Dzhim Patterson: Bob Dole: Farm State Statesman

Former U.S. Senator Bob Dole, R-KS, and Diplomat Jim Patterson, Washington DC, 2006. 

Bob Dole: Farm State Statesman

Dzhim (Jim) Patterson

In January, former U.S. Senator Bob Dole, the 1996 GOP presidential candidate and the longest serving GOP Senate leader, was awarded the Congressional Gold Medal for service as a “soldier, legislator and statesman.”

"Bob Dole always stood for what was just and what was right," Speaker of the House Paul Ryan said. "Because of you, America is much better." President Donald Trump called Kansan Dole, 94, “a true American hero.”

A decorated World War II veteran, Dole, ran as vice president on the 1976 GOP ticket with President Gerald R. Ford (1913-2006).  As an undergraduate at Auburn University, I worked on the Ford-Dole campaign at the GOP National Convention in Kansas City, in Alabama and other states.

Ford’s selection of Dole as vice president was controversial. Many Republicans at the convention, myself included, felt Vice President Nelson Rockefeller (1908-1979) should have shared the ticket with Ford.

Columnist Carl T. Rowan called Ford’s choice of Dole “moral, but bad politics.” For morality, Rowan felt Dole prevented “Neanderthals in the Ford administration” from dismantling the food stamp program. He noted politically conservative Senator Dole had worked effectively politically liberal Senator George McGovern (1922-2012), Democrat of South Dakota, with the Dole-McGovern food stamp bill administered by the U.S. Department of Agriculture.  

Rowan suggested it would be “bad politics” is Dole assumed more a political role of “slashing attacker,” than someone who could add “heart” to the Ford campaign. It was visioary of Rowan to suggest this as, sadly, many believe Dole was “a slashing attacker” in 1976 and beyond due to his quick temper and sardonic wit. The 1976 presidential election was close, but Jimmy Carter defeated Jerry Ford.    

  

In 1996, I worked on Dole’s presidential campaign as an aide for vice presidential candidate Jack Kemp, former U.S. Congressman and Reagan cabinet official, in the campaign’s Washington headquarters.  Dole, who resigned from the Senate in 1996, lost the presidential election to incumbent Bill Clinton, who, soon after the election award Dole the Presidential Medal of Freedom. “A man of the heartland, he brought common sense, uncommon skill, and a prairie wit to the United States Senate,” read Dole’s Medal of Freedom citation.

In 1998, Dole, 74, participated in Viagra studies and found it “a great drug.” He immediately became the doleful face of erectile dysfunction (ED) and, soon after, the happy face of spokesman for Pfizer, Viagra’s manufacturer. Dole’s Viagra endorsement did not please some GOP constituents.

As Acting Director of Constituent Services at the Republican National Committee during the Clinton impeachment, I once got a phone call from a Tennessee fellow who initially objected to Dole’s Viagra support. I defended Dole for publicly addressing ED and, by call’s end, I convinced the man to talk with his doctor about Viagra. I shared the story in a letter to Dole and he demonstrated his famous prairie wit in his reply and thanked me for “sticking up” for him.

Dole and McGovern joined to address hunger in their 2005 book, “Ending Hunger Now: A Challenge to Persons of Faith.” In his foreword, former President Clinton wrote Dole “has repeatedly demonstrated that combating malnourishment and hunger is more important than partisan politics.”

Discussing the book in the January 2007 issue of The Living Pulpit magazine, Dole acknowledged hunger a huge global issue, but one he felt solvable due to technological advances in agricultural production, better distribution systems and dedicated support from people of faith.

    

Dole the American Statesman was a great teacher who has a world of experience. In “A Better America,” his 1996 acceptance speech for the GOP presidential nomination, Dole spoke of the foreign policy successes of Presidents Nixon, Ford, Reagan and George H. W. Bush. He said Nixon displayed “diplomatic genius” in engaging China and Russia. “were it not for Reagan, Dole said, “the Soviet Union would still be standing today.” President George H. W. Bush, Dole said, used “a mastery that words fail to convey” in liberating Kuwait from Saddam Hussein.

Dole and the GOP leadership helped farmers realize the potential of global markets. His support of domestic and international food aid helped support farm prices, incomes and grow rural economies across the country.

Bob Dole was, at times, a tough leader with whom to work. He does, however, have a long view of leadership and always has his eye on a secure, successful and prosperous future for America.

I am proud to have worked for Dole’s campaigns and I see a future for him and his wife and former North Carolina U.S. Senator Elizabeth Dole.  As I often tell him in emails and letters, I am a Dole Man and the sound of a double Dole ticket of Bob and Elizabeth Dole, or Dole/Dole, in 2020 has an appeal to it.

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Auburn graduate Jim Patterson is a life Member of the American Foreign Service Association and a member of the Alabama State Society. JEPDiplomat@gmail.com