Bob Dole

Last summer, four of the county's top Republicans -- all conservatives, all ambitious, all friends -- gathered at PJ's restaurant in Ellicott City to begin the delicate task of deciding who would run for county executive in 1998.Yesterday morning in the same restaurant, Councilman Charles C. Feaga stood before a giant red, white and blue banner to announce: "I am running for county executive. That is official."With those words, the lifelong West Friendship farmer emerged as the unchallenged candidate of the Howard GOP's conservative wing.

IF YOU SOLD your home for a profit this spring and hoped to pocket the money tax free, the word from Capitol Hill last week was: Sorry. You rolled the dice and lost.That's the upshot of the joint announcement by the chairmen of Congress' two tax-writing committees that they want the effective date for any capital gains cuts they pass this year to be May 7, 1997.Home sellers who had expected to be covered by the Clinton administration's budget proposal to eliminate capital gains taxes for most home sales on or after Jan. 1, 1997, appear to be out of luck if they closed on their sale before May 7.The Clinton plan -- first unveiled at the 1996 Democratic National Convention and quickly matched by Republican presidential opponent Bob Dole -- would allow married home sellers who file taxes jointly to keep up to $500,000 of their profits tax free, and single taxpayers to keep up to $250,000 tax free.

In a May 4 article in the Perspective section on political lobbying by the broadcast industry, a quote from Reed Hundt, chairman of the Federal Communications Commission, was incorrectly attributed to Bob Dole. Hundt called the government's distribution of the new digital broadcast spectrum "the biggest single gift of public property to any industry in this century."Pub Date: 5/13/97The Sun regrets the errors.

WASHINGTON -- In a twist that stunned many of his colleagues, House Speaker Newt Gingrich announced yesterday that he was obtaining a personal loan from former Republican presidential candidate Bob Dole to pay the $300,000 ethics penalty levied against him last winter.Gingrich, speaking from the House floor with more defiance than contrition, said that after considering several options, he concluded he had a "moral obligation" to pay the money out of his own pocket."As a person of limited means, I have arranged to borrow the money from Bob Dole, a close personal friend of impeccable integrity," the Georgia Republican said, "and I will pay it back."

WASHINGTON -- Ever since President Clinton won re-election last November by successfully working the Republican side of the political street on key issues such as the budget, crime and welfare, the losers have been re-examining what happened to them, with an eye to the future.Anthony Fabrizio, who was the pollster for the Bob Dole presidential campaign, has just released the results of two national surveys of 1,000 voters each, one right after the election and the other after Mr. Clinton's State of the Union speech, and each aimed at identifying just who are the Republicans now, and what they have to do to win the White House in the year 2000.

WASHINGTON -- When President Clinton bestowed the Presidential Medal of Freedom on Bob Dole at the White House the other day, Mr. Dole broke up the president and other attendees.After the president had put the medal around his neck and led the rousing applause from the audience, Mr. Dole began: ''I, Robert J. Dole . . . do solemnly swear . . . Uh, wrong speech.'' The room melted into laughter, with Mr. Clinton leading the chorus.Continuing over the laughter, Mr. Dole cracked: ''I had a dream that I would be, this historical week, receiving something from the president.

WASHINGTON -- In a moving ceremony marked by choked-back tears, hearty laughter and understated reconciliation, President Clinton presented defeated Republican rival Bob Dole yesterday with the highest civilian honor America has to offer.In a gesture that was both a celebration of America's 53rd peaceful inauguration as well as an overt peace offering to Republicans, Clinton draped the Presidential Medal of Freedom around Dole's neck in the East Room of the White House as Cabinet secretaries, World War II veterans and former Dole aides looked on.Clinton made a point of praising Dole, not just for his courage and lifetime of service in politics, but for his famed wit as well.

Is it my imagination, or are we seeing more of Bob Dole now (he's on an NBC sitcom tonight) than we did during the campaign?"Friends" (8 p.m.-8: 30 p.m., WBAL, Channel 11) -- Chandler makes it with one of Joey's sisters, only he can't remember which one. NBC."Murder One" (9 p.m.-10 p.m., WMAR, Channel 2) -- Docknovich and Mosely (Michael Hayden and DB Woodside) can't agree on jury selection in the case of suspected murderer/basketball superstar Rickey Latrell (Rick Worthy), so bossman Wyler takes over the reins ... at the same time as another suspect rears her/his ugly head.

THANKSGIVING dinner with celebrities past and present:Sammy Davis Jr."Hey, man, could you pass the mashed potatoes? Man, you are the greatest, you know that? You are Numero Uno, man! I been with a lot of cats on Thanksgiving, man, but you're one of the giants!"What's that over there, dressing? Lay it on me, man. Oh, yeah! You gotta love chestnut dressing! I say that in all sincerity."Man, all you cats are the greatest, you know that? I'm serious, man! From the bottom of my heart. I'm a lucky man. Little one-eyed dude like me I can feel the love in this room, man!"

The Christian Coalition has surveyed the election results and declared victory.Republican presidential candidate Bob Dole, of course, lost big. But the new Congress, a coalition spokesman said, is more "pro-life, pro-family" than the one assembled in 1994, the year of House Speaker Newt Gingrich's Republican revolution."