Elizabeth Dole

WASHINGTON -- Blaming money woes and front-runner George W. Bush's phenomenal success, Elizabeth Dole abruptly ended her groundbreaking campaign for the Republican presidential nomination yesterday.Despite a glittering resume, large crowds at campaign events and polls showing her to be popular with much of the public, Dole's attempt to become the first female president failed to yield enough campaign cash."The bottom line remains money," she said at a hastily arranged news conference.Her husband, Bob Dole, the 1996 Republican presidential nominee, who seldom appeared at her events, stood behind her, gravely nodding assent.

It was his big break. A former congressman gave Michael S. Steele, then a law student, a free ticket to the 1988 Prince George's County Republican Party Lincoln Day dinner. Steele, who had just moved from Washington to Largo, wanted to plunge into local partisan politics. "I got to the event, and I was all psyched to be there," said Steele, who was already a low-level volunteer for the national Republican Party. "I was thinking, `Wow. Maryland, they've got a state party, they have a county party.

WASHINGTON -- When Elizabeth Dole looks out the window of her office at the Red Cross headquarters, she can't help but notice her neighbor's larger and more elegant yard.Her neighbor, just a block of parkland away, is Bill Clinton.As Bob Dole and other allies have taken to hinting, Elizabeth Dole could be seeking that very White House in just four years.But to move gracefully onto the Republican ticket in 2000, she will need to address some serious problems at the Red Cross first.A new independent management review, a copy of which was obtained by Knight-Ridder, concludes that the Red Cross needs "a more robust leadership team" at headquarters than the one Dole established during her first term.

SALISBURY, N.C. -- Everybody in North Carolina knows Elizabeth Dole, the home-grown Republican nominee for the U.S. Senate who ran for president two years ago, served in two GOP Cabinet posts and is married to one of her party's icons. For all that, however, North Carolina Democrats at first entertained thoughts they might detour her latest aspirations by challenging her as a carpetbagger who had outgrown her roots in becoming a Washington political fixture. It hasn't worked. Having moved in with her 101-year-old mother in this sleepy town in the rural center of the state, the wife of 1996 Republican presidential nominee Bob Dole has made herself at home, to the consternation of supporters of her Democratic foe, former Clinton White House chief of staff Erskine Bowles.

SAN DIEGO -- With the polish of a talk-show host, the charm of a Southern hostess -- and the conviction of the devoted wife she is -- Elizabeth Dole told the Bob Dole story last night.And nobody does it better.In an unconventional format that resembled a daytime television talk show, the wife of the Republican nominee-to-be walked down from the podium and waltzed through the floor of the convention hall, trying to acquaint the audience with the softer, human, heroic side of "the man I love" -- a side the candidate himself is uncomfortable conveying.

NORTH CONWAY, N.H. -- "I would not be co-president."There. She said it.It is as important a part of Elizabeth Dole's message these days as the heroic, sepia-toned portrait of her husband she paints on the campaign trail, trying to cast the now struggling front-runner as the rightful heir to the throne.And it is a theme that Mrs. Dole, an aggressive campaigner and former Reagan and Bush official, sounds in a million ways:In her vow to return to her job as president of the Red Cross even if her husband, Senate Majority Leader Bob Dole, lands in the White House next year.

FARMINGTON, Conn. -- A week after her late-night adventure on Jay Leno's Harley, Elizabeth Dole hopped aboard a campaign bus Monday and wound her way through the Connecticut countryside, slipping into new roles as gracefully and seamlessly as the leaves here are turning colors.Wearing a striking cobalt blue silk suit and a honeysuckle smile, she spoke to a Chamber of Commerce breakfast, sat on a haystack in the middle of a pumpkin patch with Girl Scouts, watched elderly women making a quilt, starred at a private fund-raiser in a tony suburb -- and then topped it all off by taping a David Letterman Top Ten list that will air Friday.

The Salvation Army, appropriately enough, has been given a reprieve that will permit it to go about its good works through the Christmas season without fear of being put in the dock by the Department of Labor. All of which proves the bureaucratic mind can be made to see reason, provided sufficient political pressure is applied.What has enflamed federal functionaries is a "three hots and a cot" program for drug and alcohol abusers who have long turned to the Salvation Army not for a job but for help.

Berman to hold open house for master's programThe Allan L. Berman Real Estate Institute of the Johns #F Hopkins School of Continuing Studies will hold an open house for its Master of Science in Real Estate program from 11: 30 a.m. to 1 p.m. Oct. 20 at its downtown center, at Charles and Saratoga streets.Students taking the 40-credit program can concentrate on commercial development, investment and asset management,valuation and appraisal, and residential development.Topics will include market analysis, law, design, construction, investment analysis, finance and land-use regulation.

MANCHESTER, N.H., Nov. 4 -- Bob Dole had decided to conclude his bid for the presidency by campaigning for 96 straight hours, in effect turning his death march into a death marathon, and there was no way I was going to miss it.So, peeling off from Bill Clinton's entourage in San Francisco, I jetted back to East Lansing, Mich., to hook up with the Bobster and then stick with him for a two-day slice of his 'round-the-clock ramble.On the flight out, I was seated next to a yuppie executive from the cosmetics firm Helene Curtis, who served the useful function of reminding me just how odd this avocation of mine is."

WASHINGTON -- Blaming money woes and front-runner George W. Bush's phenomenal success, Elizabeth Dole abruptly ended her groundbreaking campaign for the Republican presidential nomination yesterday.Despite a glittering resume, large crowds at campaign events and polls showing her to be popular with much of the public, Dole's attempt to become the first female president failed to yield enough campaign cash."The bottom line remains money," she said at a hastily arranged news conference.Her husband, Bob Dole, the 1996 Republican presidential nominee, who seldom appeared at her events, stood behind her, gravely nodding assent.

In the mountains of Western Maryland, in the year 1956, I had my first crisis of faith. I asked God to part the waters of the swimming pool at Camp Airy the way he had parted the waters of the Red Sea for the children of Israel, and he did not.God and I have been discussing this little failing on somebody's part - Whose part? His? Mine? That's the crux of it, isn't it? - for the past 43 years, and after all this time, in our way, the two of us have settled absolutely nothing.And I find this eternally stimulating.

I REALIZE that it's a bit early for me to be making a fearless forecast about next year's presidential campaign. But now that the cream of the Republican congressional leadership has decided that Texas Gov. George W. Bush will be the GOP presidential nominee -- skipping over the fact that he hasn't yet announced and the Iowa caucuses are still nine months away -- we professional political prognosticators must act now.I predict that Mr. Bush will choose a...

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?

Elizabeth H. Dole, national president of the American Red Cross, visited Baltimore yesterday to honor Baltimore Gas and Electric Co. employees for giving 200,000 pints of blood over 40 years. BGE is the leading corporate source of blood donations in Maryland.But, Dole added, more is needed here."BGE is a wonderful role model for companies throughout the country," Dole said. "It's a great partnership with the Red Cross.""Right now, during the busy holiday season, the region is experiencing shortages, so it is doubly important to give the gift of life now," she said.

Berman to hold open house for master's programThe Allan L. Berman Real Estate Institute of the Johns #F Hopkins School of Continuing Studies will hold an open house for its Master of Science in Real Estate program from 11: 30 a.m. to 1 p.m. Oct. 20 at its downtown center, at Charles and Saratoga streets.Students taking the 40-credit program can concentrate on commercial development, investment and asset management,valuation and appraisal, and residential development.Topics will include market analysis, law, design, construction, investment analysis, finance and land-use regulation.

CHICAGO -- Just about 15 minutes after Hillary Rodham Clinton left the podium, I came up with Reason 339 Why I'm Glad My Husband Isn't Running for President.It was when CBS began interviewing her date for the high school senior prom. Spare me!There was this guy, this blast from the past, offering up serious thoughts on Hillary, and how good it had been to get to know her better than he had in school. At least he hadn't taken Elizabeth Dole to the junior prom or we would have endless comparisons about their dancing styles.

SALISBURY, N.C. -- Everybody in North Carolina knows Elizabeth Dole, the home-grown Republican nominee for the U.S. Senate who ran for president two years ago, served in two GOP Cabinet posts and is married to one of her party's icons. For all that, however, North Carolina Democrats at first entertained thoughts they might detour her latest aspirations by challenging her as a carpetbagger who had outgrown her roots in becoming a Washington political fixture. It hasn't worked. Having moved in with her 101-year-old mother in this sleepy town in the rural center of the state, the wife of 1996 Republican presidential nominee Bob Dole has made herself at home, to the consternation of supporters of her Democratic foe, former Clinton White House chief of staff Erskine Bowles.

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.