Commemorating Pearl Harbor with George H.W. Bush, Bob Dole
Ken Herman says 75 years ago, America saw one of its darkest days —and, even now, the hope and civility after seems so far away.
COLLEGE STATION — I went to College Station on Wednesday to see two old men. Both were in wheelchairs. One is 92, enjoys fancy socks and, at this point late in his life of service and sacrifice, continues to emphasize the positive.
The other man is 93, and, also having led a life of service and sacrifice, now is a foreign agent, in the headlines this week for representing a country with whom we have a complicated relationship (so complicated we don’t really call it a country).
The Wednesday event at the George Bush Presidential Library Center marked the 75th anniversary of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. Former President George H.W. Bush, 92, and former U.S. Sen. Bob Dole, 93 — distinguished members of the Greatest Generation that saved the world after one of its worst days — were among 29 World War II vets on hand.
Aaron Cook, 94, of Houston, was the only vet on hand who was at Pearl Harbor that day. And, like many of his generation, Cook didn’t sign up for the Navy in 1940 in anticipation of war.
“Oh no, no, no, no, no. We weren’t expecting war,” Cook said of his 1940 enlistment. “We just wanted something to do.”
But war is what they got, a war that brought many Americans of many different backgrounds together.
Bush, a child of Connecticut privilege, piloted a plane that was shot down. Dole, a child of a Kansas family that endured the Depression, suffered devastating injuries. Both went on to public service careers — including a 1988 GOP presidential nomination campaign in which Bush beat Dole — that ultimately ended with losses to Bill Clinton.
Bush has become a beloved ex-president, something possible because his political career ended at a time when the vitriol was nowhere near the toxic level we see today. Did some folks really, really not like Bush? Sure. But I don’t recall anyone hating him the way some folks hate their political foes today.
We don’t see Bush in public much these days. But, because it’s 2016, we hear from him on Twitter. And it’s always positive.
He recently tweeted a photo of himself with The Woodlands High School JV football team and praised Coach Dave Colschen for teaching that “respect and character are more important than winning.”
With a few seconds to play in a game this year, Katy Tompkins High School JV led Colschen’s team 29-28 with The Woodlands a yard from the winning touchdown. The game then was delayed for 40 minutes after a Tompkins player was injured. When the game resumed, Colschen had his team take a knee rather than try to score a game-winning TD.
“If we would have lined up and punched it into the end zone, do we celebrate?” he told the Houston Chronicle. “And if they stop us, do they celebrate? Their teammate is about to be Life Flighted. It just was the right thing do to.”
Bush liked that. Who doesn’t?
A day prior to that tweet, Bush shared a photo of himself with Patrick, a Secret Service agent’s son with whom Bush had taken a photo in 2013 when the ex-president had his head shaved in solidarity with the then-2-year-old in leukemia treatment.
“Incredibly thankful that my friend Patrick, the courageous young man (with hair!) to my left is feeling and doing much better these days,” Bush said in a tweet with a recent photo of him and the boy.
Bush and wife, Barbara, lost a daughter, Robin, to leukemia in 1953 when she was 4.
Dole has trod a different post-politics path. His appearance Wednesday came amid reports that, working for a lobby firm that represents Taiwan, he helped the effort that led to the recent phone conversation between Donald Trump and Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen, a breach of longstanding U.S. diplomatic policy that recognizes what we used to call mainland China as the only China.
Ari Fleischer noted this week that the China policy is so delicate that while he was President George W. Bush’s press secretary, “I wasn’t even allowed to refer to the government ‘of ’ Taiwan. I could say government ‘on’ Taiwan.”
Trump says the conversation was a mere congratulatory call from the Taiwanese leader. But The New York Times reported that Dole, representing Taiwan, worked behind the scenes for six months to connect his client with Trump staffers. Alston & Bird, the Washington lobbying firm for whom Dole works, got $140,000 from May through October for the work on behalf of Taiwan, according to disclosure filings.
Bush and Dole fought for and sacrificed for a lot, probably including the right of an American citizen to be an agent of a foreign country. And Dole’s entitled to a paycheck. But something about the concept makes me uneasy. Trump seems to agree. In a Tuesday speech, he reiterated his plan for a lifetime ban on lobbying for foreign countries by his top executive branch officials.
Bush didn’t speak at Wednesday’s event. Dole did when he accepted an award for his career of public service. He downplayed his current role in Washington.
“We got along and we got things done,” Dole said of he and Bush. “And he retired and I’m in a law firm and I go to work every day. Well, I show up every day. I don’t do anything. It kind of reminds me of serving in Congress.”
Let’s end with a positive note, again from Bush, who, soft heart aside, doesn’t waiver from deeply held conviction. In June, he tweeted a letter he got from a 5-year-old boy.
“My grama told me that me that you do not like broccoli and never want it served,” Cooper wrote. “I just want you to know that I love broccoli! I ate all of my broccoli and then ate my twin brother’s broccoli. Chase does not like broccoli either. Mr. President, broccoli is really good for you. I wish you liked broccoli like I do.”
Bush’s tweet: “Proud of young Cooper’s interest in healthy eating. His declared love of broccoli is genuine, if also unpersuasive.”
It seems so long ago that Bush made “kinder, gentler” his mantra. So long ago and so far away from where we are now.