Bob Dole? Cynical? C’mon . . .

Everyone is always getting a bad rap.

Take Rush Limbaugh, for example. Limbaugh vigorously protested when President Clinton appeared to include him when recently describing radio talk show hosts as “purveyors of hatred.”

The nerve! No wonder Limbaugh was peeved. As viewers of television now know, far from being a purveyor of hatred, Limbaugh is a purveyor of neckwear. You can see him starring in commercials for his exotic “collection of power ties,” displaying them on the screen and describing them in detail above an 800 number, then urging patriotic Americans who hold dear their family values: “Order now for Father’s Day!”

And there’s that other ever-misjudged radio talk-show icon, Howard Stern, who is still being slammed for his racist mocking of tejano music and its fans after the shooting death of singing star Selena. Stern, that poor baby, claimed that he did not intend to insult Latinos, that he was misunderstood, just as he’s misunderstood when he ridicules gays . . . when he ridicules blacks . . . when he ridicules Asians . . . when he ridicules people with disabilities . . . when he ridicules . . . .

Then there’s Clinton himself, accused by his critics of being a Beltway enemy of farmers and someone insensitive in general to the needs of rural America.

The idea! Disproving his foes last week, wrangler Bill trekked West to rugged Montana, where he prepared for a televised town hall meeting with local folks by putting on jeans and a straw cowboy hat for his ride on a white horse in front of the cameras. Where in the heartland will he surface next, in the tall corn of Madison County?

Last, and loudest, there’s Senate Majority Leader and GOP presidential hopeful Robert Dole, who, as Clinton bounced merrily on his steed, was busy riding a bronco that always seems to surface in national political campaigns. Dole was accused by many of playing cynical politicsafter making a speech in Los Angeles last week that pounded the entertainment industry’s hot buttons with a sledgehammer.

Dole cynical? Will someone give this sincere, guileless, courageous public servant from Kansas a break? He could have copped out and attacked the Barbary Pirates. He could have attacked Mussolini. He could have attacked Charles Manson. He could have attacked Dennis Rodman’s hair. He could have attacked earthquakes. He could have attacked Joseph Stalin. He could have attacked Count Dracula. But no! Proving he was no opportunistic politician, he rejected these options and boldly attacked . . .

HOLLYWOOD!

Why, there hadn’t been such a public scolding of Hollywood since, well, since the religious right’s ongoing denunciation of the entertainment industry. A Washington political figure hadn’t delivered such a lambasting of violence in entertainment since Sen. Paul Simon (D-Ill.) launched an anti-violence campaign that led to a Los Angeles summit on the topic in 1993.

There hadn’t been such a highly publicized assault on the entertainment industry in a political campaign since Vice President Dan Quayle publicly faulted the hit CBS sitcom “Murphy Brown” for failing to share his definition of family values. That was all the way back in 1992.

Such was the perilous virgin turf Dole was bravely exploring.

“A line has been crossed--not just of taste, but of human dignity and decency,” Dole said in charging movies, music and TV emanating from the satanic monolith of Hollywood with debasing U.S. culture. The line, he added, “is crossed every time sexual violence is given a catchy tune. When teen suicide is set to an appealing beat. When Hollywood’s dream factories turn out nightmares of depravity.”

TV viewers know a bit about the depravity of which Dole speaks. They were exposed to it in some of the answers he gave to reporters questioning him Sunday about this and other topics on NBC’s “Meet the Press.”

As for the perpetrators he had in mind, Dole vowed in his speech to “name their names” and immediately cited the savagely violent movies “Natural Born Killers” and “True Romance” and recording groups Cannibal Corpse, Geto Boys and 2 Live Crew. He also accused Time Warner of “marketing evil through commerce,” presumably because its record division several years ago produced Ice-T’s violent and sexually explicit rap album, “Cop Killer.”

“We may name some other names before it’s over that may surprise people,” Dole said on “Meet the Press,” evoking the specter of McCarthyism.

Dole found immediate approval of his speech in the Republican Party’s warrens of archconservatism, whose support he’s actively seeking for his presidential run. And even Pat Buchanan, a more rightist rival for the GOP nomination, publicly gave a lukewarm thumbs up. Buchanan added in a TV interview that Hollywood should return to “doing the things” it did during World War II. Presumably, he meant either making propaganda films or obeying the government while submitting to censorship in support of the war effort.

Predictably, Dole’s Hollywood critics pounced on the fact that he hadn’t seen the movies, nor likely been exposed to the music he attacked in his blistering speech. “How can you take seriously someone talking about art he admittedly hasn’t seen?” asked Quentin Tarantino, who wrote both “Natural Born Killers” and “True Romance.”

Another bad rap. If he had seen the movies he says he despises, Dole would have been exposed to the very mind-warping depravity and deviancy he opposes, running the risk of being debased himself. Given that even a dab of Hollywood debasement goes a long way, the risk was one that even a patriotic reformer as fearless as the majority leader was unwilling to take. To contest Hollywood for “the heart and soul of every child in every neighborhood,” Dole knows he must remain pure and his mind uncluttered.

Somewhere deep in his speech, Dole urged the entertainment industry to “prove to us that courage and conscience are alive and well in Hollywood.” His targets in show business would ask for proof that the same qualities exist in Washington politicians seeking the White House. But what else would you expect from a bunch of Hollywood deviants?