Partisanship decried

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Former President Bill Clinton comments on his friendship with Bob Dole during Clinton's speech at Allen Fieldhouse in Lawrence. About 12,000 people packed the venue for the first Dole Lecture sponsored by the Dole Institute of Politics.

INAUGURAL DOLE LECTURE

Former president stresses value of compromise

By Tim Carpenter

THE CAPITAL-JOURNAL

LAWRENCE --- Political odd couple Bill Clinton and Bob Dole agreed Friday that infantile partisanship was weakening the United States' ability to counter terrorism and deal with other national problems.

Clinton, the first Democrat re-elected president since Franklin Roosevelt, and Dole, his Republican Party rival in the 1996 run for the White House, said during a joint appearance at The University of Kansas that the country needs civilized debate and honorable compromise.

"As long as we don't have that, extremists will have more influence than they ought to and politics will be more divisive than it should be," Clinton said during the inaugural Dole Lecture sponsored by the Dole Institute of Politics.

Dole said a legacy of the institute that bears his name must be the dousing of searing rhetoric that undermines civility in public life. Consensus on complex issues is being buried by babble from conservatives and liberals, he said.

"What unites American patriots is much, much greater than what divides us as election-year partisans," Dole said.

Clinton said the political system was in distress and voters had to take it back from operatives who believe misleading direct mailings, confrontational pundits and nasty sound bites are what government is all about.

The 2000 presidential election showed that avoiding the ballot box solves nothing, he said.

"If you sat it out, you voted for whoever you didn't want to win," Clinton said.

Free lecture, free shirt

Clinton, president from 1993 to 2001, spoke for an hour to a crowd of 12,000 people who snatched up free tickets to the event in Allen Fieldhouse. The former president also took 10 minutes to shake hands and pose for photographs with dozens of admirers who approached the stage after the speech.

He received a KU basketball jersey from Jayhawk coach Bill Self before the lecture and followed the speech by appearing at a fund- raiser for the Kansas Democratic Party.

Clinton said that he had always been able to collaborate with Dole because both wanted to be among Washington's doers instead of the talkers.

"We always kept score by what we did, not by what we said," Clinton said. "You work hard, get the job done, you spread the credit around and you go on to the next project."

They joined forces to deal with missing persons in the former Yugoslavia and to raise money for college scholarships for the children who had parents killed in the Sept. 11 attacks.

Dole and Clinton teamed up for segments on "60 Minutes," but the clock was stopped when the duo wouldn't argue passionately.

"We wouldn't be mean enough," Clinton said. "That's true. They wanted us to say things we didn't believe. They wanted us to call each other names."

Founding Fathers

Clinton said American political debate had become ugly in the past 10 years because issues facing the nation were complex. Responding in this post-Cold War era to globalization and international terrorism - -- as well as questions about the proper role of government in the United States and growing racial, ethnic and religious diversity in this country --- isn't simple, he said.

Political strife in U.S. politics hasn't been this rough since the Founding Fathers wrestled with development of a national government, Clinton said.

"Those guys started us off and quit talking for 20 years. Why? Because when George Washington left the scene, who knew what America meant? While the matter was in doubt the partisanship raged," he said.

He said Americans must demonstrate mutual respect for the heritage, ethnicity, culture and religion of other people in ways that foster a more perfect union.

"That will do as much to undermine the long-term appeal of terrorism as anything else we can do," Clinton said.

Clinton said the United States needs a consensus strategy for dealing with terrorism and countries that seek weapons of mass destruction. Cooperation with other nations and organizations that support peaceful resolution of differences needs to be a priority of the federal government, he said.

Brown v. Board

Both national political figures mentioned the 1954 ruling by the Supreme Court in Brown v. Board of Education that signaled the end of school segregation.

Dole said Monday's 50th Brown anniversary reminded him that as a conservative Republican he sided with liberal Democrat Lyndon Johnson in the 1960s to promote voting rights legislation that removed obstacles to voting by black citizens.

"We were as one on the defining issue of our times for a simple reason," Dole said. "No first-class democracy can tolerate second- class citizens."

Clinton said greater integration of society would soften the edges of racism.

"We still have racism and we still have hatred," Clinton said in response to a question from a KU student. "We're going to get better on race because it's stupid not to."

He said representatives of both political parties shared blame for failing to end racial disparities in education, health care and criminal justice.

Humorous asides

Dole, who resigned his U.S. Senate seat in Kansas before running for president in 1996, spoke briefly before introducing Clinton. Dole couldn't resist a few slices of wit.

"It's always a pleasure to return to Lawrence, a great university, where I get more compliments and fewer votes than anywhere in Kansas," Dole said.

He jokingly blamed his loss in 1996 on the Clinton team's decision to continue "scheduling televised debates past my bedtime."

Clinton said he was growing weary of serving as Dole's straight man.

"I used to be funny before I was president," he insisted.

He thanked the audience for a standing ovation, adding, "I was looking at this crowd and the warm welcome, thinking how kind and generous Bob Dole is to arrange for 90 percent of my total vote in Kansas to come here."

The former president said finishing a book about himself, "My Life," in time for publication next month was a challenge. He was paid a reported $12 million advance, the highest amount ever for a work of nonfiction.

"It was hard enough to live with it the first time," Clinton said of scandals that dogged him in office.

Clinton said he was enjoying life after the presidency. He formed the William J. Clinton Presidential Foundation, which works to promote economic development, education, AIDS initiatives and reconciliation in troubled regions.

"The good news about no longer being president, you can say what you think," he said. "The bad news is, nobody cares anymore."

Tim Carpenter can be reached at (785) 295-1158 or tim.carpenter@cjonline.com.

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Clinton: Issues complex

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