When Bob Dole says what Bob Dole means, you can take it to the bank because Bob Dole means what Bob Dole says, or my name’s not Bob Dole…

Bob Dole

While I’ve long admired Senator Bob Dole’s service and sacrifice for our country, I was always skeptical of his tenacity, or more precisely, the lack thereof, while in a position of power. Well, as my wife’s Dad (also a WWII hero) is wont to say,

Hold the phone!

As reported by Jonathan Martin at the Politico, Bob Dole has unloaded on former presidential spokesman- turned -whistleblower Scott McLellan over the allegations "revealed" in his new "tell-all" book. I’m not sure if per chance the Kansas Senator maybe took an extra Viagra by accident, or he has exceed the oft-warned caution about the dangers of its… er, ah… "effects" stretching (oops, me bad!) beyond four hours, but man, Bob Dole, we hardly knew ye…

In an email sent to McLellan obtained and authenticated by Martin, Dole had this to say to Bush’s former press man:

"There are miserable creatures like you in every administration who don’t have the guts to speak up or quit if there are disagreements with the boss or colleagues," Dole wrote in a message sent yesterday morning. "No, your type soaks up the benefits of power, revels in the limelight for years, then quits and, spurred on by greed, cashes in with a scathing critique."

It doesn’t end there…

"In my nearly 36 years of public service I’ve known of a few like you," Dole writes, recounting his years representing Kansas in the House and Senate. "No doubt you will ‘clean up’ as the liberal anti-Bush press will promote your belated concerns with wild enthusiasm. When the money starts rolling in you should donate it to a worthy cause, something like, ‘Biting The Hand That Fed Me.’ Another thought is to weasel your way back into the White House if a Democrat is elected. That would provide a good set up for a second book deal in a few years"

Dole assures McClellan that he won’t read the book — "because if all these awful things were happening, and perhaps some may have been, you should have spoken up publicly like a man, or quit your cushy, high-profile job."

"That would have taken integrity and courage but then you would have had credibility and your complaints could have been aired objectively," Dole concludes. "You’re a hot ticket now, but don’t you, deep down, feel like a total ingrate?"

He signs the email simply: "BOB DOLE"

Ouch! How does Senator Dole REALLY feel?

Well, as reported in a follow-up story by Martin, he

asked Bob Dole spokesman Michael Marshall why the former senator felt compelled to speak out against Scott McClellan.

Dole himself explains in an email sent over by Marshall:

"It’s just not right but it happens in nearly every administration. It sort of happened to me in a very small way when a low level employee in my Senate office left and published a book in 1995 titled ‘Senator for Sale.’ He claimed to be a close confidant, etc. The book bombed because neither he nor his rambles had any credibility with the media or the public.

Bottom line is that I have little respect for turncoats like McClellan who have it both ways. Some in public (and private) life have no shame when big bucks are involved. If their motive is ‘good government,’ O.K. but that’s rarely the case."

The book Dole refers to was penned by one Stanley G. Hilton in 1995, right as Dole was gearing up for his third and final White House run. Hilton had been an aide to Dole between 1979 and 1980.

It was described in Publisher’s Weekly as "so vitriolic that it will shock even Dole’s foes."

In other words, a hatchet job.

While unexpected, I applaud Senator Dole’s candor in his opinion regarding this somewhat ugly matter. Beyond that, I, like See-Dubya writing at Michelle Malkin‘s blog about this, wonder who’s really behind all of this. Almost sounds like the stuff of a movie. Except that it’s much more serious than two hours of escapism…

Like it? Share it!

Mecardo

Vectoring into the DOLE eruption, via email on the Scott McCellan book, “What happened” is the still hanging incident:
THE BOOK ON DOLE by Stanley Hilton, “Senator for Sale”.
But, it goes beyond that Book, by Hilton. He moved on to the NET splashes, to exploit the WWW age of google hits
All over the WWW, splashy headlines.
Stanley Hilton sues Bush on 911 seeking $ 7 billion:
Any check out the record of ESQ Stan.(who bills himself as the Ex Dole Chief of Staff for some POWER Name drops)
Seems to be:
1) a lexis of around 50 cases turns up most of his cases on lexis were cases thrown out of federal courts, a long string of losers… just paper he shuffled into some clerk’s office in some FED COURT in N CA.
2) the One loser case includes his suit against Bush, etc, tossed on Dec 30, 2004 by Judge Susan ILLson in federal District court in San Francisco(motions filed by Asst u S atty Tracie Brown in San Francisco…call her… if you want the real status
3) Hilton goes on Tx (BLABBER-RANT) radio, Genesis Communication, and leads Alex Jones to believe that he did all kinds of depositions in the Suit against Bush– yet, he took not one deposition in the subject suit against Bush…NONE, ZERO, NADA…
4) He claims he is in the deep know on NORAD, the U S military….Blarney. He never served in the U S military, his classmate(Blue DNA dress EXHIBIT I) Ken Starr at Duke was a draft evader.(like so many of the DUKE CLIQUE)…No mention was ever made that Hilton played Lacrosse at Duke , either.
5) He lives in ritzy tony town in Bay area, and seems to claim he is some hot shot litigator… But, in all the hype he never points to some big major case he won for some real live ordinary citizen, amounting to something of great significance. He sucks ‘em in, offers them up on the altar of the Judicial Chambers, like lambs to be slaughtered, and, oh does he… THE RECORD, if any care to see the vast human wreckage
In this WWW age it is easy to get one’s name on the WWW, claim some grand feat, but it is a shame when he toys with the families of the 911 victims,given all the pain, and their searching for the full truth, so not to be toyed with in some games
6) Sure, Hilton has a lot of degrees from U Chicago, Harvard, Duke, and cavorted with the rich and the famous, and the elite…(Mr Elite Hilton, it reeks all the ambiance in the fabric of the whole situation, Glitz, SNOB HILL, the Rich in old San Fran.. big old $$$$)
But, when are any going to not be so stupid to swallow what he floats out in this very gullible I-net age..?
He can get his hype amplified by the like of Alex Jones ( Mars on Earth, promo mugs) who don’t know a formal deposition in a court proceeding from a tamale on a street corner in Austin…
The great dupe jobs….. floated around, via the NET, a la, Mr DUKE Esq, classmate of Ken Starr… Is he laughing his ass off on how gullible the USA public is ?….
Yes, it is a massive tragedy; the waste, the follies in Iraq, Afghan, NYC, the Twin Towers the humans killed, the collateral damage, the gross mismanagement, none of that is discounted. But, the U S Congress rubber stamped, Kerry flipped and flopped, and still the reality is who is exploiting all of that for cheap headlines–that are pure vapor, and vapid.. Who plays with fear as if some sport ?
Hilton’s FED suit was not worth a warm bucket of puke—-
his crusade on Bush, all over the I-NET, all filling web pages, all creating more illusions… SAD….
The great lands of Illusion….it is SAD, in America there is such an aversion to search for an assure the full unvarnished truth, assure some real solid truth with a basis & assure some real evidence, some real documentation…It is in that climate Stanley Hilton(grand Mr ELITE ESQ) traffics(IN THE GREAT disinfo age), but he is not much different than Bushy JR, who too has his fancy degrees, his Elite CLUBS, his powerful friends..(THE GUTLESS, and EMPTY SUITS)
Oh, the costs of the grand delusion that is so apart of American culture, today..It is not good for the Nation, we do not serve America by serving illusions, and deception as a sport by the likes the Elite Duke/ Yale/ U of Chicago
tricksters… who toy with America, like Hilton has with the families of those killed in NYC/ 911… SAD, indeed
Bob Dole–does he know how to spot phonies ?
Hilton seems like he may be –not the king of Torts, but the king of retorts, and he seems to have some ax to grind with Dole, a matter now going on for over 25 years, as if he is obsessed with DOLE.. That is what caused Dole to erupt over McCellan, and his spokes- people have admitted it, but gave little background on the bay area menace, Hilton, the not so stand up so called “Litigator”. No wonder there are so many lawyer jokes, often using the backdrop of snakes.
Lamar

If Bob Dole believes McClellan should have had the “guts” to speak out in the period 2003-2007, and instead stood by to soak up some glory of high office, only to then later cash in, & do so in some exercise of “greed”, then what does he suggest that McClellan should have have spoken up on–exactly, like; who, what, when, where, etc: specifics
It is that age old question: What did he know, and when did he know it, and the emphasis is on when.
In 2003, two years after 911, he was not a case officer in the CIA, or Military intelligence. He relied on Military intel briefings, just as President Bush did. Recall ” Slam dunk” from CIA Chief Tenet. Did McClellan later learn information, that he did not have in 2003 ? Bob Dole, in a burst of anger, glosses over things, he makes a big deal about “guts”. Does Bob Dole truly believe that Dick Cheney is a man who is the epitome of “guts” ? 99 % of the USA public does not believe so. Now, they know a thing or two, on the lack of courage of those who misled America, that was not “guts”, it was utterly cowardness, & the most cravenly acts of cowardness. America knows more now than we did in 2003. And, Bob Dole can’t hang a label around the all of America , like he did around the neck of Scott McClellan.