XXXXX DRUDGE REPORT XXXXX SATURDAY APRIL 14, 2001 19:48:09 ET XXXXX

TOGETHER AGAIN: CLINTONS FIND NEW LOVE IN TROPICAL PARADISE!

**Exclusive**

After being apart and living separate lives for the past four months, Former President Clinton and his wife Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton arrived in the Dominican Republic late Saturday to spend six days and five nights -- together -- at a posh resort.

A family source on Saturday described the secret Easter getaway as a "second honeymoon" for the couple!

"They've fallen madly in love with each all other again!" declared the well-placed source. In a stunning development, the source added:

"I would not be surprised if they renew their vows during the trip."

[OG Note - yebbut, just what vows are they???]

* * * * *

The Clintons arrived on the island via private jet Saturday evening and raced to a luxury villa in the resort of Punta Cana.

"They were in deep passion... kissing," a source who works for charter airline Aeronave Dominicana told the DRUDGE REPORT. "They were beaming, like lovers."

[OG Note: They have gotten away with something. Wait for something to break next week.]

Questions have swirled around the status of the Clinton marriage, with tabloid reports claiming an imminent divorce.

Photographs taken of the duo Saturday evening in the Dominican Republic reveal a glowing Hillary Clinton.

"She's having one of the best times of her life," said the family source. "The past few years have been very difficult. But she's getting her groove back, and her Bill!

"Chelsea did not come on the trip, it's just them."

The Clinton tropical holiday comes just as U.S. Attorney Mary Jo White subpoenas brother Roger Clinton and grants immunity to Denise Rich in the ongoing pardon investigation. Roger Clinton's subpoena requires him to appear before the grand jury next Friday, TIME magazine reports.

-- Anonymous, April 14, 2001

Answers

They are definitely not my kind of people, but they *are* a team, and have been all along, right from the start. The "energy" that they have brought into everything they touch has always been the result of their working together. It may be a negative energy, but it's a powerful one, for sure. Look at what they have managed to pull off together.

I think Bill always knew that Hillary was a very important part of his own political adventure. I'm not so sure that Hillary realized how important Bill was to their mix. So now she has been on her own, facing other Senators alone, and not doing all that well. Perhaps she is realizing that Bill can bring a charisma into her own journey, and he is the best ear she has both for sharing and for warning signs.

As I say, not my kind of people. Too selfish. Too brutal in their approach when someone can be shoved aside. But surely a team, I grudgingly give them that. If they were a hockey team they could call themselves the Washington Devils, and get respect for the way they can slam that puck.

Wonder what they're *really* up to down there in the Dominican? Don't they have some pretty good voo-doo experts around that area? Hmmmm.

-- Anonymous, April 14, 2001

You're right, Gordon. In fact, I think Hillary thought it was she who was the successul force behind the team, with very little credit given to Bill. Now she sees a great deal of it was due to his charisma, as you say. Yep, good insight. That's probably what this is all about; she's finally admitted to him that she needs him--and the rest of this trip will be about their strategy to regain the White House. Urp!

-- Anonymous, April 14, 2001

Prolly just moving their money from Switzerland to Domincan Repulic banks...its a little easier to fly down there to pick up some cash than clear over to Europe. Taz

-- Anonymous, April 14, 2001

I gotta agree with Taz, and hope it's money transfers...don't even want to contemplate what those two are capable of for other agendas.

-- Anonymous, April 14, 2001

LOL--and the Arafat jewelry going into Dominican safe deposit boxes. Yes, probably a combination (no pun intended) of both money and strategy.

-- Anonymous, April 15, 2001

Clintons travel to Dominican Republic on vacation

by SUSANNAH A. NESMITH, Associated Press Writer

PUNTA CANA, Dominican Republic (AP) - Former President Clinton and his wife, Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, arrived in the Dominican Republic on Saturday to spend the Easter vacation at a posh resort.

It marks the first joint vacation the couple has taken since Clinton left the White House in January. Their daughter, Chelsea Clinton, was not with them.

The Clintons arrived on a private flight Saturday evening and were greeted by fashion designer Oscar de la Renta and Punta Cana resort owner Fran Ranieri. Their eight-car motorcade exited the airport directly from the runway area, said Carlos Luciano, a private pilot at the airport who works for charter airline Aeronave Dominicana.

Peter Kauffmann, a spokesman for the freshman senator from New York, said the Clintons would stay about one week. He said the couple would be renting a private residence for the vacation. He would not say who the house belonged to.

In 1998, de la Renta hosted Hillary Clinton in the Dominican Republic, where he has a villa.

Punta Cana is a luxury resort complex on the east coast of the Dominican Republic that includes privately owned million-dollar homes as well as several large hotels and a golf course.

The area's wide palm-fringed beaches are patrolled by private guards whose job it is to make sure non-guests do not have access to the beach or the resort facilities.

The resort also owns the Punta Cana Airport, where the Clintons arrived and which received more than 820,000 tourists last year, making it the most important airport in the country for tourist arrivals.

While the former president has gotten a few days of leisure time for golf and other activities since leaving office, his wife has been largely on the go since joining the Senate.

Since he left office, Clinton and his wife have been facing questions about his last-minute pardons and commutations, gifts they took from the White House and the price of New York office space they have rented.

Last year, the Clintons vacationed together in several parts of New York state and on Martha's Vineyard.

During a short vacation to the Caribbean in January 1998, the Clintons were photographed in their bathing suits dancing on the beach with their arms around each other in St. Thomas, U.S. Virgin Islands. President Clinton later complained that the media had invaded the couple's privacy.

-- Anonymous, April 15, 2001

Just another move to stay in the news.

Besides, who else would want Hillary? Has she got a boy-toy on the side that we don't know about?

-- Anonymous, April 15, 2001

quick! somebody close the door!

-- Anonymous, April 15, 2001

ROTF!

-- Anonymous, April 15, 2001