http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/george-mcgovern-the-man-who-never-gave-up/2012/10/21/fca24da8-1b9d-11e2-ba31-3083ca97c314_story.html

This link from the Washington Post contains an essay by former U.S. Sen. Bob Dole, a stalwart Republican from Kansas.

In this essay he pays tribute to his great friend, the late U.S. Sen. George McGovern, an equally stalwart Democrat from South Dakota.

Dole writes of the genuine affection he had for McGovern. They were friends, whose bond was forged perhaps by their shared World War II experience; McGovern flew a B-24 bomber over Eastern Europe, while Dole was an infantryman in Italy. And with McGovern’s death on Sunday, American politics has lost another champion for the cause of civil discourse. Dole speaks eloquently of his friend and the feelings – dare I say “love” – they had for each other as men, as patriots.

We’re missing that sense of collegiality these days. Adversaries have become enemies. They are demons. I keep harking back to 1994 when the back-bench bomb thrower in chief, Republican U.S. Rep. Newt Gingrich, called Democrats “the enemy of normal Americans.” He parlayed that demonization to the House speakership, to the shame of the system that put him in power.

I’m trying to imagine Bob Dole or George McGovern doing that to each other. These gentlemen took their politics seriously, but also took their roles as Americans even more seriously. They knew enough to remain friends even after quarreling publicly over policy.

I am reminded in the wake of Sen. McGovern’s death of an interview I witnessed on PBS back in 1988. It was on the MacNeil-Lehrer News Hour. McGovern was being interviewed with another old warrior, Sen. Barry Goldwater, the conservative icon from Arizona. McGovern and Goldwater also were great friends. They both were WWII aviators. They shared another unique bond: They both lost their presidential campaigns by very large margins to their opponents, McGovern to President Nixon in 1972 and Goldwater to President Johnson in 1964.

They lamented the nastiness of the 1988 campaign. They couldn’t understand why the two parties were so angry with each other. And, yes, these men spoke admiringly of each other throughout the discussion.

At the end of the conversation, Goldwater said to McGovern, “George, why don’t you and I run … as a ticket?” Both men laughed.

Try to imagine such an exchange occurring today.