Remembering Bob Dole

Former Senate Majority/Minority Leader Bob Dole, the Republicans' nominee for Vice President in 1976 and for President twenty years after that, died this last Sunday at the age of 98. Sunflower Stateback Saturday remembers the World War II veteran and longtime Senator from Kansas with a smattering of the editorial cartoons I've drawn of him over the decades.

A few trigger warnings here: I disagreed with Senator Dole on a very wide range of issues, so my cartoons of him are not particularly flattering of him. The following is more obituary than eulogy. For the most part, I have avoided the harshest of my cartoons. But Mr. Dole was known for his sense of humor and was not above a little self-deprecation — witness the subtitle of this book of his —so I hope I have chosen some that would have elicited, if not a chuckle, at least a wry smile from him.

Cover art by Barry Bliss

A second trigger warning: one of these cartoons includes some offensive language, including a term that got another cartoonist in trouble this week. None of those offensive words were put in Senator Dole's mouth, however. (Psst. If you think that using racism and homophobia to criticize racism and homophobia makes me racist and homophobic, just skip the cartoon shaded in red.)

Now then. To start off, here's the earliest cartoon of Senator Dole in my files:

Unpublished, March, 1978

This isn't the first cartoon I ever drew of Bob Dole; I'm quite certain that I drew one or two of him while he was President Gerald Ford's running mate in 1976. Any earlier cartoons I drew, however, were left behind during a trip to Minneapolis. In fact, I think this is a redrawing from memory of one of the lost cartoons.

General Omar Torrijos, by the way, was the military leader of Panama in the 1970's. Conservative Republicans and Democrats objected to the U.S. turning the Panama Canal over to Torrijos's leftist government, but the Senate approved the two treaties in March and April, 1978, 68 to 32.

in UW-Parkside Ranger, February 25, 1988

When he joined the Republican ticket in 1976, Dole gained a reputation as Gerald Ford's "hatchet man." The most memorable of his attack lines was during his debate with Walter Mondale, deflecting a question about President Ford's pardon of Richard Nixon by characterizing World War I, World War II, the Korean conflict, and the war in Vietnam as "Democrat wars." Not a particularly funny line, I suppose, but on the other hand, nobody was discussing that pardon the next morning.

Dole was among the many Republican presidential also-rans in 1980, and threw his hat in the ring again to succeed Ronald Reagan in 1988. In those days, Republican presidential nominations tended to go to the man when the party faithful felt it was "his turn"; in 1988, the Vice Presidential nominee who had been on a successful ticket took priority over one on a ticket that fell short.

in UW-Milwaukee Post, September 11, 1995

It took another eight years for Dole's turn to come around, and in the twenty years since he was last on a presidential ticket, the Republican Party had begun some significant changes. It had taken in a bunch of States' Rights Southern Democrats; and after eight years of Ronald Reagan, there was no limit on how far to the right candidates could go and still be taken seriously.

in UW-M Post, February 26, 1996

As far some in the party were concerned, years in congressional leadership were not an asset but a liability; Pat Buchanan and other fresher faces derided Dole with the nickname "Beltway Bob" and accused him of being too old to become President. At 73, Dole was four years older than Ronald Reagan had been when elected — but five years younger than Joseph Robinette Biden would be in 2020.

in UW-M Post, September 19, 1996

More durable than the slings and arrows of Pat Buchanan, Lamar Alexander, and the rest of the lot was Norm MacDonald's impersonation of Dole on Saturday Night Live. Gruff, broken sentences. Referring to himself by name.

Dole was a good sport about it, however, appearing on the show and telling MacDonald, “Believe me, Norm. Running for president doesn’t always keep you in the front pages — unless you take a dive off the podium” — a reference to a campaign mishap parodied mercilessly on SNL.

in UW-M Post, October 17, 1996

And thus ends my Dole cartoons. He lost the 1996 election to Bill Clinton, and, although his wife made some attempt to make him the first First Gentleman, he retired to the life of an elder statesman and author.

In his book on presidential humor, Dole took as cautionary examples Martin Van Buren and Millard Fillmore, two presidents rejected by the American electorate, yet who attempted, and failed miserably at, political comebacks.

I try to keep their sobering examples in mind when asked about the possibility of again seeking the presidency. Then I repeat something attributed to W.C. Fields: "If at first you don't succeed, try, try again. Then quit. No use being a damn fool about it."

Rest in peace, Senator Dole.