Dole hailed as ‘genuine’ war hero, ‘patriot’ who triumphed in Senate
WASHINGTON — Bob Dole was honored Friday at Washington National Cathedral and the World War II monument he helped create as top leaders from both parties saluted the longtime Kansas senator’s ability to practice bareknuckle politics without compromising his civility.
Displaying a bipartisanship rare in modern government, politicians in office and out came together to pay homage to Dole’s hard-scrabble rise from wounded war veteran to Senate stalwart to three-time, unsuccessful presidential candidate.
“He could be partisan, and that was fine,” said President Joe Biden. “Americans have been partisan since Jefferson and Hamilton squared off in George Washington’s Cabinet. But like them, Bob Dole was a patriot.”
Joining Biden at the funeral service were members of Congress, Cabinet officials, three Republican former vice presidents and Bill Clinton, who beat Dole to win re-election as president in 1996.
“There’s something that connects that past and present, war time and peace, then and now,” said Biden, who touched Dole’s casket before addressing the service and mentioned their 50 years of friendship. “The courage, the grit, the goodness and the grace of 2nd Lt. Bob Dole, who became Congressman Dole, Senator Dole, statesman, husband, father, friend, colleague and — a word that’s often overused, but not here — a genuine hero.”
Dole, who died Sunday at 98, was severely wounded during World War II, served nearly 36 years in Congress and was GOP Senate leader for more than a decade. Besides his sharp, often sarcastic tongue, among Dole’s bestknown attributes were his pragmatism and self-deprecating wit — representing the sense of compromise of a bygone era.
While calling him a “giant of our time and of all time,” Biden said Dole was worried at the end of his life about American democracy being threatened by bitter political battles and had noted that infighting from both parties “grows more unacceptable day by day.”
Still, Democrats and Republicans coming together to praise Dole’s ability to put country and public service over ideology was the overriding theme.
Former Republican Kansas Sen. Pat Roberts said Dole used humor as a political tool, delivering deadpan punchlines which helped let “the air out of the partisan balloons.” Dole’s daughter, Robin, read a letter her father wrote to his staff in which he said “I believe in the future of the United States of America.”
After the funeral service, Dole’s casket traveled to the World War II Memorial on the National Mall, which opened in 2004 and which Roberts said would not have existed with Dole spending years spearheading the legislation that erected it.
“Bob Dole understood that it was just not enough recognition that this Greatest Generation deserved,” Roberts said. “It was reflection and renewal, and it was for the Greatest Generation to inspire the next generation.”
Addressing the crowd at the memorial, actor Tom Hanks asked, “How many structures in this city exist but for the efforts of one man?”
“It was Bob Dole who willed this memorial into place,” said Hanks, who starred in the World War II drama “Saving Private Ryan.”
The service ended with Gen. Mark Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff escorting Dole’s wife, former North Carolina Sen. Elizabeth Dole, as she and Robin touched a wreath in his honor, then bowed their heads in prayer as taps was played.
Dole’s body is also traveling to Kansas, where weekend events include a public viewing in his hometown of Russell. He will eventually be interred at Arlington National Cemetery.