They were distinctive Senators in an exuberant and confident era 30 years ago, walking the U.S. Capitol together, debating, opposing, befriending one another for a decade in the mannered legislative rituals of the time. They were A. Willis Robertson, old-line Democrat of Virginia; Prescott S. Bush, Republican investment banker from the moneyed precincts of Connecticut; and Democrat Albert A. Gore, feisty country teacher turned lawyer out of the hills of Tennessee.
More important for our time, they all had sons who were nurtured in politics. History now has summoned the sons to the struggle for the presidency, and there are echoes...