Former Senate Majority Leader Bob Dole says he doesn't believe he could make it in the modern Republican Party.
"I doubt it," he said in an interview aired on "Fox News Sunday" when asked if his generation of Republican leaders could make it in today's GOP. "Reagan couldn't have made it. Certainly, Nixon couldn't have made it, cause he had ideas. We might've made it, but I doubt it."
"They ought to put a sign on the National Committee doors that says 'Closed for repairs,' until New Year's Day next year," he said. "And spend that time going over ideas and positive agendas."
Today's Republican party is nothing like the GOP of old.
In those days I could, and sometimes did, vote for the Republican candidate.
But to do so today would betray everything I believe, everything the Republicans I knew before believed, and, in my opinion, everything good about this country.
They are now a cancer, and the only hope for our survival is to have them removed from office en masse.
And do you know who else would agree with that? Bob Dole, Richard Nixon, and Ronald Reagan, that's who.
Fortunately for us the country is far more liberal today than it was before, so the Republican scourge should soon be replaced by those who actually understand how to govern.
I had the pleasure of Meeting Senator Dole back in 1991 while getting a haircut at the Senate Barber (great haircut for $8!). As we sat there in the basement of the Russell Building, me getting a haircut, the Senator was getting his shoes shined, we both were watching the Clarence Thomas confirmation hearings which were taking place a couple floors above us. As Arlen Specter grilled Anita Hill about her allegations the Senator would kind of chuckle with every zinger Senator Specter threw. It was such a surreal moment, and he seemed so creepy at the time (he's actually a really nice guy, it was just the moment he came off that way).
ReplyDeleteAnyway, the point of the story was, this guy who was amused at a woman being shamed in front of the country for having been sexually harassed (for entirely political purposes) thinks he's not conservative or partisan enough for today's GOP.
I find that amazing, and very sad.
I think we will see many Republicans lose their offices in Congress this next election cycle - and, they rightly should as they have done nothing since 2008!!!
ReplyDeleteDon't hold your breath... They have been gerrymandering enough to almost ASSURE that they will WIN...
DeleteThe House and Senate will both go Republican making this POTUS the lame duck he needs to be for our safety.
DeleteDole was certainly a dues-paying member of the Senate boys' club. But he also was 50 IQ points higher than the nincompoops recently elected (we're looking at you, Ted Cruz) and he has a sharp mind and a sharp tongue. If he, as a former Vice Presidential candidate, tells his party to shape up, some of them, most of them should listen.
ReplyDeleteSadly for our country, no one will. He's old news.
He was also thier presidential Nominee in 1998 against Clinton
DeletePlease don't join the idiotic deification of Reagan.
ReplyDeleteHe was a terrible person and an even worse president.
Agreed. However comparatively speaking.....
DeleteTypical libtard, throw a general zinger out there for all your other libtard dog buddies to lick up and then flame out, having blown your intellectual wad..
DeleteBob Dole Trashes The Republican Party on Fox News
ReplyDeleteBob Dole called out everything from filibuster abuse to extremism while trashing the Republican Party on Fox News.
Transcript from Fox News Sunday:
WALLACE: In your first two years as a senator — there were seven motions filed, cloture motions to end debate. In the last two years, there were 115 cloture motions.
Is the filibuster being abused wherever it now takes 60 votes to pass anything?
DOLE: No doubt about it. There are some cases we can probably justify it, but not many.
WALLACE: What do you think of your party, of the Republicans, today? DOLE: I think they ought to put a sign on the national committee doors that says closed for repairs until New Year’s Day next year and spend that time going over ideas and positive agendas.
WALLACE: You describe the GOP of your generation as Eisenhower Republicans, moderate Republicans.
Could people like Bob Dole, even Ronald Reagan, could you make it in today’s Republican Party?
DOLE: I doubt it. And I — Reagan wouldn’t have made it. Certainly Nixon couldn’t have made it, because he had ideas and, we might have made it, but I doubt it. I mean –
WALLACE: Too moderate? Too willing to compromise?
DOLE: I just consider myself a Republican, none of this hyphenated stuff. I was a mainstream conservative Republican, and most people are in that category.
Bob Dole’s indictment of what his party has become was especially stinging because it hit on both the style and tactics that the Republicans are employing. Dole was essentially saying that no mainstream Republican from the last four decades could survive in today’s GOP. There are few living people who personally understand better how the Senate is supposed to work, so when Bob Dole tells you that the filibuster is being abused, it’s time for a change.
The 1996 Republican presidential nominee made a critical distinction between mainstream conservatism, and what the Republican Party has become. Republicans aren’t mainstream anymore. They have embraced the fringe, and now the far right is the Republican Party. Conservatives like Reagan, Dole, and George H.W. Bush could be reasonable. They understood that the middle was a good place for a Republican to be. In today’s Republican Party being mainstream and compromising is viewed as defeat and weakness.
There is no room in the Republican Party for a Colin Powell or a Bob Dole. The far right has chased all of the mainstream conservatives out of their party, and the rest of us are paying for their folly by suffering through a completely dysfunctional congress that is incapable of passing meaningful legislation.
http://www.politicususa.com/bob-dole-trashes-republican-party-fox-news.html
"the Republican scourge should soon be replaced by those who actually understand how to govern."
ReplyDeleteDon't hold your breath, Gryphen. They SHOULD be replaced, but most likely THEY WON'T BE replaced. The TeapukeliCONS have assured themselves a virtual win in all the states that went RePukeLiCON this last election by re-districting, and by disenfranchising most minority voters in many, many states. :(
Any vote for any Republican endangers in a way the security of Roe V. Wade. It's voting Republicans out of office that will stop them from taking their war on women into the Supreme Court.
ReplyDelete