"Today" co-host Bryant Gumbel questions Tim Russert on a report showing Medicare would go broke a year earlier than expected, June 5, 1996:

Tim, curious. Would we still be having this discussion if everyone hadn't attacked the President's health care reform plan for political expediency about two years ago?

†

Former U.S. News & World Report White House reporter Matthew Cooper in the New Republic, June 3, 1996:

Dole has certainly shown understanding for the handicapped, sponsoring legislation like 1990's Americans with Disabilities Act.... But how far does Dole's empathy extend? He's helped the disabled but fought family and medical leave that would guarantee employees the right to care for a disabled loved one. He's been soft on the workplace and highway safety regulations and gun-control measures that would prevent many disabling accidents.

†

The New York Times, April 21, 1996:

Judy Collins, the singer, and Louis Nelson, a designer of everything from album covers to the Korean War Veterans Memorial's mural wall in Washington, met on April 16, 1978. They were introduced by friends during an equal rights amendment fund-raiser at the Ginger Man restaurant, which had changed its name to the Ginger Person for the evening.

A feminist and a supporter of women's rights, Ms. Collins pursued him. "She called me the next few days every day," said Mr. Nelson, 59. "I was flabbergasted that she would be interested in me. She was a star. I owned all of her records."

A few days later they went out for dinner, and they "talked about all those things like, you know, the handle of a cup and the rim touching your lips, and purple and green," he remembered. They have lived together ever since.

These days, their social schedule is glamorous. During a recent week, they went out to dinner with Patricia Duff and Ron Perelman on one night, Princess Margaret the second and Erica Jong the third. Yet in many ways, they still seem like a young, open-minded, down-to-earth couple from 1978.

They share a rambling [rent-controlled] Upper West Side apartment filled with colorful candles, guitars and oil paintings by friends, not necessarily framed. They spend weekends in their house in Connecticut, where she likes to record dreams in her journal while he paints watercolors and listens to the wind chimes.

In conversation, they talk about angels, peace, the design of toasters, therapy and the importance of equality in relationships. In a recent interview, they were even careful to talk for equal amounts of time. "If we go out to dinner, I pay one night, he pays one night," said Ms. Collins, 56. "We don't carry scales, but we share equally."

†