Dole urges Limbaugh to go easy on McCain

Bob Dole, the war hero, former US senator, and Republican presidential nominee, is urging Rush Limbaugh to lay off John McCain a little.

The talk show host has been laying into McCain for weeks, telling listeners that if McCain is the nominee, it would devastate the Republican Party.

"I think right now Romney probably -- as the campaign has coalesced and as the campaign has progressing on down the highway -- I think the one candidate of the three still out there on our side … who more closely embodies all three legs of this conservative stool, you'd have to say that it's Mitt Romney," Limbaugh said today on his show. "There's actually no choice in the matter. It certainly isn't Senator McCain."

"Rush, I have not seen you in a long time but I do hear you frequently and I know that you have serious reservations about Senator McCain," Dole writes in the letter, provided by the McCain campaign.

Dole goes on to say while he disagreed with McCain's votes against President Bush's tax cuts and McCain's campaign finance law, McCain has been a loyal Republican on a host of issues, including abortion, gun owner rights, a balanced budget, and national defense.

"McCain is a friend and I proudly wore his P.O.W. bracelet bearing his name while he was still a guest at the 'Hanoi Hilton.' I believe our major candidates are mainstream conservatives and that our nominee will address our concerns by keeping taxes low, reducing corporate taxes, protecting and assisting the vulnerable, strengthening our traditional values, and above all, keeping America strong militarily, whatever the cost," Dole writes. "Whoever wins the Republican nomination will need your enthusiastic support. Two terms for the Clintons are enough."