Vivid and painful memories.

President BILL CLINTON on his June 8 radio address, in discussing the current rash of suspected black church arsons, recalled "black churches being burned in my own state when I was a child." The remark was an ad-lib to his prepared text.

Clinton does not see a tragedy; he sees a photo op.

House Majority Leader DICK ARMEY.

Dole came to Washington in January 1961, the cusp of the Kennedy era, on a day when 'Are You Lonesome Tonight' by Elvis Presley was No. 1 on the charts,... the United States cut diplomatic ties with Cuba, and the federal budget showed a surplus.

An ASSOCIATED PRESS story reporting on Bob Dole's last day in the Senate.

Bob Dole must have a death wish. ...There is a rule in politics [that] is almost never violated by successful candidates for president. First, consolidate your base. Then move outward from there. Bob Dole has spent the last week carpet bombing his base.

Washington-based conservative activist PAUL WEYRICH on his National Empowerment Television commentary, "Direct Line."

When Bob Dole was in the Senate, you knew certain things wouldn't happen. Now I'm not so sure.

Sen. DANIEL PATRICK MOYNIHAN (D-N.Y.), lamenting the loss of the compromising Mr. Dole.

The president's recollection is that there were burnings of some black community buildings in the '50s when he was a child.

MARY ELLEN GLYNN, deputy White House press secretary, referring to those presidential memories as indeed being "very vivid and painful."

Jack Kevorkian is a hero. No one has demonstrated any discernible motive from him except that he believes his work is right.

JOHN ROBERTS, North American editor of the British Medical Journal. The heroic Kevorkian helped kill a wheelchair-bound diabetic woman from New Jersey June 11-bringing to at least 29 the number of elderly or handicapped persons he's dispatched during his infamous career.

I've never known of a black church being burned in Arkansas.

JOHN FERGUSON, director of the Arkansas History Commission.