On the Prowl
"On the Prowl" Tough Love Hours before Bob Dole announced his surprise resignation from the Senate, his campaign was in full spin. That evening's news reports did their part: "Dole had been...
...It was as if they were saying, 'Look, we got you this far, don't make us look like a bunch of losers this early in the campaign.' Dole made his resignation announcement two days later, but not before he was overheard grousing about Thompson: "I thought he wanted to be Vice President...
...Don was told to wait for the new term when there might be some new faces and a better shot of winning the post outright...
...Huckabee is already moving to expose the webs of corrupt special dealing that festoon all corners of state government...
...Discussion quickly centered on growing worries ``,n that the GOP will lose seats in i both the House and Sena ate this fall...
...Nixing the Forbes flat-tax proposal out of hand, Dole made it clear he prefers Dick Gephardt's two-tiered, higher rate flat-tax or the moderate middle-class cuts already on the table in both the House and Senate...
...The Don Nickles Show While Trent Lott was holding off Thad Cochran's challenge to succeed Bob Dole as Senate majority leader, the big winner turned out to be Oklahoma's Don Nickles, who defied expectations and didn't run for the leadership post...
...It's a heaven-sent turn-around for an outsider who found, after his swearing-in as lieutenant governor, that Democrats had nailed shut the door of his capitol office...
...Having Stevens serve as "acting" majority leader, Dole argued, would free him to expand his campaign yet leave the impression he was still pulling strings on the Senate floor...
...More than one hundred falsified ballots were mailed out to a single P.O...
...Clinton should expect about Travelgate and Whitewater, issues the White House wanted to avoid, but which the show said it might inquire about anyway...
...Money's flowing in "faster than I've ever seen it," according to one long-time RNC fundraising hand—and this before Bob Dole quit the Senate...
...Whitener now has a green light, and so do those Arkansans who want to clean up the "political family" that produced Bill Clinton...
...Box in Wyden's district alone...
...The first was a meeting with congressional leaders, g ostensibly called to discuss o welfare and the minimum wage...
...Hard Labor A revitalized AFL-CIO has set aside more than $6 million in a "get out the vote" fund for the November elections...
...Among the abuses they documented were falsified voter registration materials, duplicate or falsified absentee ballots, and ballots mailed in by deceased voters and union members living out of state...
...After the meeting Dole had staffers sound out friends in other Senate and House offices to see if polling data in California, Oregon, New Jersey, Georgia, Florida, and Illinois was as bad as he had heard from congressional leaders...
...Dole carried the speech in his coat pocket for several weeks, rehearsing during quiet times at home and while traveling," "The decision to leave the Senate was one made a month ago while on vacation...
...King's questions may have seemed scattershot and off the cuff, yet that morning, White House staff had faxed CNN a list of 20-30 questions the first lady hoped to be asked—and five "issues" she would rather not hear about...
...Who's the Boss...
...The bounty was $3 per "voter," and the technique worked so well that the union says it intends to finance the program again...
...I think for the first time, he felt a degree of desperation from people he hadn't expected to be desperate," says one Senate staffer, who indicated that Dole was taken aback by their bluntness...
...He also ruled out steep Reagan-style cuts in marginal tax rates...
...Then came his meeting with key governors—including vice presidential hopefuls Tommy Thompson of Wisconsin, John Engler of Michigan, George Allen of Virginia, and George Voinovich of Ohio...
...ON THE PROWL Tough Love Hours before Bob Dole announced his surprise resignation from the Senate, his campaign was in full spin...
...Such a move will probably have to wait until after the fall elections—Burke is still counting on a senior post in a Dole White House...
...Nothing is going to get done in the Senate for the rest of the term," a Nickles aide said...
...One disturbing note: The financial powers in the state—the Stephenses, the Waltons, and the Tysons, names well-known to those who have followed Bill Clinton's career carefully—have begun switching allegiances, and are already prominent among Huckabee's key contributors...
...Which it did—very gently, of course...
...The governors were aghast...
...The reason...
...Mike Huckabee, a Republican and Christian conservative, made the high-minded decision to drop out of his front-running campaign for the open U.S...
...Arkansas Libre A call from Freddy Whitener brought home just what the guilty verdicts in the White-water trial will mean from Arkansas...
...The money will be targeted to districts in California, Colorado, Oregon, Washington, Georgia, Alabama, Florida, Louisiana, Michigan, Illinois, and New Jersey...
...Thompson went on to chastise the senator for "constantly running away" from the people who would do "all the heavy lifting" during the campaign...
...Jim Guy Tucker's term...
...Just the Fax, Ma'am CNN talk show host Larry King likes to boast that he goes into every interview completely unprepared—but not every guest will let him get away with it...
...On May 21, King provided first lady Hillary Clinton with an hour of prime time to discuss motherhood, family values, the pressures of being in the spotlight, and those unfortunate ethics flaps...
...Around noon, CNN faxed back ten questions that would not be asked and three issues the first lady would not have to discuss "in detail...
...The AFL-CIO's biggest impact, however, may have come from its hiring of "bounty hunters" — people who scoured homeless shelters, residence hotels, and retirement and nursing homes for nonregistered voters...
...Stevens could use a boost of his own—he's facing a serious primary challenge from the Buchanan-endorsed, pro-life millionaire Dave Cuddy...
...That evening's news reports did their part: "Dole had been pondering this decision for months," "Mr...
...His first step will be to secure state files and ensure the loyalty of key enforcement officials...
...Daniel Patrick Moynihan is said to be keen on opening a senior slot for her on either his personal staff or the Finance Committee...
...Speaking for the group, Thompson told Dole that undercutting Lott was a terrible mistake, and could harm the Dole campaign even more than the debate over a prolife plank in the GOP platform...
...Thus far, senior advisers have blocked the teary Burke's efforts to secure a job with the Dole campaign, and Democratic Sen...
...As fresh air moves through Arkansas government, expect revelations of scandals far surpassing Whitewater...
...Dole staffers had been suggesting a July 2 date, but their boss bailed out early after two disturbing events...
...14 July 1996 The American Spectator For now, Nickles is expected to win the majority whip post unopposed, the election for which will be held after Lott becomes Senate leader...
...Allen and Voinovich were a little gentler, telling Dole that his campaign needed a spark—even a successful San Diego convention, they maintained, would be too little too late...
...For some time Whitener had been wanting to bring a legal malpractice suit against the lawyer who represented him in the foreclosure, but his current counsel told him to wait on the outcome of the McDougal-Tucker trial before filing the suit...
...Then Larry stopped playing nice: the fax also listed "sample" questions Mrs...
...That could be a bad sign for believers in fair play—Republican investigators have documented extensive voter fraud in last January's special "mail-in" Senate election in Oregon, particularly in the Portland and Eugene districts where the AFL-CIO was especially active...
...Senate seat and fill out the remaining two-and-a-half years of Gov...
...Bob Dole might have grown misty-eyed at his retirement announcement, but that was nothing compared to his long-time staffer: her bawling led someone in the room to toss her a towel...
...At last count, investigators had found 6,000 irregular ballots—a thousand more than Democrat Ron Wyden's margin of victory...
...Though the two men made plans for several more meetings, Forbes advisers have concluded that Dole will never support genuine tax reform and is likely to fight any attempt to inject supply-side wording into the GOP platform...
...While the lofty speech, written by novelist Mark Helprin, had been in the can for at least two weeks, Dole hadn't seriously thought of resigning until several days before the May 12 announcement...
...Whitener was the road-builder and McDougal business partner who lost his house after the McDougals used forged notes to saddle him with more than a million dollars of their debt...
...Dole floated this trial balloon: he would step aside as majority leader and hand over day-to-day control—not to majority whip Trent Lott, as everyone expected, but to Alaska's Ted Stevens, a longtime friend...
...The American Spectator • July 1996 15...
...What's to become of Sheila Burke...
...A Flat-out No In late May, Bob Dole met at least twice with primary foe Steve Forbes to discuss tax issues...
...The Democrats will have Trent treading water for the next six months...
...In the Bank The poll numbers may look bad, but spirits at the Republican National Committee are running exceptionally high anyway as election season starts to heat up...
...Friends, including Dole himself, advised Nickles, currently chairman of the influential Senate Policy Committee, to stay put...
Vol. 29 • July 1996 • No. 7
