6-4-25

We are already in campaign mode again….Alabama, and much of the rest of the

nation will be hearing from candidates who will be vying to serve and lead in the

Senate, the Governors office, and more…..and we need to be thinking about what

kind of person we want for each role…..and I say look at character along with

resume…..it brought to mind one of the men that I admired for his character…..A

few years ago Republican icon Senator Bob Dole passed away at the amazing age

of 98……I couldn’t help but reflect on a few personal touches in my life from

Senator Dole…..not too personal really, no way he knew who I was…..but he was

one of those few members of the political stratosphere that I somehow felt

connected to from afar…..from his status as a wounded combat veteran…..a small

town guy who served in his state legislature….I was there to hear him speak once

at a rally in Gadsden Alabama……and then there was his interaction with my own

father…….my Dad was a big fan of Bob Dole, and worked in his campaign for the

Presidency…..somehow it all weaves together into a fabric of familiarity that

made him more identifiable than the many others who serve in DC that I read

about often…..and at every turn I admired what I saw and heard…..

I’m sure that there are detractors…..always are….and I’m sure that there were

policy points at some level that I may have disagreed with …….but his honor and

reputation remained intact throughout all of his years of service….I looked up his

military record once……a bronze star for valor and two purple hearts for wounds

sustained in Italy in WWII as he tried to rescue one of his men under fire…..the

wounds he sustained that day caused doctors to tell him that he would be

paralyzed for life and initially he was from the neck down…..he lay on the

battlefield for nearly a full day waiting to be evacuated and spent several years

and many surgeries regaining the use of most of his body…..I say most because he

never fully got his right arm back and was known for years in DC for his left-

handed handshake……

In the conference room at my law firm is a beautifully framed limited edition

sketch of the White House…..it was presented to my father after working on the

national Republican Presidential Task Force when Senator Dole became the GOP

candidate for President…….he lost that year to Bill Clinton but the grace, the

poise, the sense of humor that he exhibited in the wake of the loss was evident in

many follow-up interviews…..including going on Saturday Night Live a week after

the election to poke fun at the late Norm MacDonald who had been

impersonating him throughout the campaign. …..the videos are still out there

…..you should check them out……epic!

Bob Dole was a man who knew hardship and never let it keep him down…..he

fought for his country and when he became so feeble that he could not stand he

had an assistant help him to his feet so that he could stand and salute the casket

of his once rival but then best friend George H. W. Bush…….. my father was

speaking with Dole once after losing the presidential election…..my Dad asked

him what he was going to do next…..”Phil” he said, “did you know that of all the

monuments in DC that there’s not a single one built to honor the veterans of

WWII? I’m going to make sure that happens”…..and he did. I read that even up

until he died at 98 years old….he could often be found in his wheelchair at the

entrance to the National Monument to WWII veterans greeting veterans as they

arrived and thanking them for their service…..

So as I prepared for today I thought about what it would mean if we had more like

him and I did some research as I always do ……in the course of resourcing the

show I came across an article printed in the Kansas City Star that was so good that

I thought that I should devote part of today’s Rightside Way to just reading what

his hometown thought of him…….because if your hometown loves you that says

something….and Russell, Kansas loved Bob Dole…..so here we go……

Russell, Kansas, the hardscrabble, wind-strewn town on the railroad tracks out in

the middle of the state where the Doles put down roots. Dole’s hometown

propelled him high and far to become the most significant politician in Kansas

history, save for Dwight Eisenhower. The town molded him and then stood by him

through all those campaigns, …He was dashing, handsome, articulate, certain of

his views. But there was a time when Bob Dole was something else — a World

War II veteran so shaky about his future that he doubted he had one. Torn up by a

barrage of bullets on an Italian hillside just days before war’s end, Dole had to

relearn how to eat, how to dress and how to write. And he did this not with his

natural right hand, but awkwardly with his left. His right arm would be mostly

useless the rest of his life, and Dole would come to appreciate people, such as

President Bill Clinton, who would reach out with their left hands for a shake.

………………….There’s a story from those days that involves a cigar box. Chet

Dawson from the old Main Street drugstore where Dole worked as a soda jerk in

high school started a collection for Dole’s hospital bills. He grabbed an empty

cigar box, attached a “Dole Fund” label and placed it on the counter. The

donations came in nickels, dimes and quarters. Banks pitched in. The total

reached $1,800, a big sum at the time.

The surgeries came in waves. A doctor transplanted tendons from Dole’s leg to his

right shoulder. A chunk of scapula was removed, and muscles in Dole’s neck were

reconnected to his right arm. “Dr. K” also helped him understand something that

Dole was loath to accept, which was that he would be partially disabled the rest

of his days. Dole had wanted to become a doctor, but that dream was gone now

replaced by a nightmare he couldn’t shake. Dole worried that he’d wind up an

invalid …… That fear, it’s been said, became the jet fuel that pushed Dole onward,

year after year, race after race. “I don’t remember when it started,” Dole said

once on “60 Minutes.” “But one day you get up and say … ‘Let’s start thinking

about the future instead of the past and maybe Bob Dole can do something else.”

He was raised by twin maxims: Money isn’t everything and if something is worth

doing, it’s worth doing right. The Doles lived on the wrong side of the tracks, but

Doran and Bina Dole worked nonstop, endured the terrors of the Dust Bowl and

raised four good kids. As a boy, Bob Dole delivered newspapers and mowed

lawns, then at 13 got the job at Dawson’s where he honed his trademark wit at

the soda counter. He went on to become a state lawmaker, Russell County

attorney, congressman, senator and the chairman of the Republican National

Committee. ……Hard work became Dole’s calling card. “I guess I was very

competitive anyway and even after the disability I was more competitive,” Dole

….. “I was trying to prove to myself that I could still make it, still do it.”

President Gerald Ford shot Dole into national prominence by picking him as his

1976 running mate at the Kansas City GOP convention. In what would become a

pattern, Dole kicked off his campaign in his old hometown in front of old friends.

More than 10,000 people were said to be in the crowd that August day when the

president of the United States and the Doles mounted the stage in front of the

courthouse where Dole had toiled. With the smell of hot dogs in the air, Dole told

the crowd he never imagined that one day he’d be on a national ticket. “But it

shows you can come from a small town in America, and you don’t need all the

wealth and the material things in this world to succeed, …Dole said. “I want to re-

emphasize: If I’ve done anything it’s because of people I’ve known up and down

Main Street. And I can recall the time when I needed help, the people of Russell

helped. “ Dole halted mid-sentence. His left hand flew up to cover his face. The

crowd silenced. And Bob Dole cried. He sobbed so hard, in fact, that his shoulders

shook. A few claps and cheers came from the crowd. Then President Ford stood

up and started to applaud, and the crowd joined in, and for a full half-minute they

cheered and shouted and whistled. “That was a long time ago, and I want to

thank you for it again,” Dole said. Eleven years later, he was back again running

for president in what would be his best shot at the White House. This time on a

frigid November 1987 day, Bub Dawson, Dole’s old friend from the drugstore,

presented Dole with the same cigar box once used to collect the $1,800 for those

hospital bills. This time the box contained $100,000”

Bob Dole was the kind who never forgot where he came from……and the folks in

his hometown have never forgotten him.

Now listen….as we hit the campaign season….think about what kind of person you

want representing you…..the resume might be great….but what KIND of person

are they…..Bob Dole was not just one of a kind…..there’s more out there….and he

proved it doesn’t take having everything to do something if you have character….

And that’s a wrap for the Rightside Way!