Team Romney apparently wants to make clear they never meant to speak ill of Bob Dole.

LAURA INGRAHAM: “Are you upset that you lost that Dole endorsement?” GOVERNOR ROMNEY: “You know you like every endorsement and Bob Dole is an American hero, another terrific guy. … But you know, I don’t think if I were the McCain campaign that’s the parallel I would have wanted to draw. Just because you know he was selected as somebody who had been a long term Senator and was seen as the anointed choice. You know the inevitable choice, the one who is next in line. I think we’re best as a party, at least in my own view, when we bring somebody in from the outside. If we want to change Washington, I think it’s going to have to have an outsider to do it and it‘s going to take somebody who may not be the inevitable choice, but instead somebody who represents new passion, new vision, new energy, that I think we need to see in Washington.” (“Laura Ingraham Show,” 2/5/08)

McCain and his surrogates had been calling for apologies.

I’m not sure too much good can come from the candidates wading in to the Bob Dole vs. Rush Limbaugh fight.

UPDATE: One of my readers reminds me… Since this disagreement came to light yesterday, there’s been a bit of mockery of Dole. Dole the loser, Dole the guy who only got 41 percent of the vote, Dole the RINO, Dole the “tax collector for the welfare state” in Gingrich’s words.

But he’s also Bob Dole, the guy who came out and said the Swift Boat Vets for Truth had a good point, when the press was trying to portray the group as a bunch of kooks and every establishment Republican, including the Bush campaign, was running in the opposite direction. (Including McCain. McCain’s attitude was that criticizing Kerry’s postwar activites was fair game, but that questioning whether he earned his medals was out of bounds.)

Of course, that was way back in 2004, when conservatives didn’t believe the things John Kerry says.