Senate leader, presidential candidate Bob Dole dies at 98

Bob Dole, who overcame disabling conflict wounds to grow to be a sharp-tongued Senate chief from Kansas, a Republican presidential candidate after which a logo and celebrant of his dwindling era of World Struggle II veterans, has died. He was 98.

His spouse, Elizabeth Dole, posted the announcement Sunday on Twitter.

Dole introduced in February 2021 that he’d been recognized with stage 4 lung most cancers. Throughout his 36-year profession on Capitol Hill, Dole turned some of the influential legislators and occasion leaders within the Senate, combining a expertise for compromise with a caustic wit, which he usually turned on himself however did not hesitate to activate others, too.

He formed tax coverage, international coverage, farm and vitamin packages and rights for the disabled, enshrining protections towards discrimination in employment, training and public providers within the People with Disabilities Act. Right this moment’s accessible authorities workplaces and nationwide parks, sidewalk ramps and the sign-language interpreters at official native occasions are simply among the extra seen hallmarks of his legacy and that of the guy lawmakers he rounded up for that sweeping civil rights laws 30 years in the past.

Dole devoted his later years to the reason for wounded veterans, their fallen comrades at Arlington Nationwide Cemetery and remembrance of the fading era of World Struggle II vets.

1000’s of previous troopers massed on the Nationwide Mall in 2004 for what Dole, talking on the dedication of the World Struggle II Memorial there, referred to as “our remaining reunion.” He’d been a driving drive in its creation. “Our ranks have dwindled,” he stated then. “But if we collect within the twilight it’s brightened by the data that we’ve stored religion with our comrades.”

Lengthy gone from Kansas, Dole made his life within the capital, on the middle of energy after which in its shadow upon his retirement, residing all of the whereas on the storied Watergate complicated. When he left politics and joined a regulation agency staffed by outstanding Democrats, he joked that he introduced his canine to work so he would have one other Republican to speak to.

He tried 3 times to grow to be president. The final was in 1996, when he gained the Republican nomination solely to see President Invoice Clinton reelected. He sought his occasion’s presidential nomination in 1980 and 1988 and was the 1976 GOP vice presidential candidate on the shedding ticket with President Gerald Ford.