Dole stands for final salute to Bush
Mournful crowds pay last respects to 41st president
WASHINGTON – Crowds of mourners continued filing into the Capitol Rotunda on Tuesday to pay respects to George H.W. Bush on day two of his lying in state.
Among them: Bob Dole, who saluted a fellow World War II veteran as he rose to honor Bush.
Dole, the 95-year-old former Senate majority leader, relied on an aide to help him stand on the floor of the Capitol before offering his gesture beside the casket of Bush, his onetime rival in the 1998 Republican presidential primary.
Bush’s spokesman, Jim McGrath, described the salute on Twitter as “a last, powerful gesture of respect from one member of the Greatest Generation, @SenatorDole, to another.”
The day also drew Colin Powell, his former Joint Chiefs of Staff chairman, and Sully, the yellow Labrador retreiver who worked as the former president’s service dog.
Sully’s main service these past months since Barbara Bush’s death in April had been to rest his head on her husband’s lap. Service dogs are trained to do that.
The CIA also honored Bush, the only spy chief to become president, as three agency directors past and present joined the public in the viewing.
In the midst of the period of mourning, first lady Melania Trump gave Laura Bush, one of her predecessors, a tour of holiday decorations at the White House, a “sweet visit during this somber week,” as Mrs. Bush’s Instagram account put it. And the Trumps visited members of the Bush family at the Blair House presidential guesthouse, where they are staying. Former President George W. Bush and his wife greeted the Trumps outside before everyone went in for the private, 20-minute visit.
Although President Donald Trump will attend Bush’s national funeral Wednesday, he is not among the eulogists announced by the Bush family, a list that includes George W. Bush. The others are Alan Simpson, the former senator and acerbic wit from Wyoming; Brian Mulroney, the former Canadian prime minister who also gave a eulogy for Ronald Reagan; and presidential historian Jon Meacham.
Mourners talked about what coming to see Bush lie in state meant to them. Andrew Bracy, 51, of Glendora, California, said he felt a “solemn sense of awe” as he entered the Rotunda.
“This was the time to pay our respects,” Bracy said when asked why he took a red-eye flight from the West Coast to view the flag-draped casket. “It just felt like the right time.”
Former Marine Virgil Gaiter, 50, was serving overseas in Operation Desert Storm when Bush met with some of the troops. He recalled how the commander in chief sat among them during the Gulf War and shared meals.
“He came and visited me in the desert, so I felt like I should come and pay my respects,” the Atlanta native said as he waited outside the Capitol building. “It made me proud he was there with us. He was another soldier sharing the burden with us.”
Democrats showed up as well to pay their respects to the former president.
“He had a great moral character,” said Melissa Crowshaw, 50, of Bethesda, Maryland, citing Bush’s work in passing the Americans With Disabilities Act, which became law in 1990.
Bush, 94, died late Friday at his home in Houston after a battle with Parkinson’s disease.