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Dole Is Just Too Reasonable for the GOP

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Robert Scheer is a Times contributing editor. He can be reached via e-mail at <rscheer></rscheer>

Bob Dole has been losing it lately. Each time his campaign settles on a unifying course, he says something that raises the decibels of discord, suggesting that he may not have thought the matter through. Whether it’s abortion, Hollywood violence or the dangers of nicotine, Dole stumbles almost incoherently.

That was evident last week at a fund-raiser in the heart of Kentucky tobacco country, where Dole appeared to equate the risks to teenagers of smoking to that of drinking milk. “We know it [tobacco] is not good for kids,” he said, by way of objecting to the FDA’s dealing with nicotine as an addictive substance, “but a lot of other things aren’t good. . . . Some would say milk’s not good.”

Of course, President Clinton leapt to the defense of milk. Dole stood revealed as a flunky for the tobacco industry that had contributed $385,000 to his campaigns and provided him with corporate jets on 38 occasions. It also seems absurd for Dole to minimize the tobacco industry’s exploitation of youthful smokers while repeatedly attacking the entertainment media for harming young people through the depiction of violence.

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Dole offered an even more confusing spectacle when he exacerbated the GOP’s abortion rift while attempting to paper it over. His proposal to insert an expression of “tolerance” for pro-choice Republicans in front of a platform plank that treats abortion as murder satisfied no one. Suddenly, we witnessed a Republican presidential candidate being confronted by “pro-life” pickets. “We’re not going moderate,” a flummoxed Dole assured them.

Which is precisely his problem. He must “go moderate” to win the presidency, not only because most of the votes are there but, more important, because Dole is a moderate who is visibly uncomfortable and muddled when forced to defend positions that are indefensible.

That’s why the abortion issue has always been a problem for him. That was a given once moderate Republicans stooped to exploit opposition to the Supreme Court’s Roe vs. Wade decision as a means of weaning working-class Catholic voters away from the Democratic Party.

As Dole told me in a 1980 interview for this newspaper, “Well, I went out in ’76 and said there ought to be a constitutional amendment--I’ve never figured out how you word that amendment, that’s been the hang-up--are there exceptions? What are the exceptions? Rape, incest, life of the mother? It’s just one of those questions I just wish would go away.”

It won’t go away, and he still hasn’t figured out how to word it, because this is not an issue that should be resolved by amending the Constitution. What is at stake are differing but deeply held moral views, most often with a religious underpinning, and the whole spirit of the Constitution inveighs against resolving such matters through majority fiat. Dole should announce that after failing for 20 years to come up with proper wording for a constitutional amendment, it is time to drop the plank from the party’s platform.

That would be the smart thing to do. If Dole were to break the ideological hold of his party’s rightists on this and other litmus test issues, he could beat Clinton.

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But as Dole indicated, “going moderate” is not in vogue with the grass-roots activists of the Republican Party. Even Richard Nixon, and certainly Dwight Eisenhower and Gerald Ford, would have had trouble proving they were bona fide to a party dominated by people who consider Colin Powell too liberal.

Most of the social welfare and environmental programs now under attack by the rightists who control the party were supported by those Republican leaders of the past. Dole is of that tradition and he deserves considerable credit for working closely with liberal senators on matters such as the food stamp program and for sponsoring the pioneering Americans With Disabilities Act.

As Dole said in 1980, “Nobody works more closely together on a lot of issues than me and McGovern. . . . I did a lot of work with Humphrey--we worked together on farm programs, social programs--and with Ribicoff. I did a lot of work with Abe Ribicoff . . . and he’ll tell you, on social programs, Bob Dole is a liberal.” Yes, Dole referred to himself with the dreaded “L” word.

Dole’s current campaign difficulties have little to do with age or style. His problem is far more serious: Deep down, Dole is a truly reasonable and decent man, and those qualities present intellectual and moral discomfort for a Republican presidential candidate these days.

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