Did Elizabeth Dole Promise Bob A Rose Garden?
Jim Nolan
01/06/99
So Elizabeth Dole has stepped down from the Red Cross to set her sights on the White House.
Can Viagra parties in the Oval Office be far off?
Liz Dole's likely entry into the year 2000 presidential sweepstakes raises the possibility of an intriguing twist to the traditional presidential couple.
It's not about whether a woman can be president -- but what about Bob?
You remember Bob. Bob Dole. The World War II hero. The Kansas senator with the clipped baritone delivery. The first politician in the family and the thrice-failed presidential candidate with the legendary Beltway humor.
Now imagine Bob hosting afternoon tea for senators' wives in the Rose Garden. Or cuddling up with inner city nursery school children to read "The Itsy Bitsy Spider." Or firing the White House travel office.
Could Bob hack being Mr. Elizabeth Dole? A White House husband?
"I think you'd need a very mature man," said Dr. Joyce Brothers. "Obviously Senator Dole is ... If he can come out and say he's using Viagra , that's a really secure man."
Shrinks, politicians with political spouses and acquaintances of the GOP power couple say the potential role reversal would present special challenges to the Doles, especially Bob.
"He is a traditional male carved out of granite," said Philadelphia psychologist Judith Sills. "He wanted [the presidency], he hungered for it. That kind of passion and ambition is not easily sacrificed to someone you loathe -- and to someone you love, it is an especially bitter pill."
"Every marriage has some element -- small or large -- of competition," Sills continued.
Elizabeth Dole's political star has continued to rise even after her husband's defeat in 1996. Meanwhile, Bob has comforted himself with the status of celebrity also-ran.
He stopped short of a stint in pro wrestling, but surfaced on the late-night night talk circuit, in Visa ads and as an unofficial Viagra ambassador to the impotent.
The title of "first man" almost begins to sound like a step up.
It's not so bad, said Ed Mezvinsky.
In 1992, the former Iowa congressman, former human rights ambassador to the United Nations and former Pennsylvania state Democratic chairman assumed the role of congressional spouse to his wife, former TV reporter Marjorie Margolies-Mezvinsky, who served Montgomery County.
"I'd recommend that anyone in that position have a strong self-image and feel they can be productive in their own right," he said. "You need proper family support and you can't be threatened by it."
"We married professional women," he noted. "We didn't marry women who were going to remain on the homefront. I knew what I was getting into."
Joan Specter sees Bob Dole "in a very supportive role and really happy and proud if she moves forward."
"It only becomes difficult for people when you don't know who you are," said the wife of Sen. Arlen Specter, a former city councilwoman. "When you do, it's wonderful advantage to have a partner who can help you."
She said Dole is "a terribly funny person, absolutely hilarious. I'm sure he would have a lot of one-liners."
Etiquette queen and presidential protocol expert Letitia Baldrige said the senator would officially receive no special treatment on invitations.
"It would read 'President and Mr. Dole,'" she said. Not senator. Just plain Bob.
But Dole "would not be patting babies on the head and having tea," Baldrige said. "He'd be off giving speeches to the education and business world.
"I think he'd get a kick out of it," she said.
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