan of Newt because he was always dipping his toe in the old media’s pool. He’s a schemer, obviously. But I also believe he’s a well intended statesman. It’s too bad he isn’t tougher on the borders, but we’ve lost that issue in this primary.
Exactly.
Crabs in a bucket. One starts to climb out, the others pull him back down.
You must be careful how you position the battle.
To me it's very clear that it's a really rich guy who thinks the Republican party has so many weak sisters he can just buy his way into the nomination.
It's ROMANY vs. REPUBLICANS!
3.0?
Didn’t realize there had been another update. Last I heard, he was at 2.0.
Kemp was atrocious when he debated Gore.
This is the Battle of the Bulge for RINOS.
I would consider what Dole has to say about Gingrich tthe equivalent of a major endorsement.
McCain, Romney, and Dole need to be photoshopped as the Three Amigos!
This is turning out to be Barry Goldwater vs George Romney pizzing contest all over again.
The Conservatives(Goldwater) vs the Moderate(Mittens Father)
As in that one the Moderate never endorsed the Conservative. Goldwater lost.
Sheesh everyone get ready for Obammy 2.0.
Here me now. I absolutely REFUSE to vote Romney in the General Election, the Establishment can KMA hell form a line for all I care. I will sit this one out.
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