Robert J Dole

On whining microphones, in overheated rooms, to bundled and booted voters across Iowa and New Hampshire, Bob Dole tells this story about how he became a Republican. Years ago, when he had returned home to Russell, Kan., his body shattered by a war wound that almost killed him, the leading Democrat in town came to his house and told him that he ought to consider going into politics. "But I don't know anything about politics," Dole protested. "It's not necessary," came the reply. "You got shot.

In an unusually harsh criticism of White House foreign policy in the midst of a potential crisis, Republican presidential nominee Bob Dole said Sunday that the fighting in Iraq was the result of a "failure of American leadership." Tackling the Clinton administration on broader foreign policy issues, Dole also faulted what he said was a "harmful and embarrassing" intervention in Israel's election and a reluctance to challenge terrorists.

Kansas Sen. Bob Dole, struggling to maintain a political foothold as his presidential campaign sputters, Wednesday castigated Massachusetts Gov. Michael S. Dukakis and other Democratic candidates as cynics whose "failure of nerve as well as failure of vision" have encouraged the progress of the Marxist regime in Nicaragua.

Just two days before President Clinton is to announce ways to reduce youth violence, Republican rival Bob Dole called for getting tough on juvenile criminals by making their records stick with them through life. "Unless something is done soon, some of today's newborns will become tomorrow's super-predators--merciless criminals capable of committing the most vicious of acts for the most trivial of reasons," Dole said Saturday in a weekly GOP radio address.

He gave away his first congressional pension check--$6,650 for one month's retirement--and blew out far too few candles, but it was the thought that counted Monday as Bob Dole celebrated his 73rd birthday with a four-cake campaign swing that ended here in his hometown. Dole and his wife, Elizabeth, started the day with a "reverse" birthday party at Sarah's Circle, a Washington senior center named for the biblical figure who was said to have given birth for the first time at age 91.

Abandoning another cherished goal on the conservative agenda, Bob Dole said Tuesday a repeal of the ban on assault weapons, which he once called a top personal legislative priority, is no longer on his agenda. Even with the current ban on 19 types of assault weapons, 11 are already back on the market in some other form. " . . . let's be realistic," he said. "We've moved beyond the debate."

Entertainment industry figures lashed back Thursday at Senate Majority Leader Bob Dole's charge that Hollywood was producing "nightmares of depravity," although some acknowledged a need for the exercise of caution. Dole, a GOP presidential contender, leveled his attack in Los Angeles Wednesday night at a reception for political donors, charging that "the mainstreaming of deviancy" by Hollywood is a danger to the nation's culture as he took on movies, TV and music.

With his sweeping victory over Bob Dole on Tuesday, President Clinton laid claim to a broad-based political coalition that unified the Democratic Party to an extraordinary degree while expanding his reach into the center of the electorate, according to a Times exit poll of voters nationwide.

"Some compassion on health and welfare issues will be useful politically as well as being right philosophically," the longtime adviser counseled Sen. Bob Dole (R-Kan.) before he began his presidential campaign. But "don't let them get the impression that you are no longer tough," he quickly added. "Being tough with a smile is the best posture for you." If the mixture of political positioning and philosophy--as well as the emphasis on toughness--sounds familiar, it should.

Taking his California campaign from San Diego to Sacramento, Republican presidential hopeful Bob Dole hammered away at his anti-crime message Wednesday, saying that his candidacy is in part about "taking back America" from violent criminals, young and old. Cheered on by California's top Republican leaders, Dole also made a spirited pitch for welfare reform, saying there is "no better crime prevention program" than a revamped system that emphasizes family values and the work ethic.