1.   Also in the news conference, Blair called Clinton a friend, but would not comment on the pardon controversy surrounding the former president.

2.   It was his first comment on the pardon controversy.

3.   Meantime, Vice President Dick Cheney said the Bush administration was moving ahead with its legislative agenda and trying to avoid being drawn into the pardon controversy.

4.   Never before has money been at the center of a pardon controversy.

5.   Some results from a Gallup Poll released Thursday on former President Clinton, Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton and the pardon controversy that has surrounded them in recent days.