Word: dole
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...last year, the Democrats perform now like a synchronized swim team, setting the legislative agenda despite their minority status. Minimum-wage talking points are lofted among them like balloons. The budget passed last week provided billions of dollars for programs that Republicans had sworn to kill. In April, when Dole shelved the immigration bill after Democrats tried to attach riders on both the minimum wage and Social Security, he reminded the opposition sourly, "We have the majority." He could be forgiven for seeing how that might be possible to forget...
What scares top Republicans is the prospect that Dole will not get their message--that he needs to find a compelling message fast. Fund-raising circles are still buzzing about a conference call last Tuesday between Dole and the "Team 100" cadre of top G.O.P. fund raisers. When one asked where he stood on Ross Perot issues--balancing the budget, term limits, campaign-finance reform--Dole plunged into legislative proposals and subclauses. No good, said the donor. What was he for? A long and pained silence followed. "It was horrible," says a participant. "Just horrible...
Frustration over Dole's inability to formulate themes has boiled over into the public. Not long after the conservative Weekly Standard predicted a Dole defeat, former Education Secretary William Bennett complained in a speech that "there's very little enthusiasm about Bob Dole." Conservative columnist Robert Novak accused Dole's campaign of "disorganization, lack of discipline and failure to articulate a coherent message." Things have got so bad that White House spokesman Mike McCurry passed up an opportunity to criticize Dole at a Friday press briefing. Said McCurry with mock concern: "All these Republicans are pounding...
...President won on much of the substance; he also won on tactics. Before the budget was approved, Dole committed a major blunder when he rashly challenged Clinton to negotiate with him one on one, only to watch in horror as the White House's rapid-response team persuaded chief of staff Leon Panetta to accept almost at once. It was an offer that Dole could make but couldn't accept. "We'll see how it looks," he said in retreat. On the Republican right, and not just there, they think Clinton mesmerized Gingrich in the December balanced-budget talks...
...point of coming up empty-handed. Despite his vociferous opposition to agricultural subsidies, Armey agreed to the recently passed farm bill, even though it maintained federal payments to big sugar companies. "I had to take what I could get," he says. And he has even come to appreciate Dole, Washington's master deal cutter. "One reason is because my daddy raised me around workhorses and not show horses," Armey said at one of his recent district meetings. "I have come to like Bob Dole...