Chaplinesque

Hey you Kid

Why you hangin' around

You see that I am just a tramp

And I'm sorrow bound.

But if you want to tag along

You're welcome to, Kid

--copywrite 1999, words and music by Marco Joachim

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March 1, 2001 New York Times

His Perks and Power Gone, Clinton Faces Storm Alone

By ADAM NAGOURNEY

Bill Clinton walked into an AIDS fund-raiser at the Apollo Theater in Harlem the other night to a flicker of applause and recognition from the audience. His wife was in Washington, so Mr. Clinton's company for his night out consisted of Representative Charles B. Rangel of Harlem, the singer Roberta Flack, and a modest crew of Secret Service agents.

The former president spent the next four hours in a cramped center seat, at times chatting with Mr. Rangel and Ms. Flack and occasionally autographing a program that was passed over the seats.

Mostly, though, he was a very famous man who was sitting very much alone.

That night in Harlem captured, in many ways, what life has become for Mr. Clinton in the six weeks since he left the White House. Whether he is roaming around his 11-room home in Chappaqua with his dog, Buddy, unpacking 120 boxes and filling bookshelves, learning how to use his A.T.M. cash card and his new Palm Pilot, or venturing out of the wooded confines of northern Westchester for a night in Manhattan, a man who so craves attention and company is described by friends as adrift and often isolated.

He has lost much of his White House staff, the counsel of many of the people who have guided him through eight years of intermittent crises, and even the daily companionship of his family. His wife, Hillary Rodham Clinton, the new senator from New York, essentially lives in Washington, and their daughter, Chelsea, 21, is about to head back to college in California.

Mr. Clinton's friends had warned him of the solitude he would face as he made the adjustment to becoming another spouse of a member of Congress, living alone in the suburban house his wife chose when she was running for the Senate.

But the incessant controversy over a series of last-minute pardons has exacerbated his forced isolation. Many of the people to whom he might turn were involved in either seeking or reviewing the pardons and thus have drawn the attention of Congressional and federal investigators. Several of them, including Bruce R. Lindsey, the former deputy White House counsel, are expected to testify before a House panel today.

"The staff you want to help you out are part of the story," said one of Mr. Clinton's former White House aides.

Mrs. Clinton was described by friends as torn over her husband's predicament, at once angered that the pardons he granted have tarnished her entry into public life, but distressed that no one is around to help Mr. Clinton deal with the public relations disasters that have marked his entry into private life, or to help him work out of what the family friend described as "his funk," at a time when "he is pretty much walled up in Chappaqua."

The two Clintons continue to share advice, one friend said. But that has been complicated by their geographic separation, by suggestions of some of Mrs. Clinton's advisers that she draw some distance from her husband, and by the continuing distraction of Mrs. Clinton's new job, the friend said. They have yet to find time to take the vacation together that Mr. Clinton had said they would take at the first Congressional recess, now long passed.

The difficulties of Mr. Clinton's personal transition — in ways large but also small, like the times he accidentally cut friends off while trying to place his own telephone calls from his makeshift office — have become a subject of increased discussion and concern among his friends, even as they plot ways to rehabilitate his image. Both Mr. Clinton and Mrs. Clinton declined requests for an interview.

-- Lars (larsguy@yahoo.com), March 01, 2001

Answers

His Perks and Power Gone, Clinton Faces Storm Alone

(Page 2 of 2)

Mr. Clinton's paid transition staff — about 10 people, including schedulers, a correspondence unit, a press secretary, and his longtime personal secretary, Betty Currie — work 300 miles away from Chappaqua, out of an office on Jackson Place across the street from the White House.

Mr. Clinton has explicitly avoided visiting Washington until the furor over the detail of his exit subsidies, one friend said. As a result, he has spent only one night there since he left office, staying with Mrs. Clinton in their new home near Embassy Row. He has yet to visit his transition office. For her part, Mrs. Clinton has made it back to New York only on weekends, and not always then.

In Chappaqua, the former president's staff consists of Oscar, his personal military valet (Mr. Clinton's aides have declined to divulge Oscar's last name) who cooks him meals and tends to his clothes and household needs. When he travels, he is accompanied by the personal assistant who served the same function for him when he was president.

After years in which White House operators tracked down whom he wanted when he wanted them, and bid them to wait for Mr. Clinton to come on the line, the 42nd president of the United States now has to make his own telephone calls, from his temporary office at home in Chappaqua. None of this will change, it seems, at least until summer, when his Harlem office should be ready.

Despite the isolation of his private life, he remains an enormous celebrity, especially in New York. The very first week that Mr. Clinton was in New York, he attended a performance of "Aida" at the Metropolitan Opera, where he was mobbed by operagoers. But if his appearance at the Apollo Theater the other night is any indication, there are signs that the novelty may be fading: His presence was mentioned only once from the stage, and most theatergoers seemed as impressed at catching sight of Ms. Flack as they were with seeing Mr. Clinton.

Mr. Clinton's friends and advisers describe him as subdued, angered and, to some extent, perplexed at the extent to which he has remained a prominent and vilified figure in American public life. People who have spoken to him say he believes that Republicans would have found a way to demonize him out of office even without what even his friends acknowledge is the assistance he provided them.

Still, one friend who speaks regularly with him, Paul Begala, said that Mr. Clinton was not reacting the way he had during other difficult passages in his life. "I've seen him self-pitying, and I've seen him enraged, but I haven't seen him that way now," Mr. Begala said. "More than anything, I've found him to be puzzled: it's like, `How can anyone think that way?' "

All of this has set back the game plan that Mr. Clinton's advisers had laid out for him for his post-White House life. In the original formulation, Mr. Clinton was going to retreat to a quiet, dignified and lucrative private existence, giving speeches, writing his memoirs, and — following the model of former President Jimmy Carter — associating himself with some sort of good works.

That plan has been shoved off the tracks, at least for now; he has, for example, delayed meeting with publishers in New York to sell his memoirs. Instead, Mr. Clinton has begun over these past few days a campaign to rehabilitate his image. He will begin a series of trips overseas, including visits to India, Africa and Europe. Part of this is to make money — overseas speaking fees tend to be much larger than domestic ones — but also to identify himself with public service, like aiding the victims of the Indian earthquake.

There also is discussion among Mr. Clinton's advisers about a plan under which he would donate a portion of any money he earns in the years ahead, from speeches for instance, to charity. "Over the years, the Clintons have always given away a significant portion of their income to charity, and the former president fully intends to continue that pattern," said his lawyer, Robert Barnett, who handled the sale of Mrs. Clinton's book, and will do the same for Mr. Clinton.

So far, some companies have shied away from sponsoring Mr. Clinton's speeches, because of the storm over the pardons. Yet his aides say Mr. Clinton has received offers for corporate and other private sector work, including a role as a network commentator, offers that his aides say he will weigh in the months ahead. He has also been pressed to do television advertisements. "The president has instructed me to turn them all down," Mr. Barnett said.

There had been discussion as well among Mr. Clinton's advisers to set up a central operation to respond to attacks on Mr. Clinton, or a war room, but that idea has been discarded. "Can I kill one thing?" said Karen Tramontano, Mr. Clinton's chief of staff. "There are not daily conference calls, there's no war room."

But many Democrats who have watched him drift through the cloud of his post-presidential days say they wish he had done precisely that. James Carville, his longtime friend and adviser, said he had told Mr. Clinton that he needed to get out there and "tell his story" before it is too late.

"My advice is he's got to get out there and explain what happened," Mr. Carville said. "No one is going to do it for you. I don't think he's done it yet. I think he will."

Still, a number of Democrats applauded the news that Mr. Clinton is about to head out of the country and, presumably, off the front pages. For now, one of Mr. Clinton's friends said, that might be the very best thing that could happen to Mr. Clinton and his party.

-- Lars (larsguy@yahoo.com), March 01, 2001.

>>>There also is discussion among Mr. Clinton's advisers about a plan under which he would donate a portion of any money he earns in the years ahead, from speeches for instance, to charity.

Waffle waffle waffle.

-- scarecrow (somewhere@over.rainbow), March 02, 2001.

Clinton, a sad, lugubrious figure. I almost feel sorry for him. Almost.

-- Lars (larsguy@yahoo.com), March 02, 2001.