From: WIENER.GCS@pc.gcs.litton.com (WIENER, DAN  x3708)
To: firearms-alert@shell.portal.com (wiener)
Subject: ALERT: Is Dole waffling?
Date: Wed, 12 Apr 95 12:46


     The front page of today's (4/12/95) Los Angeles Times carried
a story by Jack Nelson, the Times' Washington Bureau Chief, titled
"PLEDGE TO NRA OPENS RIFT IN DOLE CAMPAIGN".  Although we should
consider the source, and the possibility that the LA Times is
engaged in some deliberate misinformation, political manipulation,
or political revenge, we still need to beware.  Some excerpts:

     WASHINGTON--Senate Majority Leader Bob Dole's promise to the
National Rifle Assn. that he will work to repeal the law banning
assault-style weapons has created a rift among his supporters and
some associates say that the senator realizes he made a major
political mistake that could damage his presidential campaign.
     The Kansas Republican apparently did not consult many members
of his expansive circle of advisers before he made the vow in a
letter to the NRA a month ago in which he referred to "the ill-
conceived gun ban."
     One of Dole's major contributors, calling the senator's letter
to the NRA "just terrible," said: "Unfortunately, he always has
some persons representing the extreme right around him and they get
him in trouble.  He tolerates them to try to get the nomination."
     Another longtime Dole adviser who opposed the letter described
reaction this way:  "We all climbed up and down on him about it. 
Everybody gave him a bad time.  He realized it was a big mistake."
  .
  .
     Dole, campaigning in the Midwest, stood by his letter to the
NRA.  Through a spokesman, he reiterated his support for the rights
of gun owners.  But he did not comment on the rift among his
supporters or their comments that he now realizes he made a major
political mistake.
     "The senator thinks the letter speaks for itself," Nelson
Warfield, Dole's campaign press spokesman, said in a telephone
interview from Des Moines.

 - Dan Wiener (wiener@pc.gcs.litton.com)