A committee spokesman said that the party chairman, David Wilhelm, dropped the idea because questions had been raised about whether the foundation, given its origin, could be truly bipartisan.

Now I challenge Congress to go further: to curb special interest influence in politics by passing the first truly bipartisan campaign finance reform bill in a generation.

The President will "gladly sign this bill if Congress puts it on his desk," Mr. Gore said, but he added quickly that the Administration was after a "truly bipartisan bill."

Republican leaders contend that their Democratic counterparts have no interest in truly bipartisan, centrist policies - only in picking off three or four Republicans at the margins to squeak through a bill.

Many of the things we did were truly bipartisan in character.

The moderate effort was truly bipartisan.

The Democrats insisted that to be truly bipartisan, the panel ought to be composed of equal numbers of Democrats and Republicans.

When everybody's in place and the board has been truly bipartisan, the result has been deadlock.

A unified American stance could have a decisive impact, and a truly bipartisan diplomatic engagement now might still avoid the need for yet another military intervention.

Ms. Wexler, who advised Mr. Dukakis, said, "We're truly bipartisan."