WASHINGTON: Bob Dooley prepares himself to run again after crippling war wounds, ran for Congress, was damaged for a right-handed handshake, and a long run through the Senate ranks The serving Republican leader and became a tough and tireless champion of his party.
He embodied the determination to succeed.
Yet Dole, who died on Sunday at the age of 98, was most famous for his short time.
He was the vice-president’s running mate in President Gerald Fords after the Watergate defeat and has himself sought the presidency three times. He came closest in his final race, securing the 1996 Republican nomination only to be steamrolled by President Bill Clinton’s reelection machine.
Dole later said that he had come to appreciate defeat and victory: they are part of the same picture that is the picture of a fulfilling life.
Representing Kansas in Congress for nearly 36 years, Dole was known on Capitol Hill as a shrewd and practical legislator who was trusted to broker compromises across party lines. He exerted tremendous influence on tax policy, agricultural and nutrition programs and the rights of the disabled.
Colleagues also admired his deadpan intelligence. Dole wasn’t a big deal; He was most comfortable communicating through a string of zingers and sharp edges.
However, those qualities rarely surfaced on the national political stage.
Initially, Democrats dubbed him the GOP’s hatchet man, and Dole was born to play the role. His voice was hoarse, his face rocky, his delivery prairie-flat, even while giving a pinch. He could sound harsh, or bitter, or just plain mean when he hit out at political opponents.
With each presidential pursuit, Dole made a renewed effort to soften his public persona. At least he can’t pull it off until he’s out of politics forever.
Just three days after he finished with a heavy loss in his final race, Dole was making the cut on late night TV with comedian David Letterman.
Letterman greeted him cheekily, Bob, what have you been doing lately?
Apparently not enough, Dole replied with a grin.
The new Chipper Dooley parodied himself on Saturday Night Live, wrote two collections of political humor and made a surprise commercial for the anti-impotence drug Viagra, at a time when sexual problems were not so openly discussed.
Dole later said that people were always coming to tell him that they would vote for him in 1996, if he had been so free and funny in his presidential campaign. But he felt that voters preferred seriousness and restraint in their politicians.
He said you have to be very careful with humour. It must be self-deprecating or it can be terminal, fatal, if you’re slurping on someone else out there, and I’ve learned over the years.
Out of office, Dole remained dedicated to helping disabled veterans and honoring those who have fallen. He was a driving force in getting the World War II memorial built on the National Mall. In his 90s, Dooley still made regular appearances on Saturdays to greet veterans at the memorial.
In September 2017, Congress voted to award Dole his highest expression, the Congressional Gold Medal, for distinguished contribution to the nation. In 2019, it promoted him from captain of the army to colonel.
His announcement in February 2021 that he had been diagnosed with stage 4 lung cancer drew a flood of sympathies, prayers and well wishes from across the political spectrum. President Joe Biden visited Dole’s home on the storied Watergate complex shortly after Dole’s critical diagnosis; The White House said they were close friends.
Dole was born on July 22, 1923, in Russell, Kansas, a small farmer and oil community. His father ran a cream and eggs business and sold illegal whiskey during Prohibition. The family of six had been battling depression and the Dust Bowl for years. They were so broken that they moved into their basement and rented out the rest of the house.
In 1943, Dole, a 6-foot-2 Kansas University basketball player, left for war with dreams of becoming a doctor.
Army Second Lieutenant Dole was leading an attack against a German machine gun nest in Italy when enemy fire hit his spine and right arm. He nearly died, and spent three years enduring multiple operations and painful physical therapy.
Dole had to re-learn how to walk and bathe and write, this time with an awkward left hand.
He never used the spirit in his right hand and hand or his left thumb and forefinger, which made it difficult to button the shirt or cut its flesh. Nevertheless, Dole earned a law degree from Washburn University in Topeka, Kansas in 1952.
To avoid embarrassing those who tried to move his right hand, he grabbed a pen in it, and reached out with his left hand.
I try harder, he once said. If I hadn’t been sitting in a rest house, in a rocker, drawing handicapped.
This was unquestionably part of his motivation to persuade Congress to provide protections against discrimination against people with disabilities in employment, education and public services.
Today, sign language interpreters at accessible government offices and national parks, sidewalk ramps and official local events are some of the more visible hallmarks of his legacy and fellow lawmakers rounded up for that civil rights law 30 years ago.
Dole became a Kansas legislator and county attorney, won a US House seat in 1960 and moved to the Senate in 1968. His mentor, President Richard Nixon, would send Dole to the Senate floor to attack critics of the Vietnam War and at odds with other senators. white House.
Nixon rewarded him with a term as chairman of the Republican National Committee, including the duration of the Watergate break-in. Dole, free of any complicity, loved to quip, I was off that night.
His aggression brought Dole his first major break in national politics.
Ford chose Dole as a running mate who could fend off verbal attacks while the president stayed on high ground. Dole probably handled the mission with a lot of vigor.
He stunned an audience of nations by declaring all of the 20th-century Democrat wars that had killed or wounded enough Americans to populate Detroit.
Dole later said that he was sorry to make a comment that hurt many and did not reflect his own views as a veteran. In that campaign, Dole said, I had to go for the juggernaut. And I did mine.
In the Senate, Dole began to see the value of forming alliances with Democrats, and it became a lifelong habit. He worked closely with Democrats to maintain civil rights, expand food stamps, increase Social Security, and make the Martin Luther King Jr. federal holiday, as well as passing the Americans with Disabilities Act.
As chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, Dole received praise for his handling of the 1982 tax bill, which raised revenues to reduce the budget deficit. However, some fellow Republicans were intimidated by higher taxes. Rep. Newt Gingrich, R-Ga. called him the tax collector for the welfare state.
Still, Republicans made Dole the majority leader in 1984, and he held his party’s top Senate position for more than 11 years, a record until Kentucky Mitch McConnell broke it in 2018.
Doles’ 1980 bid for the presidency was short-lived. In the 1988 primary, he won the Iowa caucus before losing to George HW Bush in New Hampshire, where Dole looked into a TV camera and said that Bush should stop lying about my record.
Troubled by the defeat, he still used it to make fun of himself. The next day in New Hampshire, I went home and slept like a baby, he said. Every two hours I woke up and cried.
By the time his turn came in 1996, Dole was 73 years old, making him the oldest person to run against one of the youngest presidents.
Dole tried to turn the 23-year age gap to his advantage, portraying himself as a soldier of the Greatest Generation against an undisciplined Baby Boomer who avoided serving in Vietnam. But he could not bridge a clear charismatic gap with Clinton.
Clinton won 31 states, dole 19.
Doles’ first marriage to an occupational therapist, Phyllis Holden, whom he met while recovering from the wounds of war, divorced in 1972. They had a daughter, Robin. In 1975 he married Elizabeth Hanford, a Nixon appointee who later became a senator with presidential ambitions of his own. The match is over.
In 2014, when asked what he hoped would be his legacy, Dooley spoke of hard work for the people of Kansas, and couldn’t resist mixing in a pinch.
Dole said that I lived for 200 years, then 91. Or at least 100. And that I never forgot where I was from.
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Cass is a former Associated Press writer. AP writer Jennifer C. Kerr contributed to this report.
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