Bob Dole died December 5, 2021. Not many people know this, but I worked for Bob Dole for a brief while. I had always leaned Democrat, but nobody told me that once I got a job as a press...
Bob Dole died December 5, 2021.
Not many people know this, but I worked for Bob Dole for a brief while.
I had always leaned Democrat, but nobody told me that once I got a job as a press secretary on the “other side of the aisle” in Congress, there was no crossing back, so I took the first job I could get and I was stuck on the Republican side of the aisle working for a Congressman who was not only the wrong politics, but also a truly terrible person.
Still, a job is a job, and I was determined and idealistic enough to want to do my very best for him, rationalizing that everyone deserves to be heard if they are elected, even if their views are a little crazy.
We were holding a fundraiser to get him re-elected in the small hardscrabble town that had sent him to Congress. The highlight was to be a speech from Bob Dole, leagues above my boss in celebrity.
The Senator’s campaign manager – Dole was gearing up for a Presidential run back then – told me that Dole’s travel plans had changed and he would have to cut out early, speaking first and leaving my not-great-speaker boss to finish the show. I had enough experience to know that this would be a disaster for my boss since most of the guests were there to hear Bob Dole and would leave when he did.
I told the campaign manager that, if he did leave early, I would get on the microphone and tell the whole audience that the great Bob Dole had so little consideration for the audience that he couldn’t wait to leave.
The guy stared at me for a second, trying to guess if I were bluffing, and said, “Wait here, I have to talk to the Senator.”
The Senator stayed.
And the campaign manager called the next day to offer me a job on the Dole Advance Team, including training at the Republican campaign school. I could keep my job with the Congressman (who did get re-elected, by the way), I would just have to take leaves of absence.
I took the job, getting to know the Senator and his wife as I paved the way for their campaign appearances and debriefed them for each trip.
He could have gotten me fired – I know my boss would have done whatever Bob Dole wanted. Instead, he brought me aboard. It speaks to the kind of politician and man that Bob Dole was that he saw opposition and determination and embraced it. RIP, Senator Dole.
