Richard Gephardt, Tom Daschle, Bob Dole.
Photo illustration by Slate. Photos by Steve Jennings/Getty Images, Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images, Stephanie Kuykendal/Getty Images.
One thing that American public servants of both parties agree on is, well, the importance of public service. That’s why Republican former Senate majority leader Bob Dole, Democratic former Senate majority leader Tom Daschle, and Democratic former House majority leader Dick Gephardt have teamed up on a wildly successful bipartisan initiative to educate American high school students about the origins and ongoing relevance of the Constitution and the Bill of Ri—
Wait, I’m sorry. That was the lead for a story I’m writing in an alternate universe that’s accessed by riding a talking unicorn through Candyland. In our universe, Dole, Daschle, and Gephardt have teamed up to take money from the apparently-quite-extensive Taiwanese lobbying initiative that preceded the infamous phone call between Donald Trump and Taiwanese president Tsai Ying-wen which is going to cause World Wars Three through Five. Dole told the Wall Street Journal in a piece published Monday that he’d helped arrange the call, and Politico now has more:
Dole, the only past Republican presidential nominee to endorse Trump before the election, briefed the campaign’s policy director, set up meetings between campaign staff and Taiwanese emissaries, arranged for Taiwan’s delegation to attend the Republican National Convention, and helped tilt the party platform further in the island’s favor, the disclosure released to POLITICO shows. He even arranged for members of Taiwan’s ruling party to take a White House tour, according to the filing.
“In addition to [Dole’s] Alston & Bird, Taiwan pays the firms of former Democratic Senate leader Tom Daschle, former Republican Senator Don Nickles, former Florida Republican Congressman Lincoln Diaz-Balart, and former House Democratic leader Dick Gephardt,” the article goes on to state.
Daschle and Gephardt’s work on behalf of Taiwan has been previously noted in other outlets, though I should clarify that there has been no reporting tying them specifically to the Trump-Tsai call. Neither of them appear to have commented publicly on the matter.
