Former Senator Bob Dole thinks the 1996 presidential election would have gone differently if he had evidence of Bill Clinton's relationship with Monica Lewinsky (via Glenn Thrush):

Dole's speech, as is usually the case, wandered over various subjects -- presidential humor, his own career, Social Security reform, and Monica Lewinski, who was Dole's neighbor for a time in the Watergate complex in the 1990s.

“If I'd had little wiretap there, I could've been president,” Dole said, adding: “I never had..... a conversation with that lady.”

Now, here's what's interesting about that: Bob Dole knows that during the 1996 campaign, the Washington Post spiked an article about Bob Dole having an affair. And shortly after the Post spiked that article -- an article Dole aides considered a “mortal threat” to his campaign -- Bob Dole was running around the country, accusing the media of being biased against him and in favor of Clinton.

Given that Dole knew the Post had just spiked a story about his own affair, it's hard to believe he actually thought the media was biased against him. He was just doing what conservatives do: Reflexively and dishonestly attack the media.

The fact that Dole now says that he'd have won in 1996 if he had evidence of Clinton's affair further illustrates how insincere his criticism of the media was. After all, you have to be pretty sure the media is on your side to think that if only you had evidence of your opponent's affair, you'd have won -- all while knowing that the media covered up your own affair.