NYPost

INSIDE WASHINGTON

By DEBORAH ORIN

April 19, 2001 -- Bush $et to invade HillBilly's old turf

NEWLY minted New Yorkers Bill and Hillary Clinton are acting as if they want to forget they ever had Arkansas roots or Southern accents, so President Bush is only too happy to take over their old turf.

The Clintons have largely shunned their ex-home state since leaving the White House, but Bush heads there next Wednesday for one of his first out-of-town fund-raisers, for Sen. Tim Hutchinson (R-Ark.).

After all, Bush wouldn't be president if he hadn't swept the South, including Arkansas and its six electoral votes - the ultimate rejection of the president formerly known as the Man from Hope, Ark.

Hutchinson is a vulnerable senator up for re-election next year and Bush, whose visit is expected to bring in $700,000 - which is a lot in Little Rock - knows he can't afford to lose a single GOP seat in a Senate split 50-50.

Besides, the senator's brother, Rep. Asa Hutchinson (R-Ark.) was a star of the impeachment proceedings that put character in the spotlight and, many analysts believe, ultimately led to Bush's victory.

Sen. Hillary's office said she has no plans to visit Arkansas and Bill Clinton's spokeswoman, Julia Payne, said the new man from Chappaqua may get to his old home sometime "in the next couple of months."

Instead, Clinton is going back overseas - next stops South Africa and Nigeria, where he won't get messy questions about U.S. Attorney Mary Jo White's probe of whether Denise Rich's large donations bought a Clinton pardon for her ex-hubby, Marc.

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It looks as if Bush really is making wife Laura his envoy to the two coasts at a time when he's ignoring New York and California and zipping around the rest of the country - Arkansas will be the 26th state he visits as president.

Mrs. Bush is due in New York next Tuesday for the opening of the Metropolitan Museum's Jackie Kennedy retrospective, yet another sign of friendly personal (if not political) Bush-Kennedy relations.

It's the first post-inaugural visit to New York by either Bush. The first lady has also visited California. Her husband hasn't yet bothered to visit either of the two megastates that voted big time for Al Gore.

The reason seems simple: Team Bush, with an eye already on 2004, figures it will be a lot easier to get re-elected by courting swing states like Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin. And New York and California have liberal Democratic senators who'll never back Bush's tax cut.

Incidentally, one of those senators, Hillary Clinton, also is due at the Jackie Kennedy opening - the first time the past and present first ladies will meet since inaugural day.

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The Bush charm offensive may be winning friends in Kennedyland, but it's falling flat north of the border in Canada, where Bush heads this weekend for a Western Hemisphere summit in Quebec City.

Canadian Prime Minister Jean Chretien, the summit's host, threw what newspapers there described as a "tantrum" of snide snipes at Bush to political allies after his first visit to Washington.

The Toronto Star earlier this month reported Chretien (a Clinton soul buddy) had a hissy fit, fuming that Bush acted like a cowboy in the spy plane showdown with China and - horrors! - didn't know where Canada's potato-growing Prince Edward Island is.

Of course what really made Chretien mad was that Bush snubbed Canada and made his first foreign trip to Mexico. All in all, it will be interesting to watch the Bush-Chretien body language this weekend.

-- Anonymous, April 19, 2001