White House or Home?

WASHINGTON, D.C.: Bob Dole will walk into the Senate chambers tomorrow as he has for the past 27 years, a powerful Kansas Senator. He will walk out, as he has described himself, as just an ordinary man running for president. Dole's Senate legacy is pragmatic, one not so much of crafting brilliant legislative initiatives, as getting them passed. In 1965, he teamed up with Senator George McGovern to salvage the faltering food stamps program. In 1990 he brought President Bush around to support the Americans With Disabilities Act, although the legislation bears the name of Iowa Democrat Tom Harkin. In 1982, Dole almost single-handedly reversed a large chunk of Reagan tax cuts in an attempt to control a ballooning deficit, and in 1983 he helped orchestrate the bailout of Social Security, which he lists as his proudest accomplishment. As the Tuesday deadline fast approaches, Dole is spending his last hours in the Senate receiving tributes from Senators and members of the House. And the tributes are glowing, offered up in terms that are usually reserved for posthumous delivery. Stephen Hess of the Brookings Institute calls Dole "the most distinguished United States Senator of the second half of the 20th century." Dole must now find out whether what he learned along the way can get him to the White House. -->