From: AdmrlLocke@aol.com Sent: Sunday, August 22, 1999 8:42 PM To: undisclosed-recipients: ; Subject: GrammNet: AP Choosing Bush/Dole Ticket GrammNet Issue 8/22/99.3 Dear Friend, Liberals in the media wasted no time following up their spin of the Straw Poll results (which pretended that their two darlings, George W. Bush and Elizabeth Dole, did well even though neither one came close to expectations) by pairing their two darlings! Yes, believe it or not, the liberal media are not content with the "Bush the Inevitable GOP Presidential Nominee" story. Now they're adding a "Dole the Inevitable Bush Running Mate" story. They want to make sure that any Bush Administration would be as liberal and supportive of Big Government as possible! Sincerely, David B. Levenstam, CPA, MT, MA Forbes in 2000! GrammNet is an independent newsletter, not affiliated with Senator Gramm. To subscribe to GrammNet, email me at AdmrlLocke@aol.com, with a message to the effect that you'd like to subscribe. GrammNet back issues available at http://www.geocities.com/CapitolHill/3390/ Steve Forbes web page (Forbes 2000) at http://www.forbes2000.com ----------------------------------- Is Bush Eyeing Dole and Her Support? WASHINGTON (AP) - The congratulatory fax to Elizabeth Dole came from an old pal who happens to be a top official in rival George W. Bush's campaign. A sign, her husband said, that Dole has something Bush needs. Women voters. The private overture from former Republican Party chairman Haley Barbour, now co-chairman of Bush's effort, can't help but fuel whispers - from within Dole's own camp, even - that if Dole can't beat Bush's formidable bankroll and poll numbers in the race for the GOP presidential nomination, she might increasingly count on joining him. ``They have to keep looking at each other,'' former Sen. Bob Dole, her husband, said Thursday. But it's president, not vice president that she's running for, he added. ``She's not trying to do anything else.'' ``She has this inherent strength that's so good for the party, so good for everyone who's involved in Campaign 2000.'' Bob Dole should know. The GOP's traditional - and ever-more-gaping - deficit to Democrats when it comes to women voters helped lead to his presidential defeat in 1996. Barbour wrote Dole after she placed a strong third behind Bush and Steve Forbes in the Ames, Iowa, straw poll. ``Ames is a vivid reminder that there is a huge appetite out there for Elizabeth Dole's candidacy,'' Barbour told The Associated Press. Discussing Barbour's gesture, the former senator said: ``He knows where we've needed muscle in the party. We've got some pretty scary people out there when it comes to what women see.'' After a dismal spring of organizational disarray and sinking poll numbers, aides said Dole had earned a new lease on political life. On a West Coast fund-raising swing, Dole said her strategy for making the most of this second chance is ``Just keep moving.'' She promised to roll out the ideas on crime, drugs, taxes and education to prove herself more qualified than Bush, the Texas governor, to head the GOP ticket in 2000. Some in her circle of Washington staff and advisers, with an eye on Bush's lead, said privately that if Dole can keep the momentum going into the winter primaries, she cements herself a fallback position by forcing Bush to make her his running mate. Her strong appeal among women already makes her a must-have on any Republican ticket hoping to overcome the GOP's gender gap. Another top Bush operative, speaking on condition of anonymity, flipped the Dole team's postulate inside out, saying that if Dole now does poorly in the primaries, she loses any chance of joining a Bush ticket. She would have a more guaranteed shot, this person said, had she stayed out of the race, keeping her mystique and celebrity unblemished. Dole's press secretary, Ari Fleischer, called the talk of No. 2 ``inevitable chitchat in political circles.'' ``Obviously, the better she does, the more the chitchat will grow. But she's running for one position and one position only, and she's running to win,'' Fleischer said. Dole herself seems to strain to keep the competition with Bush congenial, feeding theories that she's carefully avoiding burned bridges. ``Nothing personal,'' she said, painting herself as a workhorse candidate keeping her head down. When arguing her point that Bush is less qualified than she for the White House, Dole gently poked at him not by name but as ``one other candidate I can think of.'' There were traces of resentment over Bush's whopping lead and his ``gobs of money.'' To capitalize on any post-Ames momentum, Dole is rushing out two fund-raising appeals this week that boast of her Iowa showing and ask for the money to keep going. Her campaign, which was focused almost exclusively on Iowa, is now scrambling to organize for New Hampshire's leadoff primary. A back-to-school swing will, she hopes, win a spotlight on her plan for school safety and discipline. An anti-drug policy is due to follow. ``We'll draw a very, very clear line in the sand ... and force, if we can, a discussion with George W. Bush. If he chooses to remain silent, he gives Mrs. Dole a wide open field,'' strategist Tony Fabrizio said. She is moving up - from October to mid September - a kickoff from her hometown of Salisbury, N.C. And she looked ahead to a dizzy pace of 25 fund-raisers in the next 45 days. One Republican strategist close to her campaign said that when the next finance reports are filed Sept. 30 she'll need to bring her fund-raising tally to at least $5 million to remain a credible contender. She raised $3.5 million in the first six months of this year. Senator Dole said he was working the phones to raise money and to convert workers from the now-defunct Lamar Alexander campaign. Already, 10 of Alexander's Iowa organizers enlisted with Dole this week.