[Congressional Record Volume 168, Number 21 (Wednesday, February 2, 2022)]
[Senate]
[Pages S490-S492]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                       REMEMBERING ROBERT J. DOLE

  Mr. MORAN. Mr. President, today former majority leader and Kansas 
Senator Bob Dole was buried at Arlington National Cemetery.
  On December 11, 2021, Senator Dole's hometown of Russell, KS, said 
their final goodbyes to their favorite son and celebrated his life.

[[Page S491]]

  I ask unanimous consent that the remarks I gave that day be printed 
in the Record.
  There being no objection, the material was ordered to be printed in 
the Record, as follows:

       All of my political life, I've had to follow Bob Dole and 
     Pat Roberts. It's a challenge and they have a sense of humor 
     and wit that I have never been able to replicate, and they 
     have big shoes to fill that are impossible to accomplish.
       Never in my time in public life, and therefore in any 
     portion of my life, have I felt more nervous, less capable, 
     of delivering a message. But it is an important one, and I'm 
     honored so much, so privileged to be able to speak in this 
     setting. I am delighted that our minority leader, the 
     Republican leader of the Senate, and his wife Elaine are with 
     us.
       From day one, Mitch has said ``I will be in Kansas.'' I ask 
     him, ``so did you have a relationship with Bob Dole, did you 
     like him?'' To which he said, ``Jerry, I voted for him five 
     times. When I arrived in the United States Senate, there was 
     a leadership election going on and it took five ballots to 
     elect Bob Dole, the majority leader, and I did it one, two, 
     three, four, five times.''
       Then he went on to say what I think is the important point 
     of that story. He said, ``I was a new staffer for a new 
     Senator when Bob Dole was in the Senate, and I was leaning 
     against the back wall of the U.S. Senate and the only one of 
     those five candidates who ever visited with me was Bob Dole. 
     And I repaid the favor for him paying attention to somebody 
     he had no necessity of talking to by voting for him. And he 
     became the majority leader, as I understand it, by one 
     vote.''
       It tells us a story about Mitch's loyalty, but it tells us 
     a story about Bob Dole. You may remember, I don't know if 
     it's done these days, but there used to be polls of people 
     who worked in the Capitol. The question was, ``who's your 
     favorite Senator; who the politest person is; who's 
     respectful . . . Bob Dole every time.'' To the elevator 
     operator, the person who drives the train, to the staff up 
     and down the halls, Bob Dole was their favorite.
       And Senator Kassebaum, I am delighted you're here. There 
     are many people who appreciate and long for the days in which 
     Bob Dole and Nancy Kassebaum were their Senators. Those were 
     days of glory for Kansas because we were represented so well.
       There's lots of Dole alumni in this room, people whose 
     lives were affected by the fact they worked for Bob Dole, 
     therefore they worked for Kansas; they worked for Americans. 
     They have done so many good things in their life, and they 
     come to pay respect to their mentor, the person that gave 
     them a chance, who brought them from Kansas to the nation's 
     capital and changed their lives.
       Chaplain Black, I certainly appreciated what you said 
     yesterday at the National Cathedral, but what you said today 
     in St. Mary's in Russell, Kansas, is meaningful. This is a 
     place in which you can preach the gospel, the gospel of 
     salvation, and people are receptive. And Elizabeth Dole, we 
     have so many things we could compliment you on in your public 
     service, your service to the United States Senate, your 
     service to the cabinet. But I have no doubt that the ability 
     for Chaplain Black to say, ``a brother in Christ'' has a lot 
     to do with your relationship with Senator Dole. And there is 
     no better thing that could be said today. All the accolades 
     about Bob Dole's life are irrelevant until you get to the 
     point that the Chaplain made: ``my brother in Christ.''
       ``. . .We rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering 
     produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and 
     character produces hope. . .'' (Romans 5:3-4).
       I travel Kansas a lot and there are so many stories about 
     Bob Dole. Each of us, we'd love to tell them. . .I've 
     suggested that we ought to get a group together, get a cup of 
     coffee, have a sandwich and just tell Dole's stories.
       Bob Dole is the first United States Senator I ever met. My 
     home town of Plainville neighboring county knew of him, but 
     then the first Senator I ever had the chance to shake a hand 
     with. And I have been in awe of Bob Dole for 52 years since 
     then. I know him personally, but I know him from the way 
     Kansans talk about him. The way they express their views 
     about what he did for them, what he meant to them, how 
     important he was to them. If there is a role model in public 
     service, isn't it about getting to the point in which people 
     say `you meant something to me'? I hope those days are not 
     passed in which the connection between elected officials and 
     the people they represent are about what we've done to make 
     their lives better.
       My story with Bob Dole begins when he was serving our 
     nation in uniform in the spring of 1945. Not me, but in the 
     spring of 1945, a worried mother, Bina Dole called my 
     grandma. My grandparents lived south of here on the Russell-
     Barton county line. The way it was described to me, the 
     conversation took place on a party line and Mrs. Dole was 
     asking my grandmother, ``could you please ask your son to see 
     what happened to Bob in the battlefields of Italy?''
       My dad was also serving in Italy. He was serving in the 
     Army and she hoped she expressed this hope to my grandmother, 
     my dad's mom that maybe my dad could learn something about 
     what happened to Bob Dole and how he was doing and what his 
     chances were. My dad took leave and made the effort to find 
     Bob Dole only to discover that he had been transported, 
     evacuated out the day before. He missed seeing him by a day.
       I walked out of church last Sunday, a week ago tomorrow, 
     only to learn the news of Senator Dole's passing. And I want 
     folks to know that every time that I think about Bob Dole, I 
     think of Russell. I think of places like Russell. Towns like 
     Russell, some a little bit bigger, some a little bit smaller 
     dot our state.
       In each of these towns, there are differences of opinions. 
     There are Republicans and there are Democrats. There's people 
     who go to this church or that church. But you know, when it 
     comes to communities in Kansas--communities like Russell--we 
     set aside our differences and try to solve problems. Maybe in 
     a place like Russell, you could actually have a kid who grew 
     up in the Kennedy Methodist Church have his funeral service 
     in St. Mary's Catholic Church. Maybe you could actually have 
     the Methodists and the Lutherans singing in the choir 
     together.
       I've tried to explain this to my colleagues in Washington, 
     D.C. more than once, but there is something about small towns 
     where we still get along, and get along well enough to solve 
     our problems. Less so, unfortunately, in the nation's 
     capital. We respect our neighbors. We see them in the grocery 
     store, and we see them at the football game on Friday night, 
     and if we fought among ourselves all the time like sometimes 
     national politics exhibits today, our towns would be a thing 
     of the past. It's only that community working together that 
     keeps the place alive. And we put our hands over our heart 
     when the flag goes by, and we love our country.
       Following the attack of December 7th, 80 years ago this 
     week, the values Bob Dole learned growing up in Russell led 
     him to sign up and swear an oath to protect and defend our 
     nation. In the fall of 1944, Lieutenant Dole shipped out, and 
     on April 14th of the next year, 1945, on a battlefield in the 
     hills of Italy, his life almost ended. He began here in 
     Russell and almost ended in a place he probably never 
     envisioned ever seeing--some set of hills and some country 
     called Italy. And sadly, his injuries occurred three weeks 
     before the war came to an end. Those injuries he suffered 
     were horrific, and they were permanent, but he survived. He 
     endured a long road to recovery. Three years of healing, 
     therapy, rehabilitation still left him with a severely 
     paralyzed right arm.
       As we've heard Senator Dole wanted to be a doctor. He was a 
     great track star in Russell and at the University of Kansas. 
     But after that event in 1945, his life, even the basic tasks 
     of living, they were not the story of a track star or a young 
     man who saw stability in being a doctor in a small town. His 
     dreams were crippled.
       All of us grow up with dreams; his were shattered on one 
     day. He endured these disabilities throughout his life. You 
     could never see and talk about Bob Dole without knowing the 
     experience of his disability which he never let be one. It 
     took us a number of times to figure out in my life, 
     particularly as a teenager, ``how do I get to shake Bob 
     Dole's hand, how does this work?'' He lived with these 
     disabilities and rather than asking for help; he decided to 
     commit his life to offering help. His disabilities developed 
     his character. It developed an empathy for other people, and 
     he turned his adversities into public service. His 
     circumstances altered the course of his life, leading him to 
     Congress where he championed bills to provide hope, hope to 
     people like him. There may be no more important thing that 
     any of us can give anyone else, maybe with the exception of 
     what the Chaplain offers, but the hope. And maybe what the 
     Chaplain offers is hope.
       In addition to his World War II service, Senator Dole's 
     character developed due to his upbringing here in Kansas, 
     here in Russell, Kansas. His family and this community 
     endured the Dust Bowl and the Great Depression. In Russell, 
     you could feel and see the challenges, the obstacles, the 
     barriers that were put in people's lives--nothing was easy. 
     He wanted to be a doctor because it looked to him like the 
     doctor was the only one who had a stable income . . . Roger.
       Even after Bob Dole became a household name across the 
     country, he always returned to Russell. Following his 
     injuries, he returned to Russell. After receiving the Vice 
     Presidential nomination, he and the President came to 
     Russell. The three presidential campaigns, he came to 
     Russell; I went to Iowa, three times on a bus, as lots of 
     Kansans did. After the death of Kenny, his brother, he came 
     to Russell. In 1996, members of his hometown gathered here to 
     celebrate his birthday just after he had been defeated by 
     Bill Clinton.
       Though a national leader, he would always be a son of the 
     Kansas plains. This is what Bob Dole said: ``The first thing 
     you learn on the prairie is the relative size of a man 
     compared to the lay of the land.'' The Chaplain talked about 
     our distances, the sky, the horizons. ``The first thing you 
     learn on the prairie is the relative size of a man compared 
     to the lay of the land and under the immense sky where I was 
     born and raised, a man is very small, and if he thinks 
     otherwise, he is wrong.'' This place where many of us call 
     home is a place that puts us in perspective.
       Russ Townsley, who Senator Roberts mentioned, the former 
     Publisher of the Russell Daily News, wrote regarding Senator 
     Dole's decision to make his announcement to run for President 
     from a stage in Russell. The national media was making fun of 
     this kind of thing, ``why would you announce your Presidency 
     in Russell? You're going to carry Russell County.'' And here 
     is what Russ Townsley had to say: ``Skeptics ask what

[[Page S492]]

     Bob Dole can hope to gain from this public show of 
     professionally staged rally. And this is where skeptics find 
     themselves traveling blind. There is no need to look for 
     ulterior motives for there are none. Dole and his town gained 
     from each other while one draws on unseen reserves that have 
     nurtured him from childhood, the other grows strong from the 
     aura reflected from his image of leadership and stature by 
     the other.''
       To the people of Russell, to the people of Kansas, thank 
     you for the manner in which you have shaped, treated, 
     respected a man now so worthy of our admiration. This town 
     should be so proud because none of us come from places and 
     become anything but from what we came from. We never escape; 
     we don't become somebody different than where our roots lie.
       We mourn our man, Bob. It can feel like the sun is setting 
     on both a man and the Greatest Generation that he embodied. 
     Bob Dole, perhaps the greatest man of the Greatest 
     Generation.
       On Thursday, I stood in the Rotunda of the United States 
     Capitol as Senator Dole lied in State. He was on a platform, 
     incidentally that President Lincoln laid on upon his death. 
     Only 33 people have lied in State in that Rotunda. Your 
     hometown boy, Bob Dole, is one of them. The statue of his 
     hero, his commanding general, Dwight D. Eisenhower, looks 
     over that room and looked over all of us as we gathered to 
     pay tribute to Bob Dole. I have debated whether to express 
     concern, always be optimistic, but I am worried. I'm 
     concerned if America, ever again, will experience the 
     civility, the bravery, the empathy, the character of people 
     like President Eisenhower and Senator Dole. What happens when 
     the greatest generation is absent?
       But, I am relieved--I wrote in my notes `think,' but I 
     think the word is `know.' I'm relieved to know that Bob Dole 
     would disagree. Bob Dole would disagree with my worry.
       Bob Dole was a man of hope--hope for recovery, hope for 
     those disabilities to have full access to the world around 
     them, hope that no child would go to bed hungry, hope that 
     every veteran would receive the care and benefits they 
     deserve, hope that the aged would live their remaining years 
     with dignity. In the 1996 comments from the senator on the 
     Senate floor as he left the United States Senate for the last 
     time, as a senator he said, ``I agree with the prairie 
     poet,'' he was speaking of Carl Sandburg, ``who said, 
     `yesterday, is a wind gone down, a sun dropped in the west, I 
     tell you that there is nothing in the world only an ocean of 
     tomorrows; only a sky of tomorrows. And like everybody here 
     I'm an optimist, and I believe our best tomorrows are yet to 
     be lived.' ''
       My hope is that the life of Senator Bob Dole will be 
     remembered--carried on in towns across America, the hearts 
     and minds of here and around the world. Brave enough to find 
     freedom worth defending and in the halls of our government 
     where there is a new generation. Where that new generation, 
     like Senator Dole, will help make tomorrow better for their 
     fellow citizen.
       I started my remarks by sharing how much Bob Dole meant to 
     Kansans. This week, we're also reminded how much Bob Dole 
     meant to Americans. One of the places Senator Robert's 
     mentioned, the World War II Memorial. We saw this week 
     thousands of people gathered to pay their respects to Bob 
     Dole at the World War II Memorial. You see it every day, 
     hundreds of Americans, veterans, their families, citizens who 
     respected and admired their service they're there at the 
     World War II memorial to say, ``thanks.''
       I did mention earlier as I described my first connection to 
     Senator Dole, but the first time I heard the story of my dad 
     searching for Bob Dole in Italy was when my dad told the 
     story to Bob Dole because my dad was on an honor flight at 
     the World War II Memorial. My dad in his early 90s, Senator 
     Dole in his 80s, just two old veterans talking about the 
     past. That memorial that Senator Dole gave us creates a point 
     in which we all come together and it helps change lives now, 
     today, and in the future. Senator Dole had this memorial 
     built in honor of veterans like my dad, and because of that 
     we will be reminded of the service and sacrifice for 
     generations to come across the nation.
       When I get frustrated with things in the nation's capital, 
     I'll walk down to the Lincoln Memorial and on that trip, I'll 
     go by the World War II memorial, I'll go by the Vietnam Wall, 
     and see the Lincoln Memorial and come back by the Korean War 
     Memorial. I was there one day, this was right before the 
     World War II Memorial opened and I found the Kansas pillar 
     and I stepped away from the memorial and used my cellphone to 
     call my dad. This is something that this memorial does, 
     because I would never tell my dad this in person. I wouldn't 
     voluntary say what I said to my dad that day and fortunately 
     for me I got the answering machine so it was not a problem to 
     leave a message. But I said, ``Dad, I'm at the World War II 
     Memorial. This memorial was built in your honor, and dad I 
     want you to know: I thank you for your service; I respect 
     you, and dad, I love you. That memorial caused that 
     conversation to occur, which probably was not ever going to. 
     Incidentally, I was walking back to my office and my 
     cellphone rings and I answer it. It's my dad's voice and he 
     says, ``Gerald?'' I said, ``yes?'' and he said, ``you left me 
     a message, but I couldn't understand it. Would you repeat 
     it?''
       Across the nation, people will remember Bob Dole for 
     campaigns and presidential races and service to the Senate 
     and legislation passed. I will always remember Bob Dole as 
     the serviceman. The person who sacrificed so much, for the 
     rest of us, in the military. And we'll always remember his 
     roots.
       David Rogers, who covered Congress for The Wall Street 
     Journal, traveled to Russell in 1988 and he said, ``Like the 
     outcroppings of bleached stone in the prairie grass, there is 
     a hardness to this land, and it shows in Russell's native 
     son, Senate Majority Leader Robert Dole.'' Pat mentioned he 
     spoke to the high school class graduation in 1986 and Senator 
     Dole said--of his own powerful ambition to chase flat 
     horizons and grasp the dreams that lie beyond--he said, ``The 
     horizon is out there somewhere, and you just keep chasing it, 
     looking for it, working for it . . . to make your mark not 
     only on Kansas but America.''
       Bob Dole suffered; he endured, and he developed character 
     that gave him and us hope.
       I'm honored to serve in the Dole seat in the United States 
     Senate and use the Dole desk where I see his name etched into 
     the bottom of the desk drawer every day. It reminds me of the 
     man who went before me, and that each of us, each of us can 
     chase the horizon and make our mark on Kansas and the 
     country.
       Bob Dole has reached his final horizon. He promised us he'd 
     be sitting up above us; he's watching. And he said he'd be 
     full of optimism and hope. CJ Mahoney, who was my first 
     intern in the House of Representatives--a Russell native--
     sent me a comic, a cartoon that appeared in some nation's 
     paper today, and it teared me up this morning. The cartoon is 
     Bob Dole standing in front of the pearly gates and he's 
     talking to St. Peter. And the caption is ``For the first 
     time, Bob Dole can again salute his country with his right 
     arm.'' Isn't that something that is to celebrate?
       Robert J. Dole gives us hope for a brighter and better 
     tomorrow. We say, ``thank you.'' I can't say it to my dad, 
     Bob Dole, and I can't say it to you, except in this symbolic 
     way. But we can say it to all those who served our country. 
     We say this today, ``Senator Dole, I respect you, I thank you 
     for your service, and we love you.'' Thank you.

  (At the request of Mr. Cramer, the following statement was ordered to 
be printed in the Record.)

                          ____________________