Word: dole
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
Last week, sitting in what is probably his favorite spot in the world--the narrow balcony between his office and the Senate floor, a place where no voters can pester him, where no one can ask him why he lacks vision--Dole turned his perpetually tanned face to the late winter sun and did what comes naturally: he talked shop. From his lap he plucked a neatly folded piece of paper and ticked off a list of bills. Farm bill. "Have to do that." Line-item veto. "That's something they [the Democrats] want." Small-business regulatory reform. "That...
...Dole knows he's a better legislator than campaigner, so his strategy is to campaign by legislating. His frequent refrain--"I'm a doer, not a talker"--can be demonstrated only by actually passing legislation. Unlike Newt Gingrich, who plots grand, overarching designs, Dole takes things as they come up, picking allies and sizing up enemies as necessary. It's as though he thinks it's bad luck to plan ahead. The Dole strategy is to depict himself as the driving force of change while portraying Clinton as the defender of the status quo: Senator Change vs. President Veto...
...Dole's path is a dangerous one. In his perfect legislative world, he could calibrate bills so cleverly, pack them so guilefully, that he would look good if Clinton signed and Clinton would look bad if he didn't. (Imagine Bill's Dilemma: Will it hurt me with my liberal base if I sign it? Will it poison me with Perot voters if I don't?) But Dole's world is changed now. He must reckon with a possibly uncooperative House, led by fractious freshmen who suspect Dole of selling out and last week pleaded with Dick Armey...
Then there's the larger question. In a time when many voters love to hate Washington, do you benefit from showing your skills as Beltway Bob? Dole has to wonder: Will cooperating with Clinton make me look weak, like a junior President? And just how do you make a complex legislative agenda sound like a coherent message? Especially when the candidate is more comfortable talking about continuing resolutions and getting a bill out of committee than painting a glowing picture of a rising America. The problem for Dole is that passing legislation during a presidential campaign is not about...
...Dole's strategy has another potential flaw. On the campaign trail, Dole has been scoring points with lines like this: "We sent the President a balanced budget. He vetoed it. We sent him tax cuts for families with children. Veto. We sent him welfare reform. Veto." But what happens to the Dole strategy when Clinton starts signing on the dotted line? A Dole campaign aide inadvertently points this out while trying to prop up his candidate. "[Dole] complains that Clinton is against welfare reform and against a balanced budget," says the aide. "If we had deals on each of those...