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Bob Dole's Evolution from Partisan to Pragmatist

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Bob Dole's Evolution from Partisan to Pragmatist POLITICAL PROFILE Bob Dole’s Evolution From Partisan to Pragmatist by Kathy Kiely Sunday, March 13, 2011 | 12:13 p.m. RICHARD A. BLOOM Dole: A lot left to do. Sitting quietly in an armchair in a conference room of a Washington law firm, an octogenarian pillar of the Republican establishment was contemplating a move that, by the standards of today’s politics, seems radical. “I need to call Senator McGovern,” said former Sen. Bob Dole, R-Kan. “They’re cutting our budget.” That would be former Sen. George McGovern, D-S.D., who lost a 1972 presidential race to Dole’s mentor, Richard Nixon. “Our budget” is $200 million in funding for the McGovern- Dole Food for Education and Child Nutrition Program, an 11-year-old foreign-aid project that has fed more than 28 million needy children in 44 countries. President Obama’s budget calls for a $10 million cut. “We think we should be an exception,” Dole said. The partnership between McGovern, the prairie populist, and Dole, once known as his party’s “hatchet man,” makes a strange parable for an era when working across party lines is viewed in some quarters as political treason. But it represents the hallmark of Dole’s post-Senate Error! Unknown document property name. years, which have seen the 1996 GOP presidential nominee pressing for bipartisan consensus on issues ranging from food aid to veterans’ affairs to health care. “I think I have a reputation of working with both sides of the aisle,” he said. In a nearly hour-long interview last week at the offices of Alston & Bird, the law firm where Dole, 87, has returned to regular workdays after a year of almost nonstop hospitalizations for several bouts of pneumonia and knee reconstruction, he discussed his disappointment with the recent health care law, defended President Obama from Republican critics of his foreign policy, evaluated the GOP 2012 field, and reflected on his evolution from parochial partisan to elder statesman. “When I first came to Congress in 1961, I represented a Republican district in northwest Kansas. Our main concern was agriculture. We were sort of opposed to aid to education or to any federal program except for farm subsidies,” Dole said. “But I think as I—I like to think I grew in politics—I realized my district was different from, let’s say, somebody in New York City or Hawaii or suburban L.A. You know, they had different interests. They were worried about public transportation or busing. “So I think you either turn your back on those issues and say ‘no,’ or you try to participate in the process. I chose the latter,” he said. It’s an approach that Dole followed as leader of the Senate—and that cost him within his own party. “You know, I was referred to by Newt Gingrich as the tax collector for the welfare state,” Dole recalled. “I’ve never understood what he meant by that. Maybe I can remind him of it.” So the former House speaker isn’t his favorite candidate for president next year? “No, I didn’t say that,” Dole demurred. “I don’t have any favorites.” Dole retains a delivery so deadpan it sometimes takes a minute to guess whether he’s serious or joking. Asked whether the tea party represents a healthy political development, he said: “Oh sure.” Then, after the briefest pause, Dole added: “As long as I’m not running.” When poor health forced him to regretfully decline Bill Clinton’s invitation to watch the former president walk his daughter down the aisle last year, Dole said: “I sent him an e-mail and told him I was laid up and wouldn’t be able to make Chelsea’s wedding—and I hoped they would postpone it until I felt better.” The Republican field of presidential hopefuls is so large “maybe I can run again,” Dole said. On second thought, he added: “No, I want to be Donald Trump’s VP. I can borrow his airplane.” Dole turned serious, however, on current policy debates. He criticized the new health care law for not living up to the recommendations that he and former Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle, D-S.D., formulated at the Bipartisan Policy Center, but questioned whether Republicans should persist in efforts to repeal it. “I don’t believe they have any realistic hope that it could be done.” He also cautioned Republicans, including Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., who have been pushing the White House for a more aggressive strategy against Libya. “I know they are - 2 - Error! Unknown document property name. blaming Obama for being inactive, but you have to be a little careful,” Dole said. “We’re in Iraq; we’re in Afghanistan; we’ve got North Korea that’s a problem. There’s a limit on what we can do before being overextended.” No one knows the cost of war better than Dole. He spent years recovering from the wounds that won him two Purple Hearts and a Bronze Star in World War II, injuries that left him without the use of his right arm. He has been a tireless advocate for veterans. On March 30, the Interior Department will unveil a plaque at the World War II Memorial honoring his efforts to raise money for the project. Even while hospitalized, Dole kept up his service for the nation’s wounded warriors. When the Hershey Company sent him a five-pound bar of chocolate, he asked for more for other patients at Walter Reed and went from bed to bed delivering. Now back to his work routine, Dole said he arrives at the office at mid-morning every day and works until mid-afternoon. His father “told me never to stop working as long as I was able,” Dole said, advice he’s decided to follow because otherwise “you just dry up and blow away.” Dole has no intention of letting that happen. “I still think I have a lot of things I want to do,” he said. - 3 - Error! Unknown document property name..
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