Bob Dole knows a lot about losing presidential races, and is a lifetime member of the Senate Club. If there is anyone who connotes Republican Establishment more than Dole  (who won the GOP presidential nomination because… it was his turn), I can’t think of who that would be. So this, from the First draft blog of the New York Times, is hardly surprising.

Bob Dole, the former Kansas senator and 1996 Republican presidential nominee, has never been fond of Senator Ted Cruz of Texas. But in an interview Wednesday, Mr. Dole said that the party would suffer “cataclysmic” and “wholesale losses” if Mr. Cruz were the nominee, and that Donald J. Trump would fare better.

“I question his allegiance to the party,” Mr. Dole said of Mr. Cruz. “I don’t know how often you’ve heard him say the word ‘Republican’ — not very often.” Instead, Mr. Cruz uses the word “conservative,” Mr. Dole said, before offering up a different word for Mr. Cruz: “extremist.”

“I don’t know how he’s going to deal with Congress,” he said. “Nobody likes him.”

But Mr. Dole, 92, said he thought Mr. Trump could “probably work with Congress, because he’s, you know, he’s got the right personality and he’s kind of a deal-maker.”

With his trademark blend of honesty and clumsiness, Dole is telling the GOP base that if they want someone who will cut deals with the political establishment in Washington, avoid Cruz and back Trump. Yeah, that’ll work.