Bob Dole

WASHINGTON -- In politics, as in romance, you often crave the complete opposite of your last relationship.President Clinton is undisciplined, unruly and untoward. His bawdy appetites and reckless indulgences have been sloshing over into our lives for what seems like an eternity.So once our tortured involvement with this president ends -- once all those confessions and apologies and late arrivals and extra toppings and all-night cramming sessions are no longer our concern -- what sort of president will we want next?

WASHINGTON -- Elizabeth Hanford Dole advanced her campaign to break the ultimate glass ceiling in America yesterday by forming an exploratory committee for the Republican presidential nomination.If she runs, Dole's would be the most competitive presidential try ever by a woman. Early polls show her leading Vice President Al Gore, the Democratic front-runner, and running well ahead of every contender for the GOP nomination except Texas Gov. George W. Bush.At a rally in Iowa, scene of next February's presidential caucuses, the former head of the American Red Cross told supporters she wants to restore faith in the power of the individual and rekindle a spirit of personal responsibility.

BOSTON -- The woman is sitting at the beauty parlor scanning the pages of Esquire when he pops up. Bob Dole, World War II veteran, presidential candidate, Senate leader and svelte spokesman on impotence -- no, Erectile Dysfunction -- is staring out at her. Again.Surrounding his photo is the word "Courage." Beside him is the admonition that other men go see their doctor. In the lower right hand corner is a small logo for Pfizer, maker of Viagra.This woman is a certified believer in male openness and sharing and touching and feeling.

Just one year after the anti- impotence drug Viagra burst onto pharmacy shelves, the baby blue pill that roared is being sold in 50 countries worldwide, ranging from Thailand to Chile to South Africa.How popular has it been? Before gaining government approval in Thailand, Viagra sold on the black market for about $30 per pill -- about triple the U.S. retail price. And before the Canadian government approved the drug, men there flocked across the border to fill prescriptions -- leading some to dub the honeymoon capital of the world "Viagra Falls."

WASHINGTON -- Lamar Alexander was correct when he complained that a presidential candidate shouldn't be chosen on the basis of money and family name. But he is mistaken if he believes his campaign for the Republican presidential nomination failed because George W. Bush enjoyed those advantages.The problem for Mr. Alexander was that he was never able to persuade enough voters -- or, for that matter, Republican party leaders -- to take him seriously. That was the case, moreover, long before the Bush phenomenon developed.

Throw your best stuff, Richard Ben Cramer, you with the Pulitzer Prize and the big book contract. Bring on the face-high fastball, or maybe the wicked curve that always buckles their knees.This isn't covering the Afghanistan war, you know. This this isn't chasing presidential candidate Bob Dole -- "the Bobster," you tagged him -- through the snows of New Hampshire. This time you have taken on Joe DiMaggio, and the great DiMaggio never loses. You said so yourself."It didn't matter what game he was in, he was the best player on the field, and he was going to beat you somehow," Cramer says.

WASHINGTON - Politics is a little dull in America at the moment, but help is at hand. J. Danforth Quayle, the former vice president, is emerging from the shadows to get his campaign for president on the road.The man who taught American students how to spell "potatoe" is back in the saddle again.Quayle has a serious chance of winning the Republican nomination for the presidency in the 2000 election. He was, after all, a congressman at 29 and a senator at 33, as well as vice president. He is a favorite of many conservatives, especially on the religious right, and he scores well in opinion polls.

In the heat of the summer morning, long before the crowds arrived or the American flag was ceremoniously raised, a lone veteran stood before a sea of gray granite, reverently touching three names.Then he cried.The names, etched in stone, were Neil Weldon, a young man killed during one of the first skirmishes of World War II. Sam Offutt, a hard-fighting Maryland soldier who died on another bloody day of conflict. And David Marriott, who hadn't yet seen his 25th birthday when he survived life-threatening wounds, was nursed back to health and returned to the battlefield to die five days later.

It was hard to keep this scandal going until the Olympics, but now they can take a two-week break and then come back with fresh material.F8Here's hoping our bombs are smarter than last time.Tony Blair is a Clinton look-alike who is going over better than the real thing.The Asian crisis is not bad for all Americans. Bob Dole is shilling for Taiwan, Henry Kissinger for Thailand.Pub Date: 2/06/98

Former U.S. Sen. Bob Dole will deliver the keynote address at the July 23 dedication of Maryland's World War II memorial.Dole, who was wounded in combat during the war, will help dedicate a monument bearing the names of more than 6,000 Marylanders killed in the war. The dedication will be marked by a flyover of modern and vintage military aircraft and music by the Naval Academy Band.The ceremony will start at 10 a.m. at the memorial site, Route 450 at the Severn River.Information: 410-576-6179.

The first and only time I went to the national political conventions was in 1996 - first to San Diego for the GOP conclave, at which the elderly U.S. senator from Kansas, Bob Dole, was nominated to run against President Bill Clinton in his re-election bid. I remember that Mr. Dole was such a boring old politician that the Republicans were thrilled that he selected Jack Kemp, the former Buffalo Bills quarterback and proponent of "supply-side" economics, as...

I won't be reading this column today; it was hard enough just to write it. This is the father-notes-little-boy-growing-up column that I fought off a dozen times. Nick's high school graduation was in June. I attended, of course, and found myself too melancholy - and too much in denial - to write about it in public. Saturday was take-the-first-child-to-college day. I resisted, with full self-consciousness, taking up this space and your time with my little bit of miserable joy - what my Portuguese ancestors called saudade, the mixture of feelings one experiences at the landmark events of life.

Back in 1996, President Bill Clinton's re-election campaign spot-welded the highly unpopular Newt Gingrich to Mr. Clinton's Republican challenger, Sen. Bob Dole. From television commercials to radio ads to speeches, the Darth Vader of the House of Representatives was continually morphed into any image or mention of Mr. Dole - to the point where some Americans actually thought Mr. Gingrich was Mr. Dole's running mate, or at the very least his Svengali. Was a strategy that basically ignored policy and the pressing issues of the time in lieu of a superficial and misleading attack effective?

After three weeks of absorbing heavy criticism, the companies involved in a deal that would shift work at six U.S. ports from a British-owned firm to one owned by the government of Dubai are building on their Washington lobbying effort with a high-powered public relations offensive in the port cities. Officials from P&O Ports North America Inc., a subsidiary of the British cargo company, made its first stop outside the entrance to Seagirt Marine Terminal yesterday, hours before a House panel voted to block the deal.

Former Sen. Bob Dole, whose life was shaped by a devastating war injury, suffered a medical emergency earlier this year that doctors told him nearly claimed his life. Dole disclosed details of the episode for the first time in an epilogue to his new memoir, One Soldier's Story, which is published by HarperCollins and is to be released this week. "I was on the bedroom floor, with blood streaming from my left arm and right eye, and a sharp pain engulfing my left arm - the better one," Dole writes.

Uta Hagen, 84, the actress whose brutal, braying performance of Martha in the original production of Edward Albee's Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? galvanized Broadway in the 1960s, died Wednesday at her Manhattan home. She had been in poor health since a stroke in 2001. It was as Martha in Mr. Albee's corrosive 1962 tale of a combative marriage that she gained her biggest Broadway success. Her portrayal, opposite Arthur Hill as George, was fierce and uncompromising. The play won five Tony Awards, including acting prizes for both of them.

LET'S GET this out of the way for the raw-meat and testosterone crowd that was waiting to see if any chairs were thrown in last night's 60 Minutes face-off between Bill Clinton and Bob Dole. Nope, it was all very polite. There was no ranting and raving. There was no finger-pointing. Why, neither man so much as cut the other off in mid-sentence, never mind stalked off the set. Jerry Springer, this wasn't. Actually, the best word to describe what this was is ... boring. In fact, if this first revival of the old "Point/Counterpoint" debate between the ex-president and former Senate majority leader is any indication, we may need to hold a mirror under each man's nose to see if he's still breathing.

AL GORE'S RELIEF at pulling himself out of the 2004 presidential race was evident during his performance on Saturday Night Live, hours before his decision was announced. His spoof of Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott's alleged segregationist sympathies was wickedly funny, but highly impolitic. He also poked fun at his own White House yearnings with a lighthearted abandon missing from his plodding campaign persona. In liberating himself, Mr. Gore made the right decision, of course. All indications at this point suggest a Gore rematch with President Bush would have been much more difficult for him than the first contest.

WASHINGTON - Companies that have reaped the benefits of offshore tax havens have hired an array of powerhouse lobbyists - including one-time Republican presidential candidate Bob Dole - to beat back congressional efforts to crack down on the practice and eliminate the tax breaks they enjoy. Recognizing that there may be no way to stop Congress from taking high-profile action on the politically potent issue this year, the businesses are looking for ways to limit the damage. The companies are working through their influential advocates to hold on to the tax advantages gained from relocating overseas while fending off congressional attempts to deprive them of lucrative federal contracts.

Geraldo Rivera's recent appearance on the wrong end of news coverage strikes a familiar note. It's not just that Rivera is again becoming a laughingstock - this time with his Afghanistan war reporting - it's the historical echo in his statement: "It's time to stop bashing Geraldo." That's Geraldo speaking about himself in an interview, using what might be termed the "third-person peculiar" for its hints of a personality cracking along some public-private fault line. Who could hear that and not think of Richard M. Nixon's famous line: "Well, you won't have Dick Nixon to kick around anymore"?