Democrats Pull Health Reform Ad Featuring Bob Dole
The Democratic National Committee on Sunday scrapped an ad featuring former Senate Majority Leader and former Republican presidential candidate Bob Dole that portrayed him as favoring Democrats' health care plans, the New York Times reports.
Dole reportedly complained to the White House on Saturday night, arguing that while he believes there is currently an opportunity for reform, he is not supporting any of the current Democratic proposals. Dole is one of a handful of former Republican leaders who have endorsed the idea of reform without offering support for the legislation working its way through Congress.
On Saturday, former Republican Sen. Chuck Hagel released a statement through the White House, asking Congress "to put aside their narrow partisan differences" on health care reform because "we will fail our country if we do not succeed."
While these statements of support for reform may persuade some independent voters that the Obama administration is taking a bipartisan approach to health care reform, it is unlikely to make any different in Congress, where Republicans are already uniformly against the president's agenda, University of Virginia political scientist Larry Sabato told the Hotsheet.