Letter from Washington

Given the effects of a dynamic force in the static but mutable world of the Republican establishment, it was all but inevitable that Senator Robert Dole (Kan.) should emerge in a leadership position. In the Senate, Dole’s energy has worked against him. Although his conservative credentials were excellent, some of his older colleagues apparently just didn’t feel able to keep up with him. Such senior Republican stalwarts as Len Jordan (Idaho) were known to have reservations about Dole’s activist, albeit conservative, proclivities.

Unable to make much headway in breaking into the GOP senatorial leadership, Dole began storing up credits in heaven (heaven being the White House). Perhaps more than any other Republican senator, Dole bore much of the brunt of the Administration’s case on a number of issues in the Senate— notably the two Supreme Court nominations that lost, the ABM and the Hatfield- McGovern amendments where the Administration carried the day—and won White House approval by staying in the public line of fire, where most members of the GOP Senate leadership were not often seen. Dole spends a lot of time on the Senate floor. By doing so, he keeps himself and the Administration position in the papers, to the advantage of both.

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Given the effects of a dynamic force in the static but mutable world of the Republican establishment, it was all but inevitable that Senator Robert Dole (Kan.) should emerge in a leadership position. In the Senate, Dole’s energy has worked against him. Although his conservative credentials were excellent, some of his older colleagues apparently just didn’t feel able to keep up with him. Such senior Republican stalwarts as Len Jordan (Idaho) were known to have reservations about Dole’s activist, albeit conservative, proclivities.

Unable to make much headway in breaking into the GOP senatorial leadership, Dole began storing up credits in heaven (heaven being the White House). Perhaps more than any other Republican senator, Dole bore much of the brunt of the Administration’s case on a number of issues in the Senate— notably the two Supreme Court nominations that lost, the ABM and the Hatfield- McGovern amendments where the Administration carried the day—and won White House approval by staying in the public line of fire, where most members of the GOP Senate leadership were not often seen. Dole spends a lot of time on the Senate floor. By doing so, he keeps himself and the Administration position in the papers, to the advantage of both.