Friday, March 29, AD 2024 3:28am

Bob Dole’s Still Alive?

 

That was my first reaction when I read Dole’s comment blasting Cruz:

“I question his allegiance to the party,” Mr. Dole said of Mr. Cruz. “I don’t know how often you’ve heard him say the word ‘Republican’ — not very often.” Instead, Mr. Cruz uses the word “conservative,” Mr. Dole said, before offering up a different word for Mr. Cruz: “extremist.”…

But Mr. Dole said he thought Mr. Trump could “probably work with Congress, because he’s, you know, he’s got the right personality and he’s kind of a deal-maker.”…

“If he’s the nominee, we’re going to have wholesale losses in Congress and state offices and governors and legislatures,” said Mr. Dole, who served in the House and Senate for 35 years and won the Iowa caucuses twice. He described Mr. Cruz as having falsely “convinced the Iowa voters that he’s kind of a mainstream conservative.”

The only person who could stop Mr. Cruz from capturing the nomination? “I think it’s Trump,” Mr. Dole said, adding that Mr. Trump was “gaining a little.”…

Mr. Dole repeatedly said he was strongly supporting Jeb Bush, the former governor of Florida, although he acknowledged that Mr. Bush has had trouble gaining traction.

 

 

 

 

That Bob Dole, the avatar of Establishment Republicanism, who basically sleep-walked his way through the 1996 Presidential race, prefers Trump to Cruz is not surprising.  The Establishment knows that Cruz could win and Trump can’t, and the Establishment prefers a Democrat win to either Trump or Cruz winning.  More mystifying is Sarah Palin’s endorsement of Trump over Cruz.  I think it will have little impact because Palin, eight years after her Vice-Presidential run, is in the category of yesterday’s news, but it is odd.  Cruz of course is now the only true opposition to Trump that there is, and I think he will ultimately be the nominee.  Most Republicans are not as enamored of the status quo as the crony capitalists who control the money strings of the party today, and I think Trump has a ceiling in the party that doesn’t go much above 35%.  A tough and canny candidate like Cruz has a clear path to victory, especially when people begin to consider The Donald as a serious candidate rather than a protest vote.

 

Oh, and as for the prediction of Bob Dole regarding huge losses if Cruz is the nominee?  He made the same prediction in 1980.  The candidate that he then made the prediction about was named Ronald Reagan.

 

 

 

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Ernst Schreiber
Ernst Schreiber
Thursday, January 21, AD 2016 9:10am

The Establishment knows that Cruz could win and Trump can’t
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I’m not a fan of Trump, but I have a had time imagining a scenario where one could win but the other couldn’t.
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As for Palin, I think she came down with a bad case of justwinbaby!-itis.
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Probably caught it off of Ann Coulter.

T. Shaw
T. Shaw
Thursday, January 21, AD 2016 10:07am

Old RINOs never die they just wax stupider.
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Reminds of my confusion at the end of “The Wizard of Oz.” Why would Dorothy want to go back to Kansas?
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I liked Palin inn 2008. I was wrong.

Art Deco
Art Deco
Thursday, January 21, AD 2016 11:19am

Bob Dole has remarkable grit. He managed to pull himself together after the war and build a life as a productive adult. He’s 92 years old and still working.

The sad thing is, that’s an artifact of having no interests other than work; he eventually put the devoted and congenial women he had no interest in out on the curb; the daughter he had no interest in has remained a spinster her whole life, denying him grandchildren to ignore. His staff had high turnover, because he fancies people should put in 80 hour weeks to do political scut work for him and put up with his acerbic insults, which few Capitol Hill apparatchiks are willing to do for very long. A Reagan biographer reviewing the dealings he had with RR had this description of him: “major heel”.

The Republican Party is suffering badly (and has Trump flu) from the pointless machinations of Addison Mitchell McConnell et al, i.e. people of the same type and out of the same stable as R.J. Dole, so Dole’s criticisms of anyone require a measure of obtuseness or chutzpah that most of us can only shoot for in vain.

The one thing I like about Cruz is that he called McConnell a liar on the floor of the Senate, and did so on a matter of principle which exposed just how worthless McConnell’s ‘leadership’ really is.

Art Deco
Art Deco
Thursday, January 21, AD 2016 11:21am

He has more skeletons than the Catacombs.

Maybe. I tend to think it’s rather like Ed Koch’s ‘homosexuality’. If it were true, we’d know the names by now.

Ernst Schreiber
Ernst Schreiber
Thursday, January 21, AD 2016 11:28am

A pig like Trump might (might) be what it takes to beat the Clinton slime machine. Assuming that the machine doesn’t first succumb to Bernie Sanders of course.
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You can still like Palin and think she’s wrong.

Art Deco
Art Deco
Thursday, January 21, AD 2016 11:30am

The Establishment knows that Cruz could win and Trump can’t,

The general election polls published by Real Clear Politics show that all four leading Republican candidates poll about the same when matched with HRC or Sanders.

Art Deco
Art Deco
Thursday, January 21, AD 2016 11:31am

Old RINOs never die they just wax stupider.

The RINO discourse is just stupid and needs to go away. That’s the damndest appellation to apply to Dole.

Ernst Schreiber
Ernst Schreiber
Thursday, January 21, AD 2016 11:49am

I much prefer Mark Steyn’s DIABLO, but it doesn’t seem to have caught on.

Art Deco
Art Deco
Thursday, January 21, AD 2016 12:58pm

I much prefer Mark Steyn’s DIABLO, but it doesn’t seem to have caught on.

The American Conservative Union collects data on the voting records of sitting members of Congress. The records of Republican and Democratic members are quite dissimilar and bimodally distributed, so, no, that’s not a proper appellation either. Even a generation ago, Republicans with voting records more like the Democratic caucus than like their own did not number more than 20 or so (and were balanced by a much larger population of Dixiecrats). As we speak, such Republicans number zero. The problem is the concept Republican members have of what it means to be doing their job. That has some congruence with how Democratic members understand what they’re up to (cadging goodies for local industry), but the impulses of the two subpopulations differ quite a bit outside that. How Cruz differs from McConnell is that the latter’s happy to shill for the Chamber of Commerce and the former is not, not that the latter’s a ‘liberal’ and the other is not. Bernie Sanders likely does not think highly of that Donohue fellow either.

c matt
c matt
Thursday, January 21, AD 2016 1:36pm

I question his allegiance to the party

Sounds like something Stalin would say. Given what the GOP seems to stand for lately, I see that as a plus, not a minus. I would prefer allegiance to principles, not a party.

c matt
c matt
Thursday, January 21, AD 2016 1:38pm

Wow, [Dole] won the Iowa caucuses…twice! Certainly makes him an expert.

DonL
DonL
Thursday, January 21, AD 2016 3:15pm

Dole? Dole….Dole? Wasn’t he running against Ike?

Kyle Miller
Kyle Miller
Thursday, January 21, AD 2016 3:50pm

T. Shaw, Nothing wrong liking and missing the Palin of 2008. http://www.nydailynews.com/opinion/s-e-cupp-sarah-palin-article-1.2502304
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Speaking of endorsements from senior citizens, Phyliss Schlafly’s endorsement was a surprise and disappointing. I can’t disagree with saying seeing Cruz on Supreme Court is a good idea.
http://www.breitbart.com/big-government/2016/01/10/phyllis-schlafly-makes-the-case-for-president-trump/

Tito Edwards
Admin
Thursday, January 21, AD 2016 10:04pm

The best comments in one bunch I’ve seen in a long time, good job guys!

Michael Dowd
Michael Dowd
Friday, January 22, AD 2016 3:43am

Again, what’s wrong with Trump? Facts only, please.

paul coffey
paul coffey
Friday, January 22, AD 2016 8:20pm

art deco – hurrah!

Micha Elyi
Micha Elyi
Sunday, January 24, AD 2016 3:42am

Oh, and as for the prediction of Bob Dole regarding huge losses if Cruz is the nominee?

For Bob Dole, the 1964 blow-out of the Barry Goldwater campaign is a living memory. For the not-born-yet Ted Cruz it’s something in a history book. Just look around you, the Democrats and their media operatives with bylines are already using means fair and foul to pin the “Extremist!” label on Ted Cruz.

paul coffey
paul coffey
Sunday, January 24, AD 2016 7:48am

Carthage must be destroyed! – we need to move out of the reach of the establishment Republicans , those who had pre ordained JEB”S rightful ascent [ $110 MM] to the throne of POTUS and we need to try to take back america.

Yea, Trump in a field of saints would be a misfit; when i apply the laws of relativity , he is a supernova ….. sins of the past in politics might be likened to a bad credit rating when you we’re young, cavalier and stupid. You have to play the game the establishment deals….

DRM – saying he has blemishes and skeletons is slightly less than specific ….. did you vote for obama in 08? is he less blemsihed than the divorced Trump, in his past?

T. Shaw
T. Shaw
Sunday, January 24, AD 2016 9:04am

Yes, we have no GOP president. We have no GOP president today.
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I don’t care to hear opinions on how to win presidential elections from the professionals that backed the guys that lost their races: Bush Sr., Dole, McCain, Romney. Hey! What do they have in common? They’re the GOP/Dem/Beltway axis/establishment and it didn’t really matter if they won or lost. They didn’t lose their gross livelihoods. And anyhow, they basically gave the liberals just about everything the lying, liar libs wanted.
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They hate Cruz b/c he’s not their man. For them, Cruz as Prez would be worse than Harridan Hillary. Likely, She would play their game, Cruz not so much.

Mike Petrik
Mike Petrik
Sunday, January 24, AD 2016 9:29am

Michael Dowd:

http://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2016/01/the-gloves-come-off-but-why-did-it-take-so-long.php

Don is right. Trump is a blowhard man-child who believes only in himself, though deeply. Whether that is a better option than a corrupt b*tch who believes in all the wrong things or a communist with a (very) human face is admittedly hard to know.

DonL
DonL
Sunday, January 24, AD 2016 10:02am

Well. Don, it looks like you just had your name taken off the RNC debate moderator list for life….

Kyle Miller
Kyle Miller
Sunday, January 24, AD 2016 11:41am

MIchael Dowd,
Let Trump tell you in his own words. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rcUCLwWCihE
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A reminder there was one man who predicted and warned the GOP it would be in this position if no action was taken: http://www.redstate.com/diary/sweetie15/2016/01/24/public-apology/

paul coffey
paul coffey
Monday, January 25, AD 2016 10:03am

hey Don “did you vote for obama in 08?” [Reply] Surely you jest? I would sooner have had my right arm sawed off.
As for Trump he gives ignorant, arrogant, self-serving blowhards a very bad name.

surley, i DO jest! yet your response lacks the requested specificity again, as most innuendos’ do. you impugn his character without detail – what is it you so dislike in the man? specifically, arrogance is annoying – american elitism ?? how many foreign cemeteries do we have here on our soil? -ignorant- show me? self serving? where
and Michael – all generalities are false, including this one. What is your issue with the man – that he believes? that he is successful – that he is divorced ? that he once behaved as members of the party of death do behave? be specific!! – is it his frankness and lack of political play with words and dis-ingenuity as democrats have in not answering a plain simple question? When i invoke the theory of relativity, he shines as a nova among all politicians on the national stage- when i consider his statements against the actions of the current muzzi pretender in the office of POTUS and his entourage, i take delight. e.g in his stand on Immigration, funding PP, Abortion, tax code, Education, VA reform,2nd amendment rights etc. – sure he could be lying to me – gee- has that ever happened before? Barry H Soetero, Ted Kennedy, al domato, Jake Javitz, Arlen Specter, Nancy Pelosi, biden, all belong in a special class and the Christ has prepared a special place for them in hell. You two seem to put Trump in that room too and i just don’t get it – he’s a blow hard[ that executes and performs] and gets in your face – yea he does – he has a rapier wit that he is not afraid to use, yes and if you worked in higher level business , that lack of delicacy and to the point frankness is needed- Rome is burning.!!! WYSIWYG No??

T. Shaw
T. Shaw
Monday, January 25, AD 2016 11:05am

I’m independent and don’t vote in GOP primaries.
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Of course, I’ll vote Trump vs. Midget Mike Bloomberg, Harridan Hillary, or Comrade Sanders.
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However, I don’t trust Trump any more than his long-time friends Midget Mike and Harridan Hillary.
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He’s not such a genius. Trump, unlike other NYC real estate heirs, started on third base and did not to lose his inherited wealth. That doesn’t make him a genius. For example, he (no, his limited-liability corporations) spent huge amounts building three garish casinos in Atlantic City, NJ so as to compete in a declining market with each other and with ten other casinos already going bankrupt there.
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The problem with Trump is that he only knows how to develop, high-end NJ/NY/FL real estate(establish limited-liability corporation to go bankrupt if the project fails, bullshit bankers/investors and cheat contractors – pay 80% of contract and tell them to sue) and to throw around junior high school insults at stupid people on reality TV shows and, now, GOP and Dem presidential hopefuls. Beyond those steaming piles of nothing useful, he is either starkly ignorant about everything or a bilious, blowhard liar (see his past associations and positions on issues confronting us).
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We don’t need another unqualified narcissist in the WH.
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The US has suffered under Obama whose only experience was organizing sit-ins (to extort money from corrupt, corporate elites) in Chicago. President Trump will not have the lying, liar media to cover for his failures.

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