The latest budget impasse in the Senate that shut down government services last weekend made us appreciate the value of having a statesman like Bob Dole.

Earlier in the week, Dole, now 94, received the Congressional Gold Medal for his service to the nation as a soldier, legislator and statesman.

The honor was long overdue for the Kansas native, who was the longest-serving Republican leader in the Senate. In 1996 he was the last World War II veteran to have been the presidential nominee of a major party.

Dole’s sense of humor showed itself at last week’s ceremony: “I want to thank all of those who said such kind words about me. They probably weren’t true but they were nice,” he said.

Humor, humility and job results are a rare combination for any politician these days.

House Speaker Paul Ryan, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer and House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi attended the event honoring Dole. We hoped some of Dole’s wisdom would have rubbed off on how to deal across party lines.

In 2002 for example, Dole and former Sen. George McGovern co-founded the McGovern-Dole International Food for Education and Child Nutrition Program, which helps to fight childhood hunger in poverty-stricken areas around the globe. They then lobbied Congress to fund the program. Another memorable achievement came in 1983 when Dole led a bipartisan effort to end a stalemate over the financially strapped Social Security system.

Growing up in Russell, Kansas, Dole was raised in a hard-knock life, managing to survive the Great Depression, the Dust Bowl and then World War II. He left the University of Kansas in the fall of 1941 to serve in the U.S. Army during the war.

As a second lieutenant in the Army’s 10th Mountain Division, Dole was badly wounded by German machine-gun fire while attempting to assist a downed radio man in the Apennine mountains southwest of Bologna, Italy.

The injuries to his upper back and right arm were so severe that one fellow soldier said he was given the largest dose of morphine a person could receive. An ‘M’ for ‘morphine’ was written on his forehead in his own blood, so that he wouldn’t receive a second dose that would prove fatal.

The battlefield wounds that earned him the Bronze Star and Purple Heart also caused spinal injuries that limited mobility in his right arm and caused numbness in his left arm.

One of his most enduring post-political achievements — a triumph that inspires people visiting the National Mall area in Washington — is the World War II memorial. Dole co-chaired the national campaign that raised more than $197 million in cash and pledges, primarily by private contributions, for the memorial that honors the 16 million who served in the armed forces, the more than 400,000 who died, and the millions who supported the war effort on the home front.

After leaving the Senate, Dole was the Republican presidential nominee in 1996, an election he lost to Bill Clinton. He later said this decisive defeat made it easier for him to be “magnanimous.”

After all the partisan fights in Congress, Dole said one of the nice things he discovered in his life out of politics is that you have more credibility. Being out among all kinds of people just doesn’t happen that often for an ex-president, so he considers that election loss an advantage in his post-political career.

Two years ago, while on an Honor Flight to Washington with a plane load of World War II and Korean War veterans, I saw Dole’s “magnanimous” nature in action. On that humid summer day, Dole, then 92, individually greeted each veteran to the World War II memorial site. Each veteran rode in a wheelchair which was pushed and tended to by a guardian, which was my role that day.

The veteran who I attended to was Paul Giachetti, a native of Chicago who served with a railway transportation battalion in the Korean War. He was one of eight siblings (seven brothers and one sister) — who served in either World War II or Korea. His local newspaper called them the “Chicago Eight.”

Dole was quite impressed when Paul briefly relayed his story about family history.

Today, Dole also depends on a wheelchair for his mobility, which is where he remained for the majority of last week’s ceremony … that is, until the color guard walked in carrying the American flag and the flags of the Armed Forces. Dole waved for an aide to help pull him upright so that he could be standing during the honoring of the flag. The NFL players who chose to take a knee for our national anthem should have been taking notes on that one.

“In hearing (Dole’s) story they will truly learn what it means to be a great American,” President Donald Trump said in his address. “Bob, that is the legacy that you have left our nation and it will outlive us all.” The president hit a home run with those words, summing up the true character of an American hero.

By Jim Zbick | tneditor@tnonline.com