Posted on 04/23/2007 10:31:30 AM PDT by SmithL
LAWRENCE, Kan. (AP) -- Political dialogue needs a little more humor like what Bob Dole used to disarm critics and amuse supporters, Howard Baker told a Lied Center audience Sunday night.
Baker, a former U.S. senator from Tennessee, presidential candidate and President Ronald Reagan's chief of staff, was in Lawrence to receive the Dole Leadership Award. It is named for Dole, a former U.S. senator from Kansas, and is presented annually to someone who promotes politics as an honorable profession.
Baker, who is trying to get former U.S. Sen. Fred Thompson of Tennessee to run for president in 2008, is the husband of former U.S. Sen. Nancy Kassebaum Baker, R-Kansas. Her choice for president is Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz.
"There was no place in the wedding ceremony that we had to support the same person for president," Baker told a University of Kansas crowd of about 750 Sunday night.
But it's too early for anyone to really know how the 2008 campaign will unfold, said Baker, who ran for president in 1980. There are so many candidates, he said, and each one who stays in the race for the duration will be under intense scrutiny.
"Anybody who says they can tell you how the election is going to turn out is not realistic," he said. "I'm going to try to get a Republican to win."
Baker said he recalls feeling like a youngster before his first date with Kassebaum Baker, long after the death of his first wife.
"I stood on one foot and then the other and she came to the door. I said, 'I feel like a 12-year-old.' She said, 'You don't look like a 12-year-old.'"
The two were married in 1996, and Baker called their relationship "one of the great things that's happened in my life."
Baker told the audience he was proud of his role as ranking Republican on the Senate Watergate Committee. Initially, he said, he underestimated the seriousness of President Nixon's transgressions.
Baker retired from the Senate in 1985, but was recalled to Washington in 1987 to serve as Reagan's chief of staff. Later he was appointed by George W. Bush as ambassador to Japan.
Construction is under way at the University of Tennessee of the Baker Center, which will be dedicated to bipartisan political dialogue. He has donated a large collection of photographs that serve as a diary of his nearly 40 years in public life.
"When I leave this mortal coil, I may have no money, I may have no reputation, but I'll have a lot of good pictures," he said.
He lost.
Ronald Reagan had humor, but he also knew how to slice the Democrats with his wit.
I don’t support a “New Tone” for Republicans until the Democrats give it a whirl for a few years. Unilateral adoption of a “lighter approach” will not help Republicans.
If they want more civility in politics then tell the Democrats to stop where their hate and lies.
Having the "tax collector for the welfare state" give out awards to his friends is not something that will advance a Conservative agenda. It still angers me that the RNC gave the Nomination to him because it was his turn in 1996. I hope we learned something from that and don't repeat it or it will cost us in 2008.
Regards,
TS
it still is mostly humor, just that no ones laughing at the prospects.
Actually Dole ditched his humor for the campaign trail (and got it back after it was over). Somebody told him after the election that if they knew he was that funny, they’d have voted for him.
Yup. Too much of those calling for “civility” are the ones that are creating the toxic environment and their not wanting to be called on their lies and treason.
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