How ironic

I send my best wishes to former Sen. Bob Dole who recently suffered from a really bad fall that injured him. Disagree politically with him, I do. Wish suffering on others, I do not.

IIf it didn't almost kill him, you'd have to wonder whether former Sen. Bob Dole 's recent accident and 22-day hospital stay weren't just a publicity stunt to promote his upcoming book on his near-fatal World War II injury and five-year recovery. "Almost 60 years to the date I was wounded, I get all this stuff where I can't feed myself, I can't walk," he tells Whispers. "I end up coming full circle, back in the hospital." What initially was reported as a simple tumble was, in fact, a potentially deadly spill. On January 11, just back from a trip to fact-check his book, One Soldier's Story, Dole fell while putting a suitcase away. The 81-year-old was rushed to Walter Reed Army Medical Center to stitch up a cut from his eyeglasses. Later, at home, he felt sick. "I was in misery." Turns out he had severely damaged his left arm--his right is permanently disabled from his war injury--and suffered bleeding in his head, worsened by the blood thinners he was taking. Back at Walter Reed, doctors worked fast to save his life. "My book is about recovery and rehab for five years after World War II," he says. "Talk about an ironic repeat."

President Bush insists on calling Senator Ben Nelson "Nellie." Nelson prefers Tiger, Killer, or Hunter.

Maybe seeing an opening, Bush recently switched Nellie for "Bennie." But still. "If I can get him to go the next mile to 'Benator,'" says Nelson, "we can end negotiations." He adds that at least Bush "doesn't call me 'Pootie Poot,'" the prez's nickname for Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Now, this has got to be interesting. An Australian family has put the naming rights of their unborn kid up for auction on ebay. Let's hope Michael Jackson doesn't buy it.