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Overcast The party of Bob Dole is long gone
Most members of the current generation have never heard of Sen. Robert Dole. His recent death, at age 98, inspired a series of stories about his bipartisanship and the challenges he faced as a grievously wounded World War II veteran. Many of the profiles noted how Dole worked feverishly to get important legislation passed, and how he got both Democrats and Republicans to have polite discussions on the issues of the day.
Beyond the sadness of his passing, Dole’s role in the national Republican Party helped make it appeal to voters of all types. Today’s Republican Party in no way resembles the party of Dole, and a dozen other Republicans that I could single out. It is now a party with no agenda and no real leadership. This is not to imply that Democrats don’t need to do their own housecleaning, but the Republican Party in its current form is an empty shell.
Perhaps the worst example of how a party can sink into despair is the House of Representatives. Over a long period, the House was a leadership incubator. Many young Republicans developed into stars, and were eventually elected to the Senate or became leaders in their home states. These days, however, instead of promoting the party’s longtime philosophies, many Republican House members seem dedicated to blowing up the government and turning it into some type of fraternity house.
A typical example of how the party should function is former Rep. Peter King. King is and was a partisan who supported the leadership on all of the key issues. But he also kept himself open to alliances with members of the New York congressional delegation, and was never reluctant to work with the Democrats when it came to benefiting or protecting the state. If you took a poll of the Democratic delegation, almost all would express their respect for King as a hard-working and cooperative colleague.
It is amazing that freshman members of Congress such as Lauren Boebert and Marjorie Taylor Greene, Republicans from Colorado and Georgia, respectively, are almost as well known as Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, of California. Not a day goes by without one of them attacking President Biden or a Democratic House member. Lately, they have been attacking fellow Republicans in the ugliest of fashion. There is no doubt that New York Democratic Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez gets a great deal of attention from the media, but the “mean girls” prize goes to Boebert and Taylor Greene, who show zero respect for the institution.
Over in the Senate, things aren’t much better. Biden’s routine nominations for ambassadorships or major staff positions in key federal agencies are in limbo thanks to senators such as Ted Cruz and Rand Paul, Republicans from Texas and Kentucky. Both men would like to run for president, but they play no role in getting anything positive being done for the country. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, also of Kentucky, pledged during the terms of President Barack Obama and Biden to stop them from accomplishing anything.
There is no doubt that the Democratic members of Congress have faults and weaknesses of their own, but both the House and the Senate have many working members who spend their time in Washington proposing new ideas and trying to pass laws that are good for the people. Many Democrats in the Senate are unhappy with their colleagues Joe Manchin, of West Virginia, and Kyrsten Sinema, of Arizona, but no effort has been made to lock them in the Congressional doghouse and throw away the key.
In his final days, Bob Dole expressed his sadness over how his party currently functions, and mourned the loss of collegiality and the failure to get things done. The losses that he recounted are, sadly, losses for each one of us.
Jerry Kremer was a state assemblyman for 23 years, and chaired the Assembly’s Ways and Means Committee for 12 years. He now heads Empire Government Strategies, a business development and legislative strategy firm. Comments about this column? JKremer@liherald.com.
