FREEDOM WATCH By BOB WARD, Editor of the Texas 

Journal  April 18, 1996 



It's Bob Dole -- Get Used to It



   It's hard to get enthusiastic about Bob Dole but that 

doesn't have to  matter.  The majority leader is in his 

seventies.  He's been through a lot and might even consider 

enthusiasm embarrassing at this stage of his life.     

   And -- more to the point -- Bob Dole does have a spotty 

voting record.  He's supported too many tax increases, at 

one time he was known as the senator from the IRS.  He 

voted to increase the minimum wage which he now is 

somewhat opposed to. And in 1984 Rep. Newt Gingrich did 

urge the GOP to write a "Dole-proof" platform plank 

opposing tax hikes.     But given all that, rummaging around 

in the past of a politician who has served as long as Dole has 

is of limited value.  Times change and, ironically, what is 

touted as Dole's greatest weakness may be his most 

important asset.  Since Dole has been criticized for being too 

eager to accommodate, to ready to go along, he may be just 

the guy to have in the White House when there is a 

Republican majority -- with a generous portion of 

conservatives -- in the Congress. 



Cooperate With GOP Congress



   Dole is not Jesse Helms, that's true, but he isn't Lowell 

Weicker either.  He is not going to thumb his nose at his 

party in order to advance a high-tax policy.  One columnist 

observed Dole is experienced and he knows how to get the 

job done and Newt Gingrich will tell him what the job is.  

That's too glib but the essential point is valid.  The long list 

of good legislation vetoed by Bill Clinton provides a clue to 

why Bob Dole deserves the support -- if not the adulation -- 

of citizens concerned about taxes, defense, welfare reform 

and a host of other issues.  Tax cuts to benefit the family 

and spur the economy, effective welfare reform and numer-

ous spending reductions fell victim to Bill Clinton's veto pen. 

Had Dole been in the White House most of the Contract 

With America would already be law.

   Speaker Gingrich has made the point that in normal times, 

particularly when the nation is not at war, it is the Congress 

that sets the tone and actually governs the nation. The 

Constitution defines the president's main duties as running 

the military and carrying out the laws passed by the 

Congress.  Because of Cold War expediencies, much of the 

energy and initiative shifted to the White House. With the 

Cold War won, the time has come to shift the focus back to 

the Congress, and Bob Dole is the ideal person to preside 

over that shift.

   The fact is that the decades marked by an aggressive 

executive branch headed by presidents with "vision" have 

brought enormous expansions of government power and loss 

of individual liberties. A good case could be made that the 

nation is overdue for a revitalization of the representative 

branch of the government.  

   And Dole won't give us the likes of Joycelyn Elders.