Former 2-term Florida governor, U.S. senator opposed Iraq war
TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — Former U.S. Sen. and two-term Florida Gov. Bob Graham, who gained national prominence as chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee in the aftermath of the 2001 terrorist attacks and as an early critic of the Iraq war, has died. He was 87.
Mr. Graham’s family announced the death Tuesday in a statement posted on X by his daughter Gwen Graham.
“We are deeply saddened to report the passing of a visionary leader, dedicated public servant, and even more importantly, a loving husband, father, grandfather, and great-grandfather,” the family said.
Mr. Graham, who served three terms in the Senate, made an unsuccessful bid for the 2004 Democratic presidential nomination, emphasizing his opposition to the Iraq invasion.
But his bid was delayed by heart surgery in January 2003, and he was never able to gain enough traction with voters to catch up, bowing out that October. He didn’t seek reelection in 2004 and was replaced by Republican Mel Martinez.
Mr. Graham was a man of many quirks. He perfected the “workdays” political gimmick of spending a day doing various jobs from horse stall mucker to FBI agent and kept a meticulous diary, noting almost everyone he spoke with, everything he ate, the TV shows he watched and even his golf scores.
Mr. Graham said the notebooks were a working tool for him and he was reluctant to describe his emotions or personal feelings in them.
“I review them for calls to be made, memos to be dictated, meetings I want to follow up on and things people promise to do,” he said.
Mr. Graham was among the earliest opponents of the Iraq war, saying it diverted America’s focus on the battle against terrorism centered in Afghanistan. He was also critical of President George W. Bush for failing to have an occupation plan in Iraq after the U.S. military threw out Saddam Hussein in 2003.
Mr. Graham said Bush took the United States into the war by exaggerating claims of the danger presented by the Iraqi weapons of destruction that were never found. He said Bush distorted intelligence data and argued it was more serious than the sexual misconduct issues that led the House to impeach President Bill Clinton in the late 1990s. It led him to launch his short, abortive presidential bid.
“The quagmire in Iraq is a distraction that the Bush administration, and the Bush administration alone, has created,” Mr. Graham said in 2003.
During his 18 years in Washington, Mr. Graham worked well with colleagues from both parties, particularly Florida Republican Connie Mack during their dozen years together in the Senate.
As a politician, few were better. Florida voters hardly considered him the wealthy Harvard-educated attorney that he was.
Mr. Graham’s political career spanned five decades, beginning with his election to the Florida House of Representatives in 1966.
He won a state Senate seat in 1970 and then was elected governor in 1978. He was reelected in 1982. Mr. Graham got off to a shaky start as Florida’s chief executive and was dubbed “Gov. Jello” for some early indecisiveness. He shook that label through his handling of several serious crises.
Four years later, he won the first of three terms in the U.S. Senate when he ousted incumbent Republican Paula Hawkins.
Mr. Graham remained widely popular with Florida voters — winning reelection by wide margins in 1992 and 1998 when he carried 63 of 67 counties. In that latter election, he defeated Charlie Crist, who later served as a Republican governor from 2007 to 2011.
“He blew me out of the water, and I came to know even more so why during the course of the campaign,” Crist said Tuesday night. “I learned to respect him even more than I already had, and love him for the good, decent man that he was.”
House Speaker Emerita Nancy Pelosi called Mr. Graham “a patriotic American” and thanked him for his “distinguished public service.” She highlighted his work on the inquiry into 9/11 and said he “bravely opposed entry into the war in Iraq.”
“He brought his love for his family and for his state of Florida to the Senate, where he served with immense dignity and courage,” she said in a statement Tuesday.