Robert Joseph Dole (July 22, 1923 - December 5, 2021) was an American politician and attorney who represented Kansas in the U.S. Senate from 1969 to 1996. He was the Republican leader of the Senate for the last eleven of those years, and served as majority leader from 1985 to 1987 and again from 1995 until his resignation in 1996. Dole was selected by President Gerald Ford as his vice presidential running mate in 1976, but the Ford/Dole ticket was defeated by Jimmy Carter and Walter Mondale. Dole was the Republican presidential nominee in the 1996 election, retrospectively dubbed by Politico
as "the least important election of our lives". Challenging the popular President Bill Clinton during the economically prosperous mid-1990s, Dole was soundly defeated.
Dole previously served in the U.S. House of Representatives from 1961 to 1969. He also served in the United States Army during World War II as a colonel and earned both the Bronze Star and the Purple Heart. The injuries he suffered in the war left him with limited mobility in his right arm and numbness in his left arm. He minimized the effect in public by keeping a pen in his right hand, which became something of an Iconic Item for him as a result.
He married Phyllis Holden in 1948, with whom he had one child, until they divorced in 1972. He married Elizabeth Hanford in 1975. The Doles became a Republican power couple, with Elizabeth serving in the cabinets of Presidents Reagan and Bush, and later being elected to the U.S. Senate representing North Carolina from 2003 to 2009.
With the death of former Iowa congressman Neal Edward Smith on November 2, 2021, at the age of 101, Dole became the oldest living former or current member of the House of Representatives.note
Dole was diagnosed with lung cancer in February 2021. In December the same year, he would eventually die in his sleep at age 98 from complications related to the disease.
In Media
Film (Live-Action)
- Gets name-dropped in Scream 2 by the villain, as he goes on his Motive Rant explaining how he killed people to become famous. He plans to blame violent movies for making him a killer in order to get a sensational trial, and envisions Dole and other Moral Guardians speaking in his defense in order to portray him as an innocent victim of a culture saturated with violent imagery.
Live-Action Television
- 60 Minutes: He and Bill Clinton served as commentators on the show.
- The Daily Show with Jon Stewart: He served as a commentator for the show's coverage of the 2000 presidential election.
- He appeared in an episode of Murphy Brown.
- Saturday Night Live: He was parodied by Norm Macdonald during the 1996 presidential election campaign. He eventually appeared as himself on the show, along with Macdonald, parodying himself after the 1996 election.
Western Animation
- Family Guy: In "Mr. Griffin Goes to Washington", Bob Dole is one of the officials who offer Peter and the tobacco industry their support. Well, tries to, at least. He falls asleep muttering his own name.
- Futurama: In "A Head in the Polls," Dole's head in a jar is in the little-visited Closet of Presidential Losers at the Head Museum.
"Bob Dole needs company. LaRouche won't stop with the knock-knock jokes."
- The Simpsons: The 1996 presidential election was parodied in the "Citizen Kang" segment of "Treehouse of Horror VII", in which Dole and Bill Clinton are abducted by Kang and Kodos, who pose as them to run for U.S. President.
Tropes associated with fictional appearances of Dole:
- Third-Person Person: While he would sometimes refer to himself in third person on the election trail, fictional appearances such as The Simpsons and Saturday Night Live have him repeat his name so much it borders on Pokémon Speak.
