This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2016, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.
Forgive me for writing one more column about former Sen. Bob Bennett, who died May 4 from complications of cancer and a stroke.
After all, The Salt Lake Tribune ran an 80-inch story of his life and career when he died, followed by a personal recollection from Tribune religion reporter Peggy Fletcher Stack, his niece, and a column from me about Bennett's role as a peacemaker and policy pro, traits sadly lacking in today's political climate.
But a Tribune story from Bennett's funeral in Virginia and an article by The Daily Beast about his final days offer an anecdote too touching to pass up. The accounts also provide another insight into the former three-term Republican senator from the Beehive State that Utahns should know, particularly given the GOP's struggles with supporting its presumptive presidential nominee, Donald Trump.
According to the Beast story by Tim Mak, the 82-year-old Bennett lay dying in his bed at George Washington University Hospital after a stroke had hampered his movement and speech. With wife Joyce and son Jim by his side, the weakened Bennett asked, "Are there any Muslims in the hospital? I'd love to go up to every single one of them to thank them for being in this country and apologize to them on behalf of the Republican Party for Donald Trump."
Bennett was appalled by Trump's rhetoric against certain ethnic and religious groups, including his proposed ban on Muslims entering the United States, and the fact that someone with that kind of temperament would be his party's presidential nominee.
Jim Bennett confirmed the accounts during an interview Friday, as well as another part of the story that described his father approaching a woman wearing a hijab in Reagan National International Airport and telling her he was glad she and fellow Muslims were in America and that they were welcome in the country.
His concern about the xenophobia emanating from elements of his Republican Party and his need to make things right were consistent with his character, his son said.
"When I was 11 or 12, I repeated a joke I had heard that was basically an ethnic slur against Jewish people," Jim Bennett said. "It was one of the few times I saw my father red-faced and genuinely angry."
He said his Dad told him he never again was to denigrate anyone because of their ethnicity or their race. It was a message, the son said, he wouldn't forget.
Bennett demonstrated that side of his nature numerous times during his 18 years in the Senate. As partisan bickering escalated in Washington, Bennett never understood why he had to hate Democrats simply because they were Democrats.
That attitude, sadly, helped lead to his defeat in the Utah Republican Convention when he ran for a fourth term. The partisan delegates had reached a point that they didn't want compromise; they wanted ideological purity. And Congress complied by sliding into unyielding partisan gridlock.
Bennett's passionate respect for all ethnic groups and his fierce defense of equal rights was part of his DNA.
Fifty years ago, his father, Sen. Wallace F. Bennett, encountered heavy pushback from members of his Republican Party when he steadfastly supported the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which effectively ended discriminatory Jim Crow laws in the South.
But he never wavered.