Robert J Dole

In a gesture of his determination to put the partisan wars of the last four years behind him, President Clinton bestowed the nation's highest civilian honor on erstwhile political nemesis and presidential rival Bob Dole. But no sooner did Clinton drape the Presidential Medal of Freedom around Dole's neck than the flinty Kansas Republican infused the solemn White House ceremony with his trademark irreverence.

It is a tale of two veterans, two senators, two parties, two presidential candidates, one war. Bob Dole, the wisecracking conservative, and George McGovern, the professorial peacenik, shared the stage Thursday as Washington, D.C., kicked off its summer-long tribute to the World War II generation. Prompted by Marc Pachter, director of the National Portrait Gallery, they talked about how the war changed them and the country.

Former Republican presidential candidate Pat Buchanan and former California Democratic party leader Bill Press usually argue opposite points of view on their midday show on MSNBC. But Thursday they were in agreement: It is a bad idea for President Bill Clinton to join their politician-turned-pundit ranks.

Former President Clinton, in his first televised mini-debate with Republican Bob Dole, said Sunday that a tax cut at a time when war is looming in Iraq is "bad economics." Dole, Clinton's opponent in the 1996 election, said the Bush administration has started a global war to protect the American way of life, "which means, among other things, the freedom to save or invest our own money."

The revival of a "Point-Counterpoint"-style debate featuring 1996 presidential rivals Bill Clinton and Bob Dole yielded "60 Minutes' " second-biggest audience this season, based on preliminary viewing estimates for Sunday. The venerable newsmagazine clocked in at nearly 17 million viewers, 17% above the program's average this season. Clinton and Dole's widely publicized appearance aired in the middle of the broadcast, with the two-minute segments scheduled to run at least 10 weeks.

The "point-counterpoint" face-off between former President Bill Clinton and former Senate Majority Leader Bob Dole on CBS News' "60 Minutes" was announced as a 10-week deal, and it's looking like the deal may end there. The two-minute segments, which are unusual in bringing a former U.S. president to a regular slot on television, launched to great media attention March 9.

Those point-counterpoint segments by former President Clinton and former Sen. Bob Dole on CBS' "60 Minutes" are definitely gone, but the duo could return to the show in some form. The feature "will not come back in the form we had it," CBS News President Andrew Heyward said Thursday. "It wasn't the best showcase for their views and the difference between their views."

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.

Hoping to improve sales of its Viagra drug, Pfizer Inc. has hired former presidential contender Bob Dole for a television advertising campaign to raise awareness about impotence. Dole, a former Senate majority leader, will participate in a series of public service activities, including speaking engagements and educational advertising that focus on impotence and men's health in general, the company said.

The Federal Election Commission unanimously decided against ordering the campaigns of President Clinton and Republican challenger Bob Dole to repay millions of federal dollars for violating spending limits. The commission rejected its auditors' argument that millions of dollars worth of TV ads run by the Democratic and Republican parties should count against spending limits agreed to by Clinton and Dole in exchange for receiving federal campaign funds.