Clinton's Gaffes Haven't Harmed His Bankability

greenspun.com : LUSENET : Unk's Wild Wild West : One Thread

By Michael Powell
Washington Post Staff Writer
Sunday, February 25, 2001; Page A06

He's pardoned the unpardonable. Besmirched his legacy. Longtime allies distance themselves: The money offers dry up.

Such is the conventional Washington take, which often seems to bear little relationship to Bill Clinton's daily reality.

The former president strolls through Harlem to electric shouts and high-fives. A few days later he is in New Orleans, getting $100,000 and a standing ovation for a speech to Oracle Corp. On Tuesday, he is in New York at a Credit Suisse/Variety Magazine conference for his next six-figure talk.

"The man's brilliant; his Harlem move was so great," said Dan Klores, a New York public relations man. "Bill Clinton is going to have trouble making money? Please."

Clinton Inc., the financial and social affairs of the former president, has been shaken but -- barring further revelations -- appears in little long-term danger. His book deal is a when, not an if. Publishing insiders place his advance at slightly less than his wife's $8 million, although what sources term a "Full Monty" disclosure of presidential vice and virtue could hike his ante.

"There are tens of millions of Americans who happily voted for him twice, and Clinton has a take on his presidency that only he can supply," says Stuart Applebaum of Random House. "It's a very Beltway point of view to assume that the recent controversies diminish his appeal as an author."

Clinton is no less awash in speaking offers, says Don Walker, proprietor of the Harry Walker Agency. Although Walker says he thinks it is unseemly to discuss clients with the media, he makes an exception for Clinton, because the cognitive dissonance bothers him.

"There is this dual reality. At night I watch the talking head TV shows and it sounds as though it's all falling apart," Walker says. "Then I go to my office and I've never seen anything close to this in 29 years. By the time I vet the offers . . . they are piling up like airplanes over LaGuardia on a foggy day."

Still, Clinton's pardon problems trouble some image-conscious corporations. A month back, Morgan Stanley Dean Witter officials fell over themselves to ensure Clinton's attendance at its Boca Raton, Fla., retreat, repeatedly calling to ask whether he might arrive early to play golf with favored clients. And the former president, by all accounts, gave good weight for his money, playing nine holes, answering questions for two hours and posing for photos.

But when some clients complained, the company's chairman, Philip Purcell, sent an apologetic e-mail: "We should have been far more sensitive to the strong feelings of our clients over Mr. Clinton's personal behavior as president." After which some Democratic-leaning clients publicly announced that they had canceled their Morgan Stanley accounts.

"People sure seem to feel strongly about him," Karen Glass, a spokeswoman for Oracle, said before his speech. "I'm afraid I can't tell you the language in some of the correspondence sent to us. But we're certainly glad he's coming!"

His box-office appeal is indisputable. A scheduled Clinton speech in Hamilton, Ontario, was marketed at $200 a ticket and sold out in 24 hours. Tickets to a March 26 speech at Salem State College in Massachusetts lasted 48 hours. And he is mulling offers to speak at corporate retreats and conferences in Copenhagen, Monte Carlo, Puerto Rico, California and Japan.

A resort on the Italian Riviera offered Clinton a quarter-million dollars to play his saxophone at the San Remo song festival. He turned the offer down. And a mainland Chinese textile firm offered Clinton $2 million to serve as its "image ambassador."

"It's a marriage made in heaven!" insisted Wang Yongrong, the firm's assistant general manager. "We're an up-and-coming Chinese company looking for markets. And Clinton is an intense, influential guy!"

Clinton is quite popular in China, where the Monica Lewinsky scandal played as first-rate soap opera. Most Chinese took Clinton's affair as evidence of his good health.

Now Wang claims to possess a letter from Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.) expressing interest on her husband's behalf. When pressed, he could not produce the letter. The senator's spokesman Jim Kennedy said the staff recalled no such letter. Asked whether Clinton would recommend that her husband become an "image ambassador," Kennedy responded: "I think I'll leave that one in the zone of privacy!"

In addition, to such offers, the Clintons receive handsome government benefits. As an ex-president, Clinton receives a yearly pension of $161,200 and lifelong secret service protection -- including a driver. The federal government covers telephone, postage and motor pool costs, and the Secret Service has rented an 1,100-square-foot portion of his Chappaqua, N.Y., residence.

That said, Clinton carries more than a few burdens, financial and political. The former president ran up $11 million worth of legal bills during the past eight years, as his lawyers fended off impeachment and shadow-boxed with special prosecutors. Some wealthy supporters set up a legal defense fund that has paid out more than $6.5 million. But a large debt remains.

"The public and the press accepts the idea that being subjected to $10 million worth of legal bills as a result of being president is just unfair and unwarranted," said Anthony F. Essaye, executive director of the fund, and a partner in a District law firm. "We thought it made sense to go out and ask the public for help."

Then there's Clinton's home state and his presidential library. This was to be his labor of love, the building of a glass-enclosed $200 million library and foundation by the banks of the Arkansas River.

But Skip Rutherford, the library's chairman, has spent the past few weeks answering media questions about contributions to the library fund -- with special attention paid to a $450,000 check written by Manhattan songwriter Denise Rich. As is the custom at other presidential libraries, Rutherford has declined to publicly name all the contributors.

Rutherford has run into more prosaic problems. An Arkansas woman has sued to challenge the state's right to take her land for the library site, an effort that threatens further delay.

The string of headaches is long, and Rutherford sighs over the phone line. "Some of Clinton's opponents and the press," he said, "need to find a 12-step program to wean themselves off the man."

Nor is all well in Clinton's new home of New York. As news of his troubles percolated through that city's social and political hierarchy, some foresaw problems. "He will get invitations to parties in New York, but when he leaves the room, everyone will talk about him," said former mayor Edward I. Koch.

The New York Observer, a weekly newspaper catering to the city's prominent, wrote off the Clintons as fumbling arrivistes. "The Clintons should understand . . . this town has never wanted for celebrities whose reach exceeds their grasp," an Observer editorial warned.

But that, say Clinton's admirers, does not take into account his resilience and visceral feel for celebrity culture.

Already aides limn his path back to prominence. The move to Harlem helped, they say. He'll give speeches, walk the city, and raise copious sums for charity.

"Who doesn't want a former president?" said Barbara Fife, a fixture in New York's political and fundraising circles for three decades. "He's young, he's vibrant, he's Bill Clinton. Let's not pretend he'll be a social outcast."

Staff writer Linton Weeks and correspondent John Pomfret in Beijing contributed to this report.

© 2001 The Washington Post Company




-- Cherri (jessam5@home.com), March 02, 2001

Answers

Cherri,

Were you not the one wondering why all the focus on Clinton? Seems you can't seem to put him down.

-- let's all FOCUS on Clinton (moreinterpretation@ugly.com), March 02, 2001.


cherri's love for me made me turn queer.



-- (William@J. Clinton), March 02, 2001.


Much to the consternation of his enemies Bill will not live or die poor. Suits me if he'd just do both quietly.

-- Carlos (riffraff@cybertime.net), March 03, 2001.

yawn

-- bored (enuf@enuf.already), March 03, 2001.

Moderation questions? read the FAQ