Dole’s death evokes nostalgia for a bygone era smeared by Trump’s GOP
Although Dole’s career as a horse business legislator stands in stark contrast to the Republican success of the previous decade, he was a relatively early ally of candidate Donald Trump when then, endorsed him in May 2016, even if the other old lions of the party disapproved, and was one of the few who attended that year’s GOP convention in Cleveland. One of the main driving forces of the Americans with Disabilities Act 26 years earlier, Dole decided to side with a candidate who publicly mocked a disabled reporter. To the best of judgment, Dole appears to have misunderstood or underestimated the anti-democratic agenda of the right-wing movement that currently dominates Republican politics.
The danger for Republicans in the face of a backlash from Trump has complicated business on Capitol Hill, where Congress is facing a series of year-end challenges GOP lawmakers are facing. push or refuse to help resolve.
Only eight senators have remained in office since Dole implemented the Republican standard into the 1996 presidential election, when he was defeated by incumbent Democratic President Bill Clinton. On Sunday, Clinton was among the senior members of his party to pay tribute to a former rival.
“Bob Dole has dedicated his entire life to serving the American people, from his heroism during World War II to his 35 years in Congress. After all he’s served in the past. the fight, he didn’t have to give more. But he made it,” Clinton tweeted. “His example should inspire people today and for generations to come.”
Established Republicans were full of praise, while Trump said the GOP “has become stronger because of his service.” Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, the Kentucky Republican who took over the leadership position Dole once held, is particularly popular.
“No matter how political they may be, anyone who has witnessed Bob Dole in action must admire his character and profound patriotism,” McConnell said in a statement. “A bright light of patriotic good cheer ignited all of Bob’s boyhood battle heroes through his entire career in Washington in the years since.”
McConnell, who promised during his 2020 re-election campaign to be the “god of death” facing Democratic policy proposals if Republicans keep a majority (they don’t), welcomes Dole, among other things, “a great bipartisan achievement” – a particularly sharp irony given the deadlock on the Hill right now.
Similar China policy has been passed in the Senate, cross-party, but the House has yet to act. Republicans and Democrats said adding the amendment now to the NDAA would violate the constitutionally mandated process requiring such actions to originate in the House, where Speaker Nancy Pelosi pledged concludes that a version is currently being worked on.
Ugly rhetoric from today’s GOP
In previous generations, like Dole, these were seen as issues to be solved outside of the partisan arena. But the politicization around these issues can really be seen as some of the more tame fighting taking place in Congress.
In the House, Democratic leadership is once again pondering how to respond to a cowardly attack by a Republican on one of its members, with Republican Representative Lauren Boebert of Colorado repeatedly suggested that Democrat Representative Ilhan Omar of Minnesota was a terrorist.
“She didn’t have a backpack, she didn’t drop it and was running so we were fine,” Boebert added, over the laughter and applause of the crowd making her remarks a little hard to hear. .
“I think it’s important for us to speak this kind of language, this kind of hate for the House,” Omar said. “We should punish and punish Boebert by stripping her of her committees, by reprimanding her language by doing everything we can to send a clear and unequivocal message to the public.” America that if Republicans will not become adults, and condemn this, that we will.”
McCarthy similarly signaled that he would not take any significant steps to rebuke Boebert, who said on Twitter, “I apologize to anyone in the Muslim community I offended by the comment. I have reached out to her office to speak to her in person. There are a lot of policy differences to focus on without causing unnecessary distractions. this set.”
The conversation between Boebert and Omar did not go well. The Democrat said she hung up Boebert after she “refuses to publicly acknowledge her hurtful and dangerous comments” and then “doubling down on her rhetoric. “
Speaking to Tapper, Omar takes aim at McCarthy, questioning his honesty and willingness to confront members like Boebert, a far-right favorite of the GOP.
“McCarthy is a liar and a coward,” Omar said. “He is incapable of condemning the kind of perverse Islamophobia and anti-Muslim rhetoric being trafficked by a member.”
In the Washington Dole left behind, the GOP leadership’s acceptance of this kind of dangerous language is closer to the norm than the “norm” of older politicians of both parties, including Biden, now through. Whether Dole saw it coming or not, he and many others failed to stop the situation. That his famous 2018 salute in front of the coffin of the late President George H.W. Bush, his political rival for decades, struck such a nerve underlines the complexity of a man. he, so unlike Trump in that moment and other times, saw fit to support him on two campaigns.
Still, there were notes of grace on Sunday for Dole, whose 10th Mountain Army courage and sacrifice were unquestionable, along with praises for his work. He in Congress, among other things, supported a bill that enhanced Social Security in the early 1980s.
“From his brave service abroad & in Congress, to his outspoken support of our veterans and the creation of the World War II Memorial — Senator Bob Dole is an American hero in every sense,” said Democratic Senator Raphael Warnock of Georgia, who posted politics as senior pastor of Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta. “May God grant peace to his family and all those across our country who loved and knew him.”