IN A SINGLE TV APPEARANCE, Senate Majority Leader Bob Dole has destroyed the preferred strategy of some of his campaign advisers for softening the Republican abortion plank. They’d talked about a quiet effort next summer, after Dole has locked up the GOP presidential nomination but before the Republican convention in August, to gain agreement on a scaled-back pro-life position.
But his statement on December 17 that he no longer favors a constitutional amendment banning abortion (“I supported that one time, and I would not do it again”) drew such a hostile reaction that he wound up noisily endorsing an amendment again. Now he doesn’t have the flexibility to keep the amendment out of the 1996 Republican platform.
“This was a victory for those who want to keep the platform the way it is,” i nsists Gary Bauer of the Family Research Council, who leaned on Dole to back an anti-abortion amendment anew. “It’s almost on the verge of becoming counterprod uctive to even open the discussion with regard to leaving the amendment in or o ut [of the 1996 platform],” says Ralph Reed, executive director of the Christ ian Coalition. An amendment was endorsed in the GOP platforms in 1980, 1984, 1988, and 1992.
Counterproductive or not, there’s another scheme for keeping it out in 1996 that’s been suggested to the Dole camp. It calls for naming a prominent pro- lifer such as Rep. Henry Hyde or House Majority Leader Dick Armey as chairman of the platform committee next year. Then, the committee would draft a strongly worded pro4ife plank but without any mention of a constitutional amendment.
And Hyde or Armey would have enough moral clout on the issue to quell an insurrection by anti-abortion forces at the GOP convention.
Having botched things in his TV appearance, however, Dole is in no position to engineer this tricky maneuver. And ultimately he may not want to. The notion behind dropping the call for an amendment from the platform is that it produces pain but no gain: The amendment has no chance of passage, yet its presence in the platform prevents the GOP nominee from appealing to mildly pro- choice voters. This is unproven, though. There’s no evidence the Republican presidential nominee ever suffered because the party had endorsed an anti- abortion amendment.
But GOP candidates often stumble on the abortion issue itself. It’s ironic Dole should do this, since he has an impeccable pro-life voting record in 34 years in the Senate and House. But because of his klutzy performance on TV, ” now he’s got more problems on the issue than Lamar Alexander,” Reed says. Alexander, a rival for the presidential nomination, opposes an amendment.
Dole’s problems could be worse. Reed and Bauer, the two conservative leaders able to cause mass disenchantment with Dole among prolifers, are kindly disposed toward him. The day after Dole’s TV statement, Bauer had a previously scheduled meeting with the Dole camp. Campaign officials satisfied him Dole wasn’t flinching on abortion, Bauer says.
Reed put out a critical statement, but only after talking with Dole campaign aides. Rather than denounce Dole, Reed merely expressed disappointment. Dole ” is also the only leading candidate who has declined to sign a pledge that he supports the prodife plank in the Republican party platform,” Reed adds. “That action, combined with [the TV] comment, raise[s] serious questions about his views on this most vital issue.”
When Dole responded that he actually supports two types of anti-abortion amendments, Reed declared himself”fully satisfied.” In a letter to Reed, Dole said he backs an amendment to overturn the 1973 Roe v. Wade decision that legalized abortion and also one “restricting abortion subject to the widely accepted exceptions for rape, incest, and life of the mother.”
Reed says Dole has put the matter behind him “as long as there is no equivocation in the future, which I do not think will happen.” Not quite. The issue has legs. Dole’s challengers instantly jumped on his seeming flip-flop. ” It’s vintage Dole,” said Senator Phil Gramm. The Gramm campaign orchestrated protests in Iowa, New Hamsphire, and South Carolina — states with early presidential contests in 1996 — by anti-abortion leaders.
The flap also prompted a serious practical question about Dole as the Republican presidential nominee: Will he constantly be in hot water because of clumsy statements? Whether he wants to change the platform or not, Dole had nothing to gain from discussing abortion eight months before the convention. And his less-than-careful comment about an anti-abortion amendment was bound to be a red flag to pro-lifers, whom Dole has courted assiduously. Also, his remarks on possibly getting Colin Powell as his running mate had the inevitable effect of forcing Powell to voice distaste again for the vice presidency.
What amazed Pat Robertson, the head of the Christian Coalition, was not so much the substance of what Dole said about abortion, but that he seemed so ill- prepared in discussing it and Powell on national television. “Who is briefing Bob Dole?” Robertson asked. He concluded nobody is.
by Fred Barnes
