Bob Dole visits with former Kansas Senate President Dick Bond (center) and his wife, Sue (partly blocked)LAWRENCE -- It was the Bob and Liddy Show this afternoon at KU.
The Doles were back in town at the institute that bears the former Kansas senator's name. And for 90 fast-moving minutes, the still-prominent D.C. power couple dispensed stories from storied careers, words of wisdom, some philosophical musings and jokes -- lots of jokes.
While Bob Dole's gait may be a little unsteady and his voice wavers at times, he showed that at 85 his crackerjack way with a wisecrack is as refined as ever.
Asked to recall his days as a KU student, Dole whipped out this: "They weren't going to class, I can tell you that."
On why he became a Republican: Dole said he counted Ds and Rs before running for office the first time in Russell and quickly determined the Rs were in biggers supply.
"So I became a committed Republican."
When Elizabeth Dole, 72, was talking about her tenure as secretary of transportation in the 1980s, she was about to begin what she called "an interesting little story" when her husband of 33 years interjected with, "How long is it?"
Countered Elizabeth: "You're going to be in the doghouse pretty soon."
The crowd of several hundred roared.
The occasion was the 2009 Dole Lecture, given each year around the anniversary of Bob Dole's devastating World War II injuries suffered on an Italian hillside. While both former senators remain active in an array of causes, trips to Lawrence remain something of a rariety. Institute director Bill Lacy said he had introduced Dole before institute crowds only four times in recent years.
If any news was made on this spring day, it was both Doles' reaction to the death Saturday of Jack Kemp, the former Buffalo congressman who became Bob Dole's suprise vice-presidential running mate in 1996.
Elizabeth Dole recalled Kemp's unceasing energy and boundless enthusiasm for causes he believed in. Bob Dole said: "If you ever wanted to meet an eternal optimist, there was one. There was a solution to everything. He inspired a lot of people."
And then with his voice breaking, Dole added, "I'm so sad that he's gone."
On Pennsylvania Sen. Arlen Specter's decision to switch parties and become a Democrat, Elizabeth Dole said she was disappointed especially because the move puts the Democrats so close to a 60-vote filibuster-proof majority. But she insisted that the GOP will bounce back.
Bob Dole minimized the loss for Republicans, pointing out that Specter rarely voted with Republicans anyway.
"We didn't really lose much," he said. "He'll give the Democrats fits just as he gave the Republicans fits."
Bob Dole said he continues to work with three other former Senate majority leaders -- Howard Baker, George Mitchell and Tom Daschle -- to develop what he called a truly bipartisan national health care plan, which he hopes will smooth the way for a plan to pass Congress this year.
"I think the American people are ready (for reform," Bob Dole said. "We've got to fix it."
He's also invovled with an organization that flies World War II veterans to Washington so that many of the old soliders can see the monument dedicated to the war on the Washington Mall. The program provides one-day tours in which the veterans are flown to D.C. and returned home all the same day.
For many, the trip provides a big lift, Bob Dole said.
