At a memorial service Friday at the National Cathedral in Washington, D.C., President Joe Biden hailed his friend Bob Dole as “a genuine hero.”
“There's something that connects that past and present, wartime and peace, then and now,” Biden said in his eulogy for the the late Republican leader, who died over the weekend. “Courage, the grit, the goodness and the grace of 2nd lieutenant named Bob Dole, who became Congressman Dole, Sen. Dole, statesman, husband, father, friend, colleague, and a word often overused, but not here, a genuine hero.”
Lawmakers and loved ones gathered on Friday, one day after the late Kansas Senator lay in state at the U.S. Capitol, to say a final farewell to the Senate majority leader, presidential candidate and World War II veteran.
In 1945, Dole was gravely wounded in Italy in the waning days of World War II. His injuries left him with severely limited mobility in his right arm, and nearly cost him his life.
“Bob Dole was one of the greatest of the Greatest Generation, a patriot who always placed country above partisanship,” Washington National Cathedral Dean Randolph Hollerith said Friday. “This, then, isn’t goodbye, because in God’s story, death never has the last word."
Attendees at the ceremony included first lady Dr. Jill Biden, Vice President Kamala Harris and her husband, second gentleman Doug Emhoff, former President Bill Clinton, former Vice Presidents Dick Cheney, Mike Pence and Dan Quayle, Gen. Mark Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.
Biden acknowledged Dole’s widow, former North Carolina Sen. Elizabeth Dole: “It's been said that memory is the power to gather roses in winter. Bob left you with 45 years worth of roses of a life built and a love shared that’s gonna guide you through the difficult days ahead.”
“Jill and will always be there for you, as many others in this church will be, as you and Bob were always there for us in ways that nobody knows,” Biden pledged.
Dole was was first elected to represent Kansas in Congress in 1960, the beginning of a 36-year career on Capitol Hill which ended with him leading the Republican party in the Senate and becoming one of the most powerful and influential Congressional leaders of his era, forging numerous bipartisan compromises.
Prior to his tenure in the Senate, Dole represented a House district in the western part of Kansas, where he voted in favor of the Civil Rights Acts of 1964 and 1968, as well as the Voting Rights Act of 1965, despite his opposition to much of then-President Lyndon Johnson's "Great Society" domestic programs.
Dole shaped tax policy, foreign policy, fought for farm and nutrition programs and rights for the disabled, worked to establish protections against discrimination in employment, education and public services in the Americans with Disabilities Act. He was also a driving force to create a national holiday in honor of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
“We served together for 25 years,” Biden said. “We disagreed, but we were never disagreeable with one another.”
“I found Bob to be a man of principle, pragmatism and enormous integrity,” the president added. “He came into the arena with certain guiding principles. To begin with, devotion to country, to fair play, to decency, to dignity, to honor, to literally attempting to find the common good."
“He wanted government to work, to work for folks like him, who came up the hard way,” Biden added.
The president — a frequent traveler on Amtrak as he commuted between Delaware and Washington daily — told an anecdote about Dole drawing ire from his party for voting to fund the passenger rail service.
“My guess is he was asked why, why would you do that?” Biden said. “He says, 'It's the best to get Joe Biden the hell out of here at night.’”
Biden said that Dole “relished a good political fight” but always put his country first. The president said that the late Kansas lawmaker was “deeply” troubled by partisan divisions in the country.
“He understood that we're all part of something much bigger than ourselves, and he really did, I felt,” the president said. “He really understood it. And a compromise isn't a dirty word. It's the cornerstone of democracy. Consensus is requiring in a democracy to get anything done. That's how you get things done.”
Again, listen to Bob Dole's words, not mine,” Biden continued, quoting Dole’s final column for USA Today: “'I learned that it's difficult to get anything done unless you can compromise, not your principles but your willingness to see the other side. Those who suggest that compromise is a sign of weakness misunderstand the fundamental strength of democracy.’”
"In his final days, Bob made it clear that he was deeply concerned about the threat to American democracy — not from foreign nations, but from the division tearing us apart from within,” he added. “And this soul reminded us, and I quote, 'Too many of us have sacrificed too much in defending freedom from foreign adversaries to allow our democracy to crumble under a state of infighting that grows more unacceptable day by day.’”
“Bob was taking his final journey,” Biden said as he concluded his speech. “He’s sitting back now, watching us. Now it's our job to start standing up for what's right for America. I salute you my friend, your nation salutes you.”
In addition to the president, other speakers included former Kansas Sen. Pat Roberts, former Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle and Dole's daughter, Robin Dole.
"He stood up for minorities, he stood up for the elderly, he stood up for children, he stood up for people with disabilities,” Daschle said. “And boy, did he stand up for his fellow veterans.”
“Bob Dole knew that the greatest generation needed more than just recognition, they needed respect and renewal,” Roberts said, saying that without Dole, there would be no World War II Memorial in Washington.
“Thank you Lord for enabling us to live in a time and space that gave us the opportunity and privilege to live in the same time as Bob Dole,” he added.
"My dad was a giver, not a taker,” Robin Dole said in her moving eulogy. “He cared more about others than he did about himself. He told me he set a personal a goal to help a person each day.”
Robin Dole remembered her father as a “generous person.”
“He told me, he set a personal goal to help at least one person every day of his life,” she said. “Then he said, 'I'm not sure I've been able to meet my goal.' I said, 'dad, you've got to be kidding. Some days you help one person and other days you help 40,000 people. I think you've met and exceeded your goal.’”
“There is no one he helped more than me,” she continued. “He’s always been there for me, through thick and through thin. He always had my back, even when I made mistakes. And believe me, I made quite a few. He believes in giving second chances, and I know that firsthand. He was my rock.”
"I have had an incredible 67 years with my dad,” she said. “I’m so grateful. Not everyone gets that time."
“The last few years have been a gift to me,” she continued. “I'm grateful to have spent hundreds of hours talking to my dad. It was a wonderful experience.”
“My final words are the ones of Dwight D. Eisenhower: I believe in the future of the United States of America,” she concluded. “I love you, dad. I promise you will never walk alone.”
The Associated Press contributed to this report.