Bob Dole: “I want to explain why I was necessarily absent from the June 13 vote on the confirmation of R. Hewitt Pate to be an…”

“I want to explain why I was necessarily absent from the June 13 vote on the confirmation of R. Hewitt Pate to be an Assistant Attorney General for Antitrust. At the time the vote took place, I was speaking to the Flue Cured Tobacco Stabilization Corporation, a group of more than 500 North Carolina tobacco farmers, in Raleigh, NC. My attendance at the event was important in order to listen to the major concerns of our State's tobacco farmers, as well as to address one of North Carolina's top priorities, a tobacco quota buyout, which is critical to the livelihood of all tobacco farmers and the economic security of our State. Had I been present, I would have voted for Mr. Pate.”