Clinton Lets Slip With Dole Bank Quip
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WASHINGTON — The much-ballyhooed loan by 1996 GOP presidential nominee Bob Dole to House Speaker Newt Gingrich (R-Ga.) has prompted a range of “no comments” from White House officials, who privately are amused at the brouhaha.
But Friday, President Clinton could not resist a brief remark about his former rival’s seeming generosity. Asked about Dole’s plan to lend the beleaguered House speaker $300,000 to help pay an ethics fine, a grinning Clinton told reporters:
“I was thinking about calling Senator Dole this afternoon. You know, Chelsea is about to go to college.”
But the president quickly reverted to the administration’s official hands-off policy on the delicate topic. Any question of the loan’s propriety, he said, is a matter “that has to be settled by the House.”
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