While Republicans in Washington are running around talking about who we’re going to run for President in 2000, what Ken Starr may or may not do, or whether Newt should step aside, one small, but important item has been overlooked. Thanking Bob Dole. What’s happened to our manners?

Here is a man who gave and gave and gave again for not only our party, but for our country. He is the loyal leader we turned to, so many times, for his help and his leadership and to whom we owe so much and from whom he has asked so little. He is probably the reason the GOP kept control of Congress -and although we didn’t win the White House, Mr. Dole sorely embarrassed incumbent Bill Clinton by holding him under 50 percent.

The Generation X types who seem to have all of the answers for the Republican Party weren’t around in the 70′s and 80′s, but those of us who were remember Bob Dole, as Ronald Reagan’s personal choice, going on the ticket with Gerald Ford to try and shore up conservative support for Mr. Ford at a time when many conservatives were disappointed that Mr. Reagan lost the nomination. Jimmy Carter was pretending to be a conservative, and believe it or not, some conservatives here in Washington and around the country were talking him up. Mr. Ford started the campaign 30 points behind and lost by two percent. Mr. Dole did not bring back all of the base alone, but surely he was responsible for some Republicans and conservatives coming home.

Yes, Mr. Dole had his doubts about Reaganomics. After all, he was grounded in a midwestern Republican Party that felt government had an obligation to the people to keep the books balanced. But Mr. Dole’s doubts never stopped him from helping his president cut taxes, which gave us 96 months of unbroken economic growth and the creation of 19 million real, blue-and white-collar jobs (and not the part time, convenience store jobs created by the current occupant of the White House). Mr. Dole will tell you today that if the Democrats in Congress hadn’t repeatedly broken deals with Mr. Reagan, the national debt would be far less today.

Conservatives remember well the gut wrenching fights with liberals over aid to the anti-communist rebels in Afghanistan, aid to the freedom fighters in Nicaragua, SDI, standing up to the Soviets, increased military spending, cutting government regulation, overhauling the tax structure and stopping Saddam Hussein. There was Bob Dole, fighting the fight, sometimes losing, often winning but never complaining or asking for anything in return.

In 1986, Mr. Reagan had nominated Dan Manion to the federal bench, and the liberals mounted a campaign against Dan Manion in the Senate because he was a conservative true believer. But who was holding up Mr. Manion? Barry Goldwater – because he was carrying a 20 year-old grudge against his father over some perceived insult. It was Bob Dole who went to Mr. Goldwater and, without fanfare or bragging, got Mr. Goldwater to switch from opposing Mr. Manion to supporting him. Mr. Manion remains on the federal bench today, where he is a reliable conservative judge.

Who remembers the fire storms in Washington over the nominations of Clarence Thomas and Robert Bork? When the nervous nellies of the Bush administration wanted to pull the plug on Mr. Thomas because the radical left had whipped up a campaign of smears and lies against Mr. Thomas, it was Bob Dole who performed a backbone transplant on the Bush White House and got Mr. Thomas confirmed to the Supreme Court.

Bob Dole’s contributions to conservatism and America are too numerous to mention. It might be a cheap shot, but it is also a truism, that he has given far more and asked far less from his country than you know who.

Everybody now knows Bob Dole nearly lost his life for his country. Bu does everybody know what a gracious, thoughtful, and humble man he is?

Bob Dole reminds me of a quote years ago from longshoreman-philosopher, Eric Hoffer, who said of the men that sent America to the moon, “I’m just tickled to death that this thing is being done by squares, you know, average Americans and not by these pretentious intellectuals. Because this is the great genius of Americans. They take something momentous and make an unmomentous thing out of it.” Bob Dole, for his entire life, has made all he’s done for all of us unmomentous. Fact is, there are two types of people who really get at Dole. Men who talk too much about their military service and men who dodged the draft.

We, as Republicans, do not trash our losing candidates. That’s what the Democrats do. That’s why Harry Truman (his current popularity is fanciful revisionism), Lyndon Johnson, Jimmy Carter, Walter Mondale, and Mike Dukakis all felt the Democrats’ door slammed in their faces.

We celebrate any man. As Teddy Roosevelt said, “It is not the critic who counts: Nor the man who points out how the strong man stumbled, or where the doer of deeds could have done better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena . . . and who at the worst, if he fails at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who know neither victory nor defeat.”

A smart man once said that a true leader has a physical, intellectual and moral presence. Mr. Dole has all of these qualities and more.

I will always celebrate Bob Dole, as should all Americans. Thank you, senator, for all you’ve done for our country, and God bless you, sir.

Craig Shirley is a GOP political consultant.

LOAD-DATE: November 15, 1996

LANGUAGE: ENGLISH

GRAPHIC: Illustration, NO CAPTION

Copyright 1996 The Washington Times LLC All Rights Reserved