Dole remembered as ‘genuine hero’
WWII vet, Senate stalwart honored at funeral for his courage, grace and civility
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 losing civility.
With a bipartisanship all-too-rare these days, politicians in office and out came together to pay homage to Dole’s hard-scrabble rise from wounded war veteran to Senate stalwart to presidential candidate. No matter that he lost his bid for that office – repeatedly.
“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 and Republican former Vice Presidents Mike Pence, Dick Cheney and Dan Quayle. Bill Clinton, who beat Dole to win reelection as president in 1996 and was recently hospitalized for an infection unrelated to COVID-19, was also onhand.
“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 age 98, was severely wounded during World War II, served nearly 36 years in Congress and was GOP Senate leader for more than a decade. In February, he announced he’d been diagnosed with stage 4 lung cancer.
Besides his sharp, often sarcastic tongue, among Dole’s best-known attributes were his pragmatism and selfdeprecating 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 today’s 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 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.”
Dole’s casket later traveled to the World War II Memorial on the National Mall for a public tribute featuring Gen. Mark Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and actor Tom Hanks. Roberts noted during the cathedral service that, “Without Bob Dole, there would not be a World War II memorial.”