Bob Dole says Newt Gingrich nomination will have ‘adverse effect’ on GOP
MIAMI BEACH, Fla. – Bob Dole, the Republicans’ 1996 presidential candidate, says the party will suffer if Newt Gingrich emerges as its 2012 standard-bearer.
In an open letter distributed this afternoon by Gingrich rival Mitt Romney, Dole notes that Gingrich was thrown out as House speaker four years – the equivalent of one presidential term – after leading the party to a majority in the chamber.
Dole, 88, endorsed Romney in mid-December, and he was followed a couple weeks later by his wife, former US Seantor Elizabeth Dole.
But he decided to reiterate his views in the aftermath of Gingrich’s South Carolina primary victory last weekend.
“It is now time to take a stand before it is too late,’’ he siad.
His wife, former Senator Elizabeth Dole, endorsed Romney in December.
“If Gingrich is the nominee, it will have an adverse impact on Republican candidates running for county, state, and federal offices,’’ Bob Dole wrote. “Hardly anyone who served with Newt in Congress has endorsed him, and that fact speaks for itself. He was a one-man-band who rarely took advice. It was his way or the highway.’’
The former Senate majority leader, whose tenure overlapped with that of Gingrich from 1995 until he ran for president a year later, said his House counterpart “had a new idea every minute and most of them were off the wall. He loved picking a fight with Bill Clinton because he knew this would get the attention of the press. This and a myriad of other specifics helped to topple Gingrich in 1998.’’
Dole also recalled that during his 1996 campaign, where he was trounced by Clinton as the Democratic sought reelection as does Barack Obama now, “the Democrats greeted me with a number of negative TV ads, and in every one of them, Newt was in the ad. He was very unpopular, and I am not only certain that this did not help me, but that it also cost House seats that year.’’
Dole said that “if we want to avoid an Obama landslide in November, Republicans should nominate Governor Romney as our standard-bearer.’’
The open letter was the latest example of old-line, Republican establishment support not only coalescing for Romney, but coming out vehemently against Gingrich after the South Carolina primary win improved the prospects for him winning the nomination.
Gingrich has worn the opposition as a badge of honor, saying it validates his pitch that he is the political outsider with the insider knowledge needed to change Washington.
“The establishment is right to be worried about a Gingrich nomination,’’ he said Sunday on NBC’s “Meet the Press.’’
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