Bob Dole's supporting role

By David M. Shribman, Globe Staff, March 30, 1999

WASHINGTON -- Bob Dole has a new campaign. He's running for First Gentleman.

The former Senate majority leader and 1996 Republican presidential nominee still thirsts for the White House. This time he'll settle for the East Wing -- and will be happy to choose the menu for state dinners, attend charity benefits and steer clear of the limelight and policy-making.

"It's pretty hard to put the First Gentleman in charge of anything," he said in an interview. "He didn't get elected. He's not accountable to the people. He'd be interfering . . . though I have to admit I'd feel a lot of temptation."

After one campaign for the vice presidency and three for the presidency, the former Kansas senator is boosting his wife, former Red Cross president Elizabeth Dole, for the White House. But he says he's also campaigning for something else. He's trying to win support for the idea that men ought to support their wives' career aspirations in the way that women have done for men for generations.

"It's been a one-way street until now," said Dole, 75. "Mostly the men get support from the women. But the men should support the women."

Dole has boosted his wife's political chances for years. As long ago as the 1984 Republican National Convention in Dallas, he spoke movingly about how the limelight would one day change its focus from Bob Dole to Elizabeth Dole. He ran for president twice more since then, of course, but now his greatest ambition is to support his wife's ambitions.

If she wins the White House, he said, "She'd make history -- and I'd be history."

"This is not Bob Dole trying to be president through the back door of the White House after not being able to be president through the front door," he said.

Though he seeks to be a role model for husbands, Dole acknowledges there are no role models for a male presidential spouse. "There's never been anything like this before," he said.

In the early days of the Elizabeth Dole campaign -- she's formed an exploratory committee but hasn't yet declared her candidacy -- Bob Dole has stayed in the background of the campaign. More accurately, he has been offstage -- and would plan on staying offstage if his wife won the White House.

"All I want is a driver and a car, something to toodle around town in," he said. "But I also want a beeper in case I get left behind after some state ceremony."

Governor George W. Bush of Texas was accompanied by his wife in his only major appearance in presidential politics, the announcement of the formation of his exploratory committee. Senator Bob Smith of New Hampshire was accompanied by his wife when he declared for president. But Elizabeth Dole appeared in Iowa and New Hampshire without her husband. He also does not appear in her promotional video.

"I have the same obligation to be supportive as a woman might have to be supportive of her husband," Dole said. "I've tried to stay out of the formative stages of the campaign -- I've not interviewed anybody for a job -- because I have to be in the background. This would not be Bob Dole's campaign."

The two Doles seldom campaigned together in 1996, and when they did the differences in their styles were clear. The husband is informal, the wife formal. The husband seems reserved, the wife seems open. But in truth, the husband is spontaneous, the wife scripted. On campaign planes, the husband took naps. The wife read.

After losing to President Clinton, the retired senator joined the powerhouse law firm of Verner, Liipfert. He has made several advertisements, continued to raise money for charities, become an outspoken voice on prostate cancer and erectile dysfunction, and has been an envoy to the Balkans. When the NATO attack on Yugoslavia began, Defense Secretary William Cohen called Dole to brief him on the military objectives.

He's now ready for yet another slight adjustment in his role.

"I've been doing this -- taking orders -- for 25 years," he said. "The only difference is that I'd be doing this in the White House."

Dole believes the time has come for a female president, in part because the public has grown so impatient with male politicians. "Remember," he said. "Only 50 percent of the people voted in 1996, and they had to choose among three men."

Not that being First Gentleman would be an easy job. "It would be a lot of work -- dinners, lunches, meetings of the Cabinet wives," he said. "I'd have to take up knitting. And maybe I'll run for Senate from Massachusetts."