I don't think he'd be any different than the rest of the Republican Party if he were younger and still active in the party. It's not really about character at this point: even the people who've shown signs of having some kind of ethical compass or remnant decency are bending the knee to the ascendant spirit of cruelty, corruption and unabashed anti-democracy. If they're not bowing, they're being chased out of the party. Dole was a survivor: he'd be going where the party is going; he did go there in 2016. That's the thing: the current GOP is obliterating any sense that the personal qualities of a politician matter even slightly.
Nicely written and all true but for the one thing you left out that counts a lot for me: He supported and endorsed Trump. For me, that erases quite a lot of what he did as a civil politician. I will always honor his military service and his enormous strength to not let his life be defined by his injuries yet I don't understand why he betrayed his principals by supporting a maniac.
I met Bob Dole in 2008 in Raleigh, NC. Senator Dole was a gentleman- though a Republican, he was respected by many Democrats. I had recently lost the North Carolina Democratic US Senate primary to challenge his wife Elizabeth("Liddy") in the general election when he and I met. He could not have been nicer; Senator Elizabeth Dole and I became friendly shortly hereafter.
Funny story. Elizabeth Dole told me about how awkward Bob Dole was in asking her out on their first date. They met following his divorce in ca. 1973. Senator Dole called her thereafter. “Liddy, it was nice to meet you” he said. “Well thank you, Senator” she replied in her syrupy southern drawl. He hung up. A week or so later he called again and asked if she might want to have dinner, one night, to which she responded "I'd love to Senator." He just hung up again. A week later he called her and they finally set a date.
He arrived at the appointed hour to pick her up at her apartment in Washington and she was running late. While she primped in the bedroom she called out to him to check out an article from that day’s Washington Post which was resting on the coffee table in her parlor. A Post reporter had profiled the work she was doing as assistant for consumer affairs in the Nixon White House. When she stepped into the parlor, he put the paper down and looked up at her. She expected a compliment, but he snapped “You’re a what?”!
She was a Democrat. A holdover from the Johnson Administration who had campaigned for JFK in 1960. As their relationship became more serious she became an Independent, and eventually a Republican like him.
Bob Dole was part of what journalist Tom Brokaw dubbed “The Greatest Generation” of Americans. As you noted- left for dead on the battlefield during World War II and subsequently hospitalIzed for three years recuperating from his injuries. He couldn’t use his right arm- he carried a pen which he clasped in his right hand wherever he was just to keep people from grabbing his arm . He was 85 years old when I met him but looked and acted much younger. He was a youthful eighty-five.
And let's not forget that in his mid-70s Bob Dole became the pitchman for Viagra. He was reportedly paid $6 million yearly by Pfizer, but really brought visibility to and broke barriers around discussing erectile dysfunction. I know a hell of a lot of men- gay and straight- who are thankful that Bob Dole always managed to find a way to get up in the face of adversity ;-).
I don't think he'd be any different than the rest of the Republican Party if he were younger and still active in the party. It's not really about character at this point: even the people who've shown signs of having some kind of ethical compass or remnant decency are bending the knee to the ascendant spirit of cruelty, corruption and unabashed anti-democracy. If they're not bowing, they're being chased out of the party. Dole was a survivor: he'd be going where the party is going; he did go there in 2016. That's the thing: the current GOP is obliterating any sense that the personal qualities of a politician matter even slightly.
Nicely written and all true but for the one thing you left out that counts a lot for me: He supported and endorsed Trump. For me, that erases quite a lot of what he did as a civil politician. I will always honor his military service and his enormous strength to not let his life be defined by his injuries yet I don't understand why he betrayed his principals by supporting a maniac.
Me too Claire.
I met Bob Dole in 2008 in Raleigh, NC. Senator Dole was a gentleman- though a Republican, he was respected by many Democrats. I had recently lost the North Carolina Democratic US Senate primary to challenge his wife Elizabeth("Liddy") in the general election when he and I met. He could not have been nicer; Senator Elizabeth Dole and I became friendly shortly hereafter.
Funny story. Elizabeth Dole told me about how awkward Bob Dole was in asking her out on their first date. They met following his divorce in ca. 1973. Senator Dole called her thereafter. “Liddy, it was nice to meet you” he said. “Well thank you, Senator” she replied in her syrupy southern drawl. He hung up. A week or so later he called again and asked if she might want to have dinner, one night, to which she responded "I'd love to Senator." He just hung up again. A week later he called her and they finally set a date.
He arrived at the appointed hour to pick her up at her apartment in Washington and she was running late. While she primped in the bedroom she called out to him to check out an article from that day’s Washington Post which was resting on the coffee table in her parlor. A Post reporter had profiled the work she was doing as assistant for consumer affairs in the Nixon White House. When she stepped into the parlor, he put the paper down and looked up at her. She expected a compliment, but he snapped “You’re a what?”!
She was a Democrat. A holdover from the Johnson Administration who had campaigned for JFK in 1960. As their relationship became more serious she became an Independent, and eventually a Republican like him.
Bob Dole was part of what journalist Tom Brokaw dubbed “The Greatest Generation” of Americans. As you noted- left for dead on the battlefield during World War II and subsequently hospitalIzed for three years recuperating from his injuries. He couldn’t use his right arm- he carried a pen which he clasped in his right hand wherever he was just to keep people from grabbing his arm . He was 85 years old when I met him but looked and acted much younger. He was a youthful eighty-five.
And let's not forget that in his mid-70s Bob Dole became the pitchman for Viagra. He was reportedly paid $6 million yearly by Pfizer, but really brought visibility to and broke barriers around discussing erectile dysfunction. I know a hell of a lot of men- gay and straight- who are thankful that Bob Dole always managed to find a way to get up in the face of adversity ;-).