Respond

November 1998 - Volume 30 Issue 11

Since Bruce Lindsey had back surgery, Doug Sosnik has become the aide closest to Bill Clinton. The President is said to admire his savvy political counsel - and his skill at hearts.

Art by Joshua Barlow

What Supreme Court justices do clerks like to work for? The Washingtonian's Kim Eisler reports that the favorites are Antonin Scalia (he engages his clerks in constant legal argument - "Every battle is is fought out like an Italian street fight...It is a wonderful experience") and Stephen Breyer ("full of questions and constantly considering different possibilities" and "constant give and take" and "he can get to the target issue in a case like a cruise missile") and Anthony Kennedy ("most likely to be swayed...by a persuasive clerk"). The least favorite are William Rehnquist ("has written and spoken of the dangers of giving clerks power and influence and he practices that viewpoint") and Ruth Bader Ginsburg ("something of a nightmare"), who works her clerks harder than Sandra Day O'Connor, whose clerks are said to lead a "hellish life."

Why did Monica Lewinsky, when she learned from secret service guards at the Pennsylvania Avenue entrance of the White House that Eleanor Mondale, the thirty-something daughter of former Vice-President Walter Mondale was in the White House, immediately assume that she was in there to visit Bill Clinton? And what did Lewinsky know about Mondale and the president that made her so upset at the news that she created a mini-riot? Just asking.

Bill Clinton must wish he could be Chancellor of Germany instead of at the White House. Erik Kirschbaum of Reuters explains why: "[Gerhard] Schroeder abandoned his third wife just over a year ago in the midst of a steamy affair with a journalist young enough to be his daughter. Astonishingly, the affair took flight in front of a group of journalists on a press junket." The German people, aware of all this, proceeded to elected Schroeder as their Chancellor in September. One said, "It's his private business. Stuff like that would only be a problem in America with all its hypocrisy."

Gregory Craig, who is described by The New York Times as the new "quarterback" of the White House's efforts to avert impeachment, is not exactly a novice at helping clients get out of hot water. He advised Ted Kennedy, when Kennedy's nephew was charged with rape after a night of partying with the senator. And he helped win a verdict of not guilty by reason of insanity for John W. Hinckley, Jr. after Hinckley shot Ronald Reagan.

One of the more esoteric side-issues in Monicagate is the allegation that Michael Isikoff of Newsweek heard a tape of Linda Tripp-Monica Lewinsky conversations in Ken Starr's office on January 15. But we have to confess that we are less interested in the truth of that charge than in its source, Isikoff's limousine driver. What is a reporter doing being driven around town in a limousine? Here at the Monthly it's subway, bus, or shoe leather. Mention of a cab is sure to bring an agonized look to the boss's face.

Bet you didn't know that the Methodist Church is a terrorist organization. Neither did we - that is until we were enlightened by West Virginian Gov. Cecil Underwood who blames the Methodists for a bomb threat at the state capitol.

Rupert Murdoch's employees are learning it's not smart to launch projects that do not take account of the boss's peccadillos. Remember how he killed Chris Patten's book about Hong Kong and fired its editor? Now he has canceled Fox Television's plans to make a TV movie from a book by Jill Abramson and Jane Mayer that sympathetically portrayed Anita Hill. Murdoch, according to Geraldine Fabrikant of the New York Times, "told an associate that Justice [Clarence] Thomas was a friend of his." A waggish friend of ours had this comment: "The only part of his story I find difficult to believe is that there is anyone at Fox liberal enough to be sympathetic to Anita Hill."

One other Monicagate sideshow suggests that Hillary Clinton wasn't being a fruitcake when she suspected a conspiracy. Jill Ambramson - yes, she's the same one who co-authored the Anita Hill book - and Don Van Natta, Jr. of The New York Times report that three lawyers, all members of the conservative Federalist Society, one a partner in Ken Starr's law firm, "worked together in secret deliberations with [Linda Tripp's] confidante, Lucianne Goldberg, to bring Mrs. Tripp's tapes and story to Mr. Starr." Goldberg tells the Times that one of the lawyers was used as "a cutout" to keep the role of Starr's partner obscured.

An anonymous source described by Todd Purdum of The New York Times as a longtime friend and adviser to Bill Clinton recently gave Purdum this appraisal of the President: "He likes people to be his audience. He loves to tell stories, to have long discourses. But that's different from a relationship that's based on mutuality, in which there's a kind of genuine exchange. He loves to charm, to conquer, to get people to admire and love him. But that's different set of human interactions than friendship. It's a one-way charm street." We quote at length because we have heard similar comments, somewhat more gently expressed, by others who were also trying to explain why the President has so few close friends.

William Schneider, the political pulse taker for CNN and the National Journal, says Democratic leaders are worried about "the Ferraro effect." New York pollsters noticed that the less likely people were to vote, the more likely they were to vote for Geraldine Ferraro. Ferraro lost. Other Democratic candidates, Schneider says, fear the same thing will happen to them. The anti-Clinton people are "intense," he explains, while the pro-Clinton people "don't seem to share that same intensity."

Peter Cloeren, Jr. recently pleaded guilty to paying his employees to funnel $37,000 to a Texas Republican congressional candidate. He has also told the Federal Election Commission and The Hill's Jock Friedly who led him astray. The guilty parties, Cloeren alleges, include none other than Tom DeLay, the House Majority Whip. A DeLay aide called Cloeren "a liar, a cheat, and a fraud" before insisting that he not be quoted and threatening never to speak to The Hill again.

Another goodie for all you conspiratorialists out there! In order to persuade Janet Reno to give him authority to prosecute a case of consensual sex, Ken Starr needed evidence that the president had offered Monica Lewinsky a quid pro quo to keep quiet. So what advice did Linda Tripp give Monica? "If you sign the affidavit before you get the job, they're never going to give you the job." In other words, make sure to have a quid pro quo to give Starr. The catch is, and it's one of those irritating little inconveniences for the Starr team, Clinton had already begun to help Lewinsky get a job well before she knew she was going to have to provide an affadavit in the Paula Jones case.

When David Schippers, Majority counsel in the House Judiciary Committee's impeachment investigation, was a Justice Department gangbuster in Chicago, he launched an attack on organized crime. According to Lizette Alvarez of The New York Times, his neighbors, mindful of what could happen to prosecutors who offended the Mob, presented him with a set of oversized numbers for the front of his house. "You don't want anybody to make a mistake, am I right?" Mr. Schippers asked his neighbors. "Exactly," came the reply.

His former pals at the White House are P. O.'d at Mickey Kantor for leaking more for his own benefit, they allege, than to help the President.

Topic A for those who don't believe in impeachment is what is an appropriate punishment for Bill Clinton. Our favorite: to have Linda Tripp as his intern.

~Susan Threadgill