BY AGENCY REPORTER
FORMER Senator Bob Dole, a Kansas lawmaker and decorated World War II veteran who never realized his ambitions to win the presidency but left an indelible mark on the nation’s capital and history, died Sunday. He was 98.
Dole died in his sleep, according to an announcement from the Elizabeth Dole Foundation.
For all his accomplishments, Dole wanted to be remembered for his service – particularly as a soldier who lost the use of his right arm on the battlefield in Italy. He described to Fox News in May 2013 how he wanted to be remembered: “Veteran who gave his most for his country.”
As a politician, Dole was a major force in the Republican Party for three decades. That service began in 1971, when he was its national chairman, and culminated in 1996, as the GOP presidential nominee in an election lost to Democrat Bill Clinton. Until 2018, Dole held the record as the Senate’s longest-serving Republican leader, a post he held for nearly 11 years.
Late in life, Dole was hospitalized from time to time at Walter Reed National Military Center with a variety of ailments. In February, Dole announced he had lung cancer.
He maintained a low public profile in recent years, although Dole was the lone former presidential nominee to attend the 2016 Republican National Convention.
Dole reflects on polarization: ‘I do believe we’ve lost something’
In the early part of his career, Dole was known for his acerbic wit and sharp partisanship, but in an interview with USA TODAY’s Susan Page in July, he said some of his proudest accomplishment were bipartisan deals. He and New York Democratic Sen. Daniel Patrick Moynihan forged a compromise to extend the solvency of the Social Security system in 1983. Dole worked with Sen. Ted Kennedy, a Democrat from Massachusetts, to pass the Americans with Disabilities Act in 1990.
Dole said in the interview that he worried about the country’s polarization.
“I don’t like to second-guess, but I do believe we’ve lost something,” he said. “I can’t get my hand on it, but we’re just not quite where we should be, as the greatest democracy in the world. And I don’t know how you correct it, but I keep hoping that there will be a change in my lifetime.”
Dole’s political career spanned what came to be called “the American century,” and he played a role in many of its pivotal moments. He fought – and lost the use of his right arm and nearly died – in World War II, helped pass landmark civil rights legislation in the 1960s and later spearheaded a bill to make Martin Luther King Jr.’s birthday a national holiday.
– USA Today
