Bob Dole: Republicans 'can't be against everything'

Former senator and GOP presidential candidate Bob Dole has a message to his party: Stop being so inflexible and start compromising with Democrats.

Politico's Alexander Burns caught up with Dole, who is in the middle of a tour around Kansas. And though Dole had harsh words for Washington in general — he pined for the days when lawmakers could work together on big legislation — he had a particular criticism of his own party's recent recalcitrance.

"We can't be against everything," he told Burns. "We've got to have a forward-looking program, whether it's immigration, or foreign policy, or education," he said. "I just think there are some things we need to get done," he added, "and I think there are people on both sides, of good will, who would like to come together."

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Dole raises a fair point. There are some in the Republican Party who oppose out of hand anything President Obama supports, and who routinely buck their own party for not being even more isolationist. It's why the government shut down for two weeks in October, and why last year's Congress was the least productive, and least popular, in history.