NATION’S LEADERS PRAISE DOLE FOR CIVILITY, COMITY
Beneath the dome of the Capitol he loved, Bob Dole was celebrated on Thursday for wit and grace, principle and persistence, but above all for civility and bipartisanship, in a subtle rebuke to a Republican Party that has changed much since Dole was its standard-bearer.
Addressing dignitaries of both parties gathered to honor the son of the Kansas Dust Bowl and a former Senate majority leader, President Joe Biden used Dole’s own words as a pointed message to adversaries whom he sees as drifting from the moorings of democracy itself.
“I cannot pretend that I have not been a loyal champion of my party, but I always served my country best when I did so first and foremost as an American,” Biden said, quoting what he said were Dole’s final words to the nation. “When we prioritize principles over party and humanity over personal legacy — when we do that, we accomplish far more as a nation. By leading with shared faith in each other, we become America at its best.”
Dole, who died Sunday at 98, became only the 30th known man to lie in state in the Capitol rotunda, its entryways draped in black bunting, his coffin set upon the catafalque built in 1865 to hold the coffin of Abraham Lincoln. One woman, Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, has lain in state in the Capitol, but her coffin was placed in National Statuary Hall, adjacent to the rotunda.
In a short ceremony, Sen. Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., was the only GOP member to eulogize Dole, whom he eclipsed in 2018 as the longest-serving Senate Republican leader. McConnell honored the man who had been grievously wounded in the Italian campaign during World War II as the last of the “greatest generation” to run for president, in 1996.
“Bob was blessed with long life to watch his legacy take effect,” McConnell said.
The Democrats who spoke — Biden, Speaker Nancy Pelosi of California and Sen. Chuck Schumer of New York, the current majority leader — all extolled virtues in Dole that they implied were lacking in his successors.
“The truth of the matter is, as divided as we are, the only way forward for democracy is unity, consensus — the only way,” Biden said. “May we follow his wisdom and his timeless truth and reach consensus on the basic fundamental principles we all agree on.”