It’s not true that Bob Dole lacks a message in his presidential campaign; actually, he has two. It depends on who gets to Dole last — will it be his campaign staff, or his Senate aides? When Dole addressed the National Governors Association on February 6, Senate staffers drafted his conciliatory, bipartisan remarks. “Our cooperation must increase,” he said. Republicans must be “flexible.” President Clinton really wants a budget deal this year. And so on. Not surprisingly, Dole’s campaign advisers, who put together his tough response to Clinton’s State of the Union, loathed the NGA speech.
But it was music to Clinton’s ears. The president believes Dole is the key to a long-term budget deal but that serious talks with him must wait until after the New Hampshire primary. If Dole wins there, he’ll be free to ignore attacks by GOP presidential rivals and negotiate (and compromise) with the White House. That’s Clinton’s view, but his chief political adviser, Dick Morris, has a slightly different take. Morris argues there’s no reason to wait until post-New Hampshire. A budget deal now will help Dole win the GOP nomination. Thus, Morris leaked those poll results buttressing that point to a Dole operative. Morris, by the way, also thinks a deal will help Clinton enormously by erasing his image as a tax-and-spend liberal.
The division among Dole aides is nothing compared to the ill will at the White House between political adviser Morris and Harold Ickes, Clinton’s deputy chief of staff. Their feud is preventing Clinton from appointing a campaign manager. Ickes, who is close to Hillary Rodham Clinton, balks at anyone who might have a connection with Morris. Morris, who believes his greatest achievement is having pulled Clinton to the right, recoils at the thought of an ally of Ickes, the White House’s most unswerving leftist, in charge of the campaign. One name acceptable to Ickes is Kevin Thurm, a pal of George Stephanopoulos who is chief of staff to Health and Human Services secretary Donna Shalala. But the Morris forces are skeptical of him, and thus there’s no consensus. Clinton might not have a campaign chief for a few months.
