GOP Hypocrite of the Week: Bob Dole

A BUZZFLASH EDITORIAL
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Welcome back to the BuzzFlash.com GOP Hypocrite of the Week.
Bob Dole got up last week, but he didn't need Viagra or a grandpa's lust of Britney Spears. No, accusing John Kerry of inflating his war record required no more of Dole than pulling out his partisan hypocrisy knife.

You would think that Bob Dole, a combat veteran wounded in WW II, would have more respect for his fellow veterans, but think again. Bob Dole is a Republican hack. Swallowing his pride, his dignity and his loyalty to veterans, Dole backed up the partisan anti-Kerry attacks by the Bush GOP Swift Boat Liars.

Of course, Kerry was rightly miffed that his erstwhile senate colleague would so easily pile on the lies and B.S. It takes a unique combination of feigned ignorance, bluster and hypocrisy to attack a man who actually volunteered to fight in Vietnam, while supporting Bush and Cheney, two cowards who ran from their duty and allowed others to die in their name.According to one news story, "Dole's suggestion that Kerry 'never bled' runs counter to US Navy records showing that Kerry, who also won a Bronze Star and a Silver Star for bravery, still carries shrapnel in his left thigh from a February 1969 firefight."

So why did Dole lie about Kerry? Well, according to Dole, it was just politics: "There's respect there," Dole said. "We were in the Senate together. But we're talking about the presidential race, and I tweaked him a little on the Purple Hearts."

"I just wanted him to get off Bush's back and have his people get off Bush's
back," Dole said.

But Noel Koch, a man who knew Dole in the Nixon administration is taken aback by the hypocrisy and the offensive, unwarranted attack on Kerry by Dole, saying

"It is hurtful that a man of Bob Dole's stature should lend himself to the
effort to dishonor a fellow American veteran in the service of politics at its
cheapest."

It hasn't always been that way. In a February 2004 Wall Street Journal Op-ed, Dole spoke differently of his colleague, saying "Senator Kerry is a war hero." Viagra Bob should have stuck with the truth, instead of getting down into the gutter with the Karl Rove sewer slime. But Dole wants to keep up with the Republican times, especially if his wife, North Carolina Senator Elizabeth Dole, follows her desire for higher office. Nowadays, you can't slither down into the GOP inner circle unless you prove your hypocrisy credentials. And Bob Dole's attack on Senator Kerry's war record should get Liz Dole and her Viagra partner access to the all the best Republican dungeons.

That's why this week's BuzzFlash GOP Hypocrite of the Week is the former senator from Kansas, failed 1996 presidential candidate, and the spokesman for every man with a non-functional penis, Bob Dole. Until next week, remember our motto at BuzzFlash.com: So many Republican hypocrites, so little time.

Catch up with you soon.
A BUZZFLASH EDITORIAL
"Old Warriors Giving Their Last, Worst Shot," Tina Brown, Washington Post, August 26, 2004
"Bob Dole's Hypocrisy, Available On His Web Site," Steve Heilman, BuzzFlash Reader Contribution, August 26, 2004