DOLE HAILED BY THE CHIEF : VETERAN OF WWII, POLITICS RECEIVES NATION'S TOP AWARD.

Byline: James Bennet The New York Times

After President Clinton had spoken slowly and earnestly Friday, after he had all but embraced his old Republican rival, Bob Dole, to hang the Medal of Freedom around his neck, it was left to Dole to crack the solemnity and bring the house down.

``I, Robert J. Dole,'' Dole began at the ceremony in the White House. Instantly he was engulfed by a wave of laughter and applause the audience realized he was beginning to recite the presidential oath of office. ``Sorry, wrong speech,'' he said.

Flashing his jowly grin, Dole added that he had hoped to be receiving something else from the president this week: ``The front door key.''

Then, just as abruptly, Dole swung the mood in the East Room in the opposite direction, tersely recalling the heroism of his World War II generation, those who died then, and those who are very old now.

``No one can claim to be equal to this honor,'' Dole said, his voice blurred by emotion, ``but I will cherish it as long as I live, because this occasion allows me to honor some others who are more entitled.

``And I'm looking at a fellow soldier, Sgt. Carafa,'' he continued, nodding at an old friend, Frank Carafa, in the audience. ``He helped me a long time ago.'' Dole did not dwell further on how on April 14, 1945, Carafa dragged the shattered body of 2nd Lt. Dole across an Italian field to safety.

Instead, as an ethics scandal riveted Capitol Hill nearby, and as the president whose own ethics Dole once lampooned sat just a few feet away, Dole of Kansas took the occasion of receiving the nation's highest civilian honor to defend the possibilities, and the nobility, of public service.

``So let me leave a message to the future,'' he said. ``I have found honor in the profession of politics. I have found vitality in the American experiment. Our challenge is not to question American ideals or replace them, but to act worthy of them.''

Dole spoke of his pride at having been in government ``at moments when politics was elevated by courage into history,'' as when the Civil Rights Act was passed.

``The moral challenges of our time can seem less clear, but they still demand conviction and courage and character,'' he said. ``They still require young men and women with faith in our process. They still demand idealists captured by the honor and adventure of service.'' And he said, ``They still demand the president and Congress to find real unity in the public good.''

In appearing with Clinton, Dole seemed to be playing a part in the elaborate display of bipartisan bonhomie and political healing that the White House has choreographed for Clinton's second inauguration. Dole's office said he was contacted only a week ago about appearing Friday.

In an interview, Dole said he was not bothered by any role politics might have played in the ceremony. But he added, ``I'm not totally naive.''

Still, he said: ``The election is over, and the American people want us to straighten up here and march ahead. And that's the best thing I can do.''

With his familiar staccato diction, Dole described what he thought about during Friday's ceremony. ``People who never came back. People who came back. Not just that generation. You think about America. The White House. It was a very historic, proud moment for me.''

The White House said Dole's appearance was long in the works. Friday's ceremony made sense for the presentation, the White House said, because Clinton also unveiled the winning design for a World War II memorial.

``The notion of paying some tribute to Sen. Dole is something the president thought about doing almost immediately after the election,'' said Michael D. McCurry, the White House press secretary. He added that Clinton had asked the White House to look into awarding the medal to Dole and had received a report around Thanksgiving. He then dispatched Robert Strauss, the former ambassador, to sound out Dole. Strauss declined to describe his role further.

In his remarks at the ceremony, the president described Dole's war wounds. ``Yet Sen. Dole turned adversity to advantage and pain to public service,'' he said, ``embodying the motto of the state that he loved and went on to serve so well: Ad astra per aspera - to the stars through difficulties. Son of the soil, citizen, soldier and legislator, Bob Dole understands the American people, their struggles, their triumphs and their dreams.''

Since the campaign, Dole has made a few television appearances on comedy shows, but he has generally stayed out of sight, weighing options, his aides said, that include joining a law firm, joining the speaking circuit, and performing in a movie. This week, he filmed a commercial for Visa, to be shown during the Super Bowl.

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Photo

Photo: (color) Bob Dole accepts the Presidential Medal of Freedom at a White House ceremony.

Knight-Ridder Tribune Photo Service