Dole, no doubt, is tempted. Bush has been his lodestar. Bush’s 1988 primary campaign was the model for Dole’s lurch this year. He made peace early with Ralph Reed and the Christian Coalition. He set up a South Carolina fire wall. And he was quietly brutal, doing to Lamar Alexander in New Hampshire what Bush had done unto him–a devastating, last-minute “tax and spend liberal” advertising blitz (augmented by an uncool $1 million in negative “push” polling). Why not stick with a good thing? Turn Joycelyn Eiders into Willie Horton’s sister. Win ugly.
There is, however, a problem: Clinton is not Dukakis. He will fight back. And Dole is not Bush. He’s a not a sunny preppy. He’s also not the meanie of legend, but every time he’s gone mean on the national stage–the 1976 vice presidential debate, the 1988 New Hampshire primary–he has instantaneously obliterated himself. Finally, Dole doesn’t have Bush’s ultimate weapon: the Reagan endorphin spillover effect (indeed, he has a nasty Newt hangover). And so, 1988 alone won’t suffice–although some wedginess will be irresistible. He’ll have to do some positive stuff, too. But what? Arrgh. I… I can’t resist. Like every one of my pundiloquent colleagues, I exist therefore I advise. Three modest proposals:
How? First of all, by getting things done. Reach a balanced-budget deal with Clinton so Ross won’t have gridlock to yammer about next fall. Another good thing would be to select Arizona’s John McCain as vice president–and not just because, as E. J. Dionne argued last week, McCain would make it an all-hero ticket. The former POW is also the Republican most adamant about Perot’s reform agenda. He has cosponsored, with Wisconsin Democrat Russ Feingold, the first really serious bipartisan campaign finance reform bill (if he’s smart, Dole will bring the bill to a vote soon). McCain and Feingold are also mounting a bipartisan assault on corporate welfare. Granted, some of the Arizonan’s zeal may be penance for having been one of the “Kenting Five.” Granted, McCain’s temper is ballistic and his candor impolitic. But Dole couldn’t find a better ambassador to the radical middle, and he needs one badly–especially one who can brace, disarm and shut up the hero-worshiping Perot.
First of all, take him at his word. He doesn’t want to run for office. But he does want to be active in public life. He says he’s interested in race relations and the urban social disaster. The conventional wisdom has Powell as secretary of state. Be unconventional: make the general Domestic Policy Czar-in-Waiting and chief spokesman on shame. If willing, Powell should be set to work immediately, reviewing the tangle of federal programs and chewing over alternative ideas that have been bubbling up from the “empowerment” wing of the Republican Party. If willing, Powell should be surrounded by a “commission” that might include people like Alexander, William Bennett, Sen. Dan Coats of Indiana and Adam Walinsky (the RFK aide whose Police Corps proposal is a form of national service that Dole supports). Their mission would be to figure out what a new, virtue-based, shame-inducing social policy might look like. If Powell isn’t willing, Dole–and the rest of us should take the hint and let the general proceed unimpeded along the lecture circuit.
Clinton really blew this. He came out of a bipartisan tradition, having worked with GOP colleagues to develop policy for the National Governors Association. (I once asked Clinton who his favorite governors were, and the list included as many Republicans as Democrats–with a New jersey Republican, Tom Kean, on top.) But Clinton appointed a decidedly parochial, all-Democrat cabinet-as well as a hyperpartisan White House staff. Very disappointing. After all, Clinton’s hero, John Kennedy, put Republicans in crucial positions like Treasury, Defense and nation-al-security adviser. The vast American majority is sick of the partisan bickering that has almost come to define Washington: Dole could announce that his would be a government of national unity. And since bipartisanship is a hallowed foreign-policy tradition, Dole might fool the conventional thinkers here, too, and appoint a Democrat to lead a commission- similar to Powell’s domestic operation–to review the world situation (and to serve, implicitly, as secretary of state-in-waiting). Sam Nunn would be the safe, smart choice. But Bill Bradley, who understands that post-modern diplomacy is as much about economics as strategy, might be a creative alternative (and more of a shock to Clinton).
Of course, Dole won’t do any of this. But what fun if he did.
