Bob DoleBob DoleBy Barb Shelly, Kansas City Star editorial page columnist

Bob Dole supports health care reform.

"This is one of the most important measures members of Congress will vote on in their lifetimes," the former Republican Senate majority leader and presidential candidate told an audience in Kansas City today. "If we don't do it this year I don't know when we're gonna do it.

Dole and two other former Senate leaders, Republican Howard Baker and Democrat Tom Daschle, are preparing to release a statement urging Congress to move on health care.

"We're already hearing from some high-ranking Republicans that we shouldn't do that. That's helping the president," he said.

Later, he repeated that news, and elaborated on one "very prominent Republican, who happens to be the Republican leader of the Senate."

That would be Sen. Mitch McConnell of Kentucky.

Dole, to his credit, is having none of it. "I want this to pass," he said. "I don't agree with everything Obama is presenting, but we've got to do something."

He added: "I don't want the Republicans putting up a 'no' sign and saying, 'we're not open for business.'"

The long-time senator from Kansas mentioned several time the Americans with Disabilities Act, which he was instrumental in getting passed in 1990. And he talked about working across the aisle to rescue Social Security from a short-term financing crisis in 1983.

It makes me wonder, what will Mitch McConnell and company cite as their legacy? Perfecting the use of the word "no," maybe.

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