Clinton learning how to get cash from an ATM
Bill Nalty
Clinton's only steady companions in Chappaqua are his dog, Buddy, and a
former White House valet who has helped him learn modern skills he never
needed to master before: getting cash from an ATM, operating his
PalmPilot, even putting a telephone call on hold.
http://www.usatoday.com/news/politics/2001-03-13-clintonexile.htm
USA TODAY
03/14/2001 - Updated 03:44 PM ET
Clinton coping with a new way of life in N.Y.
By Bill Nichols, USA TODAY
PLEASANTVILLE, N.Y. — In the front row of Bedford Road Elementary
School's tiny auditorium, the audience could spy the backlit silhouette
of a familiar shock of white hair. William Jefferson Clinton, 42nd
president of the United States, had come from nearby Chappaqua last week
to watch a play. The school production, Lost in New York, was about two
visitors from Venus trying to find their way. Why was Clinton, just days
before he left on a weeklong trip to Europe, in attendance? Students and
teachers had invited him. "Besides, I had the morning free," the former
leader of the free world cracked.
The play was a fitting metaphor for Clinton's post-presidential
transition. Many of his closest friends and current and former aides
fear that he, too, is struggling to find his way as he embarks on a new
life.
It's bad enough that he's disoriented by the loss of the trappings of
public life for the first time since 1981, associates say. But the
former president and Arkansas governor has also been thrown off balance
by the furor over the pardons he granted during his waning hours in
power, they say.
Clinton's aides ridicule reports that paint him as a yuppie hermit. But
the truth is that Clinton has become trapped in a kind of exile in
Chappaqua, 40 miles from New York City. He lives in a
not-quite-furnished house that visitors say has a sparse supply of food
and the kind of mismatched dishware that a college freshman might have.
Clinton's only steady companions in Chappaqua are his dog, Buddy, and a
former White House valet who has helped him learn modern skills he never
needed to master before: getting cash from an ATM, operating his
PalmPilot, even putting a telephone call on hold.
Those closest to Clinton wonder whether this man who devoted his adult
life to becoming president can find a way to live a normal, happy life
at age 54.
"Bill Clinton has said there is no one who loved being president more
than he did," says Lisa Caputo, who had been Hillary Rodham Clinton's
White House press secretary. "It was very difficult for him to leave the
office of the presidency, and he wasn't fully mentally prepared for
private life."
His discomfort was evident during his final days in office, friends say.
He told people he wasn't sleeping. He postponed key decisions about his
future, such as hiring a press spokesperson. He took hours to pack all
his Oval Office memorabilia himself.
Troubled transition
Clinton's exile has been accentuated by regular separations from his
wife, now a U.S. senator from New York. She spends most of her time in
Washington and is in Chappaqua only on weekends. The former president
has spent just two nights in their Washington home since leaving office.
Aides say he has stayed away from Washington to avoid stealing the
spotlight from his wife and President Bush.
Clinton's pardons for such figures as fugitive financier Marc Rich have
hurt his public reputation more than any of the other scandals that
dogged him in office. A USA TODAY/CNN/Gallup Poll released this week
found 75% believe Clinton's pardons were unethical, if not illegal. An
earlier Gallup Poll put Clinton's negative rating at 59% — his highest
ever in a Gallup Poll.
Still, Clinton retains charismatic appeal with many core Democrats. Last
Friday, he received a long ovation from a largely African-American
audience during a visit to Atlanta. And a New York Daily News poll
published Sunday showed Clinton would win overwhelming support from
Democrats if he ran for mayor of New York.
Another plus for Clinton is the family's finances, even though he and
his wife face $8 million in legal fees and mortgages on the $1.7 million
home in Chappaqua and the $2.87 million home in Washington.
He receives a $157,000 annual pension; Sen. Clinton earns $141,300 per
year. She will receive about $8 million as an advance for her memoirs;
he is negotiating a book deal that is expected to bring around $5
million. The former president also will earn millions for speaking
around the world at $100,000 to $150,000 a speech.
But friends say the pardons uproar, including a criminal probe by U.S.
Attorney Mary Jo White in New York, has made Clinton's adjustment that
much worse.
Out of sight
In Chappaqua, Clinton is hardly ever seen outside his 11-room home, as
reporters still follow his every move. TV networks rotate crews to
maintain a constant vigil at the end of his driveway.
One day last week, Clinton had an aide bring the media crew bagels and
coffee. Clinton never speaks to them, though, and all they ever glimpse
of him is his profile in the back seat of his Chevrolet Suburban,
flanked by a three- to six-member Secret Service detail.
Advisers have become so concerned about what Clinton might say to the
media that even permission for this USA TODAY reporter to attend the
school play while Clinton watched last Wednesday became the subject of
intense negotiations.
This reporter was allowed in only after Clinton had arrived — and had to
leave before Clinton departed so the former president wouldn't be asked
any questions.
Descriptions of Clinton's mood depend on whom one talks to and what time
of day it is. Some friends and former aides say he's furious over the
pardons controversy. Both Clintons are said to be so angry that Sen.
Clinton's brother, Hugh Rodham, had accepted $400,000 to obtain pardons
for two clients that they have not spoken to him since the flap broke
last month. Rodham has since returned the money.
Some say Clinton realizes he has made mistakes and may ultimately admit
that. Others say he is resigned to the furor but believes it will blow
over if he just ignores it.
What emerges from dozens of interviews is a portrait of a man used to
controlling his message who now must devise a new approach to presenting
himself.
"His biggest problem is that he isn't president," says Max Brantley, a
friend who edits the weekly Arkansas Times. "He doesn't have a policy or
press apparatus to gin up something to change the subject."
An informal kitchen cabinet, including former White House chief of staff
John Podesta and former press secretary Joe Lockhart, has come together
to advise Clinton.
Clinton's handful of official staffers work in a Washington office that
will be phased out this summer, when he moves into a permanent office in
Harlem.
Aides hope the New York office will give Clinton more structure and
support. But without a large staff to guide him, Clinton thus far has
operated largely on his own, with mixed results.
Aides have been surprised to find that he has held private interviews
and dinners in Chappaqua with prominent journalists. His impromptu chat
with CNBC's Geraldo Rivera last month was never cleared with his staff.
Rivera's account suggested that Clinton blamed the pardons flap on
Republican zealots and his lack of staff.
Clinton sometimes seems baffled by life outside the White House, former
aides say. After spending a night in Washington last month, Clinton
decided to motorcade to Chappaqua the next night. He didn't take the
Washington-New York shuttle in part to avoid reporters — but also
because he was dismayed to learn that he couldn't take Buddy on the
flight, the aides say.
Future plans
Clinton's Washington office gets a steady stream of faxes and calls from
him as he plans speeches and charitable works.
Aides say he brainstormed with former secretary of State Madeleine
Albright and national security adviser Samuel Berger last Thursday night
to plan the trip he began Sunday to the Netherlands, Germany and
Denmark. Clinton also plans to visit India next month to raise money for
earthquake victims, and hopes to take a trip to Africa this summer to
raise money for combating that continent's AIDS epidemic.
Advisers had been planning a high-stakes Clinton TV interview, but that
idea has died down. Aides now say the pardons furor is winding down,
although the criminal inquiry in New York remains a wild card. Loyalists
say that the best thing Clinton can do is keep a low profile and rebuild
his image. "The president should take the long view," says former White
House adviser Doug Sosnik. "He should get some rest and think about
what's really important to him and then make some long-term decisions
about his future when he's in the right frame of mind."
Part of the lore of Bill Clinton is the danger of underestimating his
resiliency. Yet once again, Clinton has created a steep mountain to
climb. Virtually no Democrat will defend his pardon of Rich, and even
many of his most loyal former staffers are critical in private.
"People are disappointed," says former National Security Council
spokesman David Leavy. "Everyone would have liked and preferred a
smoother exit. But that doesn't take away from the accomplishments of
the last eight years." In Chappaqua, around the corner from a Grand
Union supermarket, the Comeback Kid is plotting one more return to
grace. But the road out of the wilderness has been hard to find.
"You know, I'm kind of like our two friends from Venus," Clinton told
the audience at the school after the play ended. Those close to him
wouldn't quibble.
© Copyright 2001 USA TODAY, a division of Gannett Co. Inc.
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Wayne Mann
<biln...@bellsouth.net> wrote:
>Both Clintons are said to be so angry that Sen.
>Clinton's brother, Hugh Rodham, had accepted $400,000 to obtain pardons
>for two clients that they have not spoken to him since the flap broke
>last month. Rodham has since returned the money.
He has only returned a small portion of it. Why does the
media report things like this as fact when they are NOT true? Another
example is the illegal money the DNC collected in 1994-1995. The
media always says, "they returned the money." That is a _LIE_ just
like the lies Lulu tells. The FACT is they have returned very little
of it. Again why does the media lie like this?
\\/ayne //\ann
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