Word: tobacco
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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...camera and counseled that "people shouldn't smoke, young or old." What lingered like a two-pack-a-day cough was the clip shown on the evening news of Dole getting testy about the issue. Bill Clinton would no doubt chalk the performance up to Dole's "addiction to tobacco money," but no stack of dollars--not even the more than $400,000 Dole's campaigns and PACs have taken from Big Tobacco during his career--could lure a politician into the kind of trap Dole sprang on himself last week. Off-camera, things were just as surreal. Dole...
LESSON NO. 1: IF A STORY HURTS, CUT IT OFF FAST. Dole's tobacco debacle recalls another hapless Republican 20 years ago--President Gerald Ford, who during a 1976 debate with challenger Jimmy Carter denied that Eastern Europe was dominated by the Soviet Union. Ford's campaign manager, James Baker, wanted to immediately correct the mistake, but Ford stubbornly refused--and was hammered for it endlessly. So too Dole, who first remarked in mid-June that cigarettes were not necessarily addictive for all smokers. Instead of correcting himself, as top staff members urged, he dug in deeper, setting himself...
Even so, there's more than a little hypocrisy to the taunting of Dole. Until recently, Democrats were just as dependent on tobacco money as Republicans. The second-ranking Democrat in the Senate, Wendell Ford of Kentucky, has reaped $76,057 since 1986, while House minority leader Richard Gephardt of Missouri has received $67,258. The industry's contributions to both parties was fairly even until 1992 when, the Center for Responsive Politics reports, Republicans got twice as much soft money from tobacco interests as Democrats: $1.9 million to $900,000. That gap widened in 1994, when Republicans raked...
Strange things were happening in the woods. Last November agent Jose Wall of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms in Phoenix got disturbing information from people who had been through nearby Tonto National Forest. A deer hunter said he had been stopped by a group of men dressed in camouflage and armed with guns. They warned him to turn back, saying they were "security" and hinting they were with the government. The hunter didn't believe them. But something about their eyes, not to mention their weapons, made him think arguing would be imprudent. He ran into other people...
...gaining popularity. "Dole is letting himself get bogged down in peripheral issues," says Barrett. "He needs to come out with a positive message on what he wants to do. Dole has never been good at looking at the big picture, and that's hurting his campaign. Take the tobacco issue: Dole doesn't support smoking, but somehow he misspoke himself into a controversy that lasted several days." Despite Dole's recent problems, Barrett says he still has ample time to get in the saddle. The Republican convention is still weeks way, and Dole has yet to name his running mate...