Bob Dole: Oh Please, God, Not Gingrich

He warns Republicans it will be 1996 all over again
By John Johnson,  Newser Staff
Posted Jan 26, 2012 4:03 PM CST
Bob Dole: Oh Please, God, Not Gingrich
Former Senate Majority Leader Bob Dole in a file photo from September. He's not a Gingrich fan.   (AP Photo/John Milburn)

Bob Dole knows a thing or two about bad outcomes in a presidential race, and he fears that's exactly what Republicans will get again if Newt Gingrich wins the nomination. In fact, the former presidential candidate and Senate majority leader warns that not only would President Obama trounce Gingrich, but Gingrich would bring down GOP candidates "running for county, state, and federal offices." The Hill has his complete statement here.

In it, Dole complains that Gingrich's ethics problems and unpopularity hurt Dole in his 1996 run against Bill Clinton, because "Democrats greeted me with a number of negative TV ads and in every one of them Newt was in the ad." Sure, the House speaker had lots of ideas, but "most of them were off the wall." Dole is only the latest prominent voice on the right to aggressively go after Gingrich this week. Click for more on that. (More Bob Dole stories.)

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