Former US senator Bob Dole was yesterday to lie in state at the US Capitol, as US President Joe Biden and others were to gather to pay tribute to an “American giant” who served the country in war and in politics with pragmatism, self-deprecating wit and a bygone era’s sense of common civility.
Biden was expected to offer remarks at the morning ceremony with invited guests and US congressional leaders in the Capitol Rotunda for the former Republican senator and presidential contender. Dole, who served nearly 36 years in Congress, died on Sunday at the age of 98.
“For those like me who had the honor of calling him a friend, Bob Dole was an American giant,” Biden said in a Wednesday speech in Kansas City, Missouri.
Photo: AP
Biden, a Democrat, called Dole, a Republican, “a man of extraordinary courage, both physical and moral courage, a war hero who sacrificed beyond measure, who nearly gave his life for our country in World War II, among the greatest of the great generation.”
The service would be the first of several in Washington commemorating Dole’s life and legacy. Yesterday’s event at the Capitol and today’s funeral at the Washington National Cathedral are closed to the public. Dole’s funeral would be livestreamed today at the World War II Memorial on the National Mall, and his motorcade is expected to stop at an event with actor Tom Hanks honoring his life and military service before the casket travels to his Kansas hometown and the state capital.
US House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi said Dole was a “patriot from the start” and an “exemplary person to serve with in Congress.”
“He served at a time when there was mutual respect, even though disagreement on many issues, across the aisle, across the Capitol,” Pelosi said on Wednesday. “I found him to be a man of his word. Everybody did.”
Black draperies hung on doorways under the Capitol dome in preparation for the service. A lectern was positioned in way that the statue of another Kansas statesman, former US president Dwight Eisenhower, would likely be seen in the background behind the day’s speakers.
US Senator Mitch McConnell, now the longest-serving Republican senate leader, said that Dole idolized Eisenhower, calling the former general a hero who embodied “the finest qualities of the American people.”
“We can say with certainty that Eisenhower isn’t the only Kansan who meets those standards,” McConnell said in a speech earlier this week.
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