THE '90s Bush's popularity plunged as the nation underwent a long recession, and in 1992 voters elected Arkansas Gov. Bill Clinton, a centrist Democrat. But voters delivered a different message in the 1994 mid-term elections, putting Republican majorities in both the House and Senate for the first time since 1955. In 1996, the GOP threw its hopes to Bob Dole, who resigned as Senate majority leader to press his third quest for the White House. "New Democrat" Bill Clinton vowed to reinvent government, but mid-term voters reinvented the Republican-controlled Congress. [ PREVIOUS ]