Dole doesn’t exactly endorse Brownback

Former Sen. Bob Dole deftly dodged his opportunity to endorse his successor, Sam Brownback, for the 2008 GOP presidential nomination Sunday on ABC’s “This Week With George Stephanopoulos.” When asked whether he has a candidate yet in 2008, Dole said: “We have a Kansas senator running for president, Sam Brownback. But, you know, there are — I’m a great, good friend of John McCain’s, and I don’t know (Rudy) Giuliani quite that well, or Mitt Romney. But how convenient — we have a lot of candidates. . . .” Dole’s sole praise was for former Sen. Fred Thompson: “He’d be a very exciting, interesting candidate.”
Dole saved his best line for the question about whether Hillary Clinton will be the Democratic nominee: “I thought so, and I still think so. But, you know, I would have bet the farm on it two months ago. Now I think I’ll just maybe hedge a bit and bet, you know, part of the farm, maybe the barn, the house, not the whole farm.”
Meanwhile, former Kansas Sen. Nancy Landon Kassebaum Baker reportedly is supporting John McCain for the nomination, according to her husband, former Tennessee Sen. Howard Baker.
Posted by Rhonda Holman

5 Comments

  1. Republikhan
    Posted March 13, 2007 at 2:51 am | Permalink

    There is only one Bob Dole and he’s cool. :)

  2. Econ101
    Posted March 13, 2007 at 4:38 am | Permalink

    Bob Dole is a great man. I am proud of him. He has done much for his country and much for Kansas.Having said that, Dole just doesnt get it!At the 1996 convention, a poll of the Delegates was taken to see who we considered the “heroes” of the Republican Party.Ronald Reagan won hands down.Dole was a “good soldier”, but he did not understand.Dole promised his support to the Kansas Republican Party. I was Treasurer at the time. In return, we had to jump through some hoops for Dole.One hoop was that we had to allow Bill Graves to put Dole “over the top” at the convention.I have Graves on tape saying “Thank you Paul” just prior to that event. Something I will always be proud of. It was hard as hell keeping many in my party in line on that one!Another “hoop” Dole put us through was that we had to take bus-ride to the Nixon Library rather than to the Reagan Library.Nixon was Dole’s hero. Dole wanted us to understand Nixon.I must say, I did learn something from that Nixon Library visit.For one thing, Kennedy DID steal that election from Nixon.I am a Irish Catholic, I can say that, can’t I, lol?Anyway, Nixon decided that “A contested election would not be good for the country,” and conceded to JFK.In other words, Nixon was a better man that Al Gore!—-But back to Dole.At the 1996 Convention, Brownback had just defeated the woman that replaced Dole, in the Republican primary.She is a good person, but not a conservative.It was my job to make sure that Sheila Frahm and Sam Brownback would be sitting very close to each other in San Diego.”One ‘Big Tent’ Happy Family” was our goal.Some conservatives, at the time, were also upset with Brownback.Todd Tiart was a perfect gentleman on the subject, but many in the Tiahrt camp wished that Tiahrt had run against Frahm instead of Brownback.—-Anyway, the 1996 Convention could have been a disaster.It wasn’t, even if Dole’s campaign was.Dole knows many of those inside stories and is probably cutting a deal right now, as you read these words.

  3. Econ101
    Posted March 13, 2007 at 4:44 am | Permalink

    By the way, Doles campaign was a huge success for Kansas Republicans.We won a bunch of races that year on Doles coat-tails!

  4. JWink
    Posted March 13, 2007 at 6:04 am | Permalink

    Regarding Brownback … Kansans also don’t exactly endorse Brownback.

  5. freedom freak
    Posted March 13, 2007 at 12:30 pm | Permalink

    I love Dole! We need more like him in the party again, and we should burn the brownbacks at the stake