Presidential Candidates

Newt Gingrich is like a cat with nine lives. You just never know whether he's on his ninth life or his fourth. Having weathered a grueling ethics investigation, a GOP plot to dump him as House speaker and a steady series of self-inflicted political wounds over the last three years, the Georgia Republican is barnstorming the country to promote his new book--and inviting speculation that he is going to run for president.

Gen. Simon Bolivar, the Venezuelan national hero and liberator of South America, once lamented that the nations of the continent were "condemned to oscillate between anarchy and tyranny." Venezuela has fought off tyranny for 40 years, clinging to a boisterous democracy while its neighbors suffered under dictatorships. Yet today, Venezuela has come close to anarchy. Its oil-dependent economy is in shambles. The credibility of political parties has crumbled.

Finding that both the Clinton and Dole campaigns broke laws and misused federal funds during their 1996 bids for the presidency, Federal Election Commission staffers recommended Tuesday that the Clinton campaign repay $7 million and that the Bob Dole campaign repay $17.7 million to public coffers. The announcement came as Congress sought to broaden its impeachment inquiry of the president to include allegations of campaign finance abuse and as Atty. Gen.

Vice President Al Gore and three of his possible rivals for the next Democratic presidential nomination traded competing visions of the party's post-Clinton agenda Wednesday at the first major showcase for the Democrats' emerging class of 2000. Most conventional measures suggest Gore is the strong favorite to capture the nomination.

Sen. Bob Kerrey (D-Neb.) chose the course of prudence Sunday and announced he will run for reelection in 2000, rather than challenge Vice President Al Gore for the Democratic presidential nomination. The decision, disclosed at a news conference here after a weekend of closed-door discussions with supporters from Nebraska and around the nation, disappointed but did not surprise many of the hundreds who met with Kerrey.

Sen. Paul Wellstone (D-Minn.) said Tuesday he would announce his presidential intentions next month. Wellstone met New Hampshire Gov. Jeanne Shaheen, a Democrat, and also visited several Democratic supporters in their homes. New Hampshire traditionally holds the first presidential primary.

Sen. John Ashcroft (R-Mo.) said Friday that he is laying the groundwork for simultaneous White House and Senate campaigns in 2000. Aides to the conservative senator said they believe he will seek the GOP presidential nomination, although his decision is not yet final. He is telling supporters to have a presidential operation ready to go when he announces his intentions Jan. 5 in his hometown of Springfield.

With a ringing call "to help unleash the enormous potential of the American people," former Sen. Bill Bradley signaled Friday that he intends to challenge Vice President Al Gore for the 2000 Democratic presidential nomination. "I am taking an enormous step, a step I have not taken before," the former Rhodes scholar and star of the New York Knicks professional basketball team said as he officially established a committee to promote his candidacy.

Al Gore came to Orange County Friday to talk about reinventing government. But when he got here his agenda was politics the old way: a groundbreaking, a fund-raiser, photo ops with cute kids--and politicking for Rep. Loretta Sanchez (D-Garden Grove), at his side all day.

A military court sentenced presidential candidate Gen. Lino Oviedo to 10 years in jail for leading an attempted coup in 1996 and ordered his dishonorable discharge from the army. Oviedo, the ruling Colorado Party's candidate in elections scheduled for May, was sentenced for "crimes against the order and security of the armed forces, and insubordination," according to a copy of the sentence. As the charges related to a coup attempt, the nation's Supreme Court of Justice has to give its final say.