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.
Some get old with grace; some just get old.
BTW, anyone know who the pukes are going around harassing old people to sign statements like these?
That's so utterly tacky!
“Bob Dole don’t blame Bob Dole for losing. Bob Dole blames Newt for Bob Dole losing. Unreal; the GOP is a complete mirage; it’s done.” - WCC
That anti-endorsement of Newt was just like the Dole campaign - uninspiring.
If the GOP is going to survive as a party, it better be Newt.
He wasn’t dead...just really stiff.
Newt must have put his finger in Bob Dole’s Peanut Butter.
I don’t disrespect war heroes so I can’t say what I’d like to. Hopefully some disrespectful freepers here will take up the cause :)
Bo Dole and John McCain lining up for Romney. Can we get a group photo?
Next headline I expect to see:
Charlie Crist and Arlen Specter Declare: “Newt Bad For Party”
Those are not mutually exclusive outcomes. Both can happen.
Maybe today is the day the GOP committed the political equivalent of a murder-suicide.
Bob Dole:
Tax collector for the Welfare State.
Bob Dole was the ONLY Republican who could not beat Clinton .. maybe he knows a thing or two about losing!
Keep repeating a lie....
Newt was exonerated of all the lynch mobs charges.
Is this what happens when the Viagra does its job for more than four hours?
I think McCain is on the stump with Mitt, as we speak.
Pretty soon, they are going to trot out the corpse of Nelson Rockefeller to support Mitt. Which is problematic because they had trouble closing the casket the first time.
They are mostly dead.
I respect Bob Dole, he is a genuine American war hero.
However, as a senator, his career, like his presidential aspirations, were as lackluster as his run for president.
Unfortunately for Dole, he is perceived as an “establishmnet Republican” and his comments about Newt will be taken with several bags of salt!!
Newt is the current anti-Romney and the more Romney attacks him like this, the stronger the odor of desparation becomes.
Bad idea on Romney’s part, IMO.
Why should I care what a former Senator turned very infleuntial lobbyist has to say about Newt Gingrich?
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