Tea Party attacked by Bob Dole

Big Government GOP President Gerald Ford and his VP candidate Bob Dole.  Both worked
hard to defeat Ronald Reagan in the 1976 primaries.

1976 and 1996 GOP Nominee Bob Dole advised Mitt Romney not to bow to the Tea Party

• Dole, a twice unsuccessful GOP nominee, advises Romney to beware of those "Conservative" types in the party.

For GOP Presidential nominee Bob Dole, now 89, disclosed that he had advised Mitt Romney on running for president during a meeting at his Washington office in November. He said the former Massachusetts governor showed "flexibility" and a willingness to forge the type of bipartisan deals rejected by current Republican leaders in Congress.
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He described Romney and Paul Ryan, his running mate, as a "great team", noting a similarity between Romney and himself. "When he said he could work across the aisle, it caught my attention, because that's what I tried to do," he said. Dole said Romney's recruitment of Paul Ryan, a disciple of Jack Kemp who worked as a speech writer on the 1996 campaign, was an "extension of Jack's legacy" reports the Business Insider.
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(Editor's Note  -  Truth in advertising disclosure.  Your editor worked for the 1976 campaign of Ronald Reagan and was selected to be on the California Reagan delegation to the GOP convention.

Dole is correct that Ryan and Romney are a great team.  Both are alike.  Ryan has never voted to cut even one cent from the Federal Budget nor had he authored a bill to abolish even one Big Government spending program or one single government department.)


Reagan's Impromptu Speech at 1976 GOP Convention

Dole told supporters in his 1996 convention speech that "in politics, honourable compromise is no sin" and suggested Romney should not bow to pressure from the Tea Party and others pressing for evermore hardline stances that could alienate swing voters.

"Not all the wisdom is in one party," Dole said. He added: "If you're a leader you pay a penalty. You can't be a leader and be everything to everybody. You gotta keep your word, you have to have trust, both from the Democrats and the Republicans".


Ronald Reagan - 1964 Republican National Convention

Reagan at the 1976 GOP Convention.
Bob Dole, Gerald Ford and other Big Government
Republicans opposed Ronald Reagan in 1976. 

Big Government Republicans
Donald Rumsfeld, Gerald Ford and Dick Cheney supported Big Government Republicanism
against those of us fighting for Ronald Reagan in 1976.