A book review: There's no joy in Mudville and there’s no laughter in the Capitol building. For some people, politics is the end of the world (and it could be), but during the days of Reagan, Dole, and Tip O'Neil, it wasn't always this way. It’s getting bitter and nasty out there.

THIS COUNTRY has too many losers. Worse, too many sore losers. But Bob Dole was a funny guy. Who knew? When he lost to Bill Clinton in 1996, two nights later he was on the Letterman show. He also went on the Jay Leno show and Saturday Night Live. All through his career he had collected political jokes and quotes, and a copy of his "Great Political Wit; Laughing (Almost) All the Way to the White House" fell into my hands recently. The popular perception of him was "doleful." I couldn't find that in the dictionary, but I think it's a real word that means dour. The book (Broadway Books, 1998) has 200 laugh-out-loud pages. Examples:

Silent Cal Coolidge was at a ground breaking ceremony and turned over a shovel full of dirt. Someone asked him to say a few words. He looked down and said, "That's a fine fish worm." At the opposite end of the spectrum was the loquacious Hubert Humphrey.

HHH was invited to give a commencement address but was asked to limit it to 12 minutes. He said, "The last time I spoke for only 12 minutes was when I said hello to my mother."

Finally, Senator McCarthy (Eugene) once said, "It's dangerous for a national candidate to say anything that people might remember." [He also said once that the role of moderate Republicans is to shoot the wounded after battle, I must add.]

Dole included some zingers by the late night hosts. Jay Leno said, "Bob Dole is so old he got Grecian Formula from the original Grecian." Also, on Dole campaign fever, "I haven't seen this much excitement since that time we almost switched to the metric system."

David Letterman said, "Bob Dole thinks Hartford is a good place to hold a presidential debate because it's the life insurance capital of the world. Dole is so old his insurance agent is John Hancock."

Dole had said running for office was becoming more difficult than it used to be, so Letterman said, "Of course it was easier when he first ran for office. There were only 13 colonies."

P.S. Dole concluded the book with this paragraph: "Don't feel too bad for me. The appearance of this book coincides with the 50th anniversary of Harry Truman's upset of Thomas Dewey in 1948, which produced a patron saint for every political underdog since. Like Truman, I have a Midwestern preference for plain speaking, and a sometimes impolitic habit of laughing at pomposity. Although there have been times when I've been forced to swallow my pride, I still find it hard to take too seriously people who take themselves that way."

PPS: Some people! Some people are itching to start World War III. The Lord laughs, but take them seriously!