NYTimes: Bob Dole Worked Behind the Scenes on Trump-Taiwan Call

[spanone]

WASHINGTON — Former Senator Bob Dole, acting as a foreign agent for the government of Taiwan, worked behind the scenes over the past six months to establish high-level contact between Taiwanese officials and President-elect Donald J. Trump’s staff, an outreach effort that culminated last week in an unorthodox telephone call between Mr. Trump and Taiwan’s president.

Mr. Dole, a lobbyist with the Washington law firm Alston & Bird, coordinated with Mr. Trump’s campaign and the transition team to set up a series of meetings between Mr. Trump’s advisers and officials in Taiwan, according to disclosure documents filed last week with the Justice Department. Mr. Dole also assisted in successful efforts by Taiwan to include language favorable to it in the Republican Party platform, according to the documents.

Mr. Dole’s firm received $140,000 from May to October for the work, the forms said.

The disclosures suggest that President-elect Trump’s decision to take a call from the president of Taiwan, Tsai Ing-wen, was less a ham-handed diplomatic gaffe and more the result of a well-orchestrated plan by Taiwan to use the election of a new president to deepen its relationship with the United States — with an assist from a seasoned lobbyist well versed in the machinery of Washington.

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/12/06/us/politics/bob-dole-taiwan-lobby-trump.html

[boston bean]

1. Wish he would have stuck with Erectile Dysfuction pill peddling.

[putitinD]

2. Bob Dole, I thought he was dead

[MFM008]

9. He is

..........

[RazBerryBeret]

3. geez, first Dick Cheney

and now Bob Dole? it's like a nightmarish deja-vu.... Names I hoped to never hear again.

[raging moderate]

4. So the Republicon old guard DID want Trump in office.

All that faux rage of theirs a few months ago was just a smokescreen. This whole thing was engineered. We need to ask ourselves, What are they engineering now?

[Baitball Blogger]

7. 9/11 Redux, here we come.

This is why the behind the scenes of 9/11 should have been explored publicly They are doing the same shit!

[Renew Deal]

5. That explains why Dole was always so positive about Trump

It never made sense.

[Johonny]

10. Well, and Dole is a raging racist too

Given the state Dole is in. I think we can imagine this is more foreign governments greasing the weak areas of the GOP wheel in a form of influence peddling. I'm sure the lesson mainland China learned is...these guys are bought rather cheap so don't worry too much about their bluster.

[Baitball Blogger]

6. Holy tight-leotard-in-the-crotch Batman!

We are so fooked!

[Zorro]

8. Dole has always been an asshole

No surprise here.