THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Monday, April 10, 1995 TAG: 9504100033
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Column
SOURCE: Guy Friddell
LENGTH: Medium: 65 lines
Bob Dole, who's announcing his presidential bid today, pleases me for the reasons he displeases pundits and many Republicans.
For one reason, he is old - 70 or 71 (when you get into those arctic reaches, what is a year here or there). I am weary of bumptious youngsters who prate about such stupid ploys as term limits - which they won't vote for anyway - when the marbles are in the ring and their knucks are down.
Second reason, and it's a part of his being old - I like Dole's looks. Too many young ones are pigs decked in suits. Dole is dark, saturnine, glittering - his eyes are black roaches darting about.
He is a mixture of Humphrey Bogart, growls like him, and the Fonz of ``Happy Days,'' appealing to the old-movies crowd and baby boomers suckled on TV sitcoms.
Third, I Iike him because he's grumpy, and bursts out, now and then, with what's crossing his quick mind. I like his patience in seeking workable solutions and his impatience with fools.
I still dote on the answer Dole gave an anchorman who asked him in 1988 if he had anything to say to George Bush, who had just defeated him in New Hampshire.
``Yeah,'' growled Dole, ``stop lying about my record!''
The anchorman, who had been expecting a gush of good sportsmanship, was shocked and showed it. I cheered. It couldn't have been better phrased. Bush's TV campaign had distorted Dole's record into a soft pretzel.
It stunned me the next day to find commentators wringing their hands over Dole's straight shot to the gut.
I like Dole's lack of vision, which the pundits deplore. Most of them, by the way, wouldn't recognize the Holy Grail if it came glimmering through the trees.
President Clinton is possessed by another vision every day. Newton Gingrich is transfixed by one every five minutes. I am weary of kneejerk visions, most of which can't be translated into reality without a lot of reshaping.
Dole wants to retool things and fix them. Calls himself a conservative pragmatist. Thank the Lord he stands between us and some of the cockeyed, half-cocked measures from the ``Contract With America.''
In an Associated Press story, John King said Dole's aides expect him to allay fears that he lacks vision. But, King notes, Dole drives aides into fits by lapsing into the language of the legislative deal-maker he is.
When asked by King what values guide him when he has to make a tough decision, Dole didn't talk about smaller government or stronger communities or lower taxes.
Instead, he said, ``You look at it from straight politics. You get a good deal, something you can live with.''
There's the man the Republicans won't have the sense to pick.
I like him because, finally, when his country called, he didn't seek five deferments. He went.
I like him because he's old. Like I am. ILLUSTRATION: [Color Photo]
Dole is a mixture of Humphrey Bogart, growls like him, and the Fonz
of "Happy Days," appealing to the old-movies crowd and baby boomers
suckled on TV sitcoms.
by CNB