CLINTON - Has spent last 100 days searching for a purpose

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Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

Clinton has spent 100 days searching for a purpose

Sunday, April 29, 2001

By Ann McFeatters, Post-Gazette National Bureau

WASHINGTON -- Life after 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. wasn't supposed to be this way.

On the rare occasions when former President Bill Clinton mused aloud about what he would be doing after he left the White House, he pictured himself as an international peace broker, a beloved senior statesman, sought-after and lionized. He would teach at or run a prestigious university, lecture, travel, write books, play the saxophone in cool jazz clubs and make millions of dollars giving speeches. His presidential library in Arkansas would become a Mecca for the world's intelligentsia, and he would be invited everywhere to raise more money for Democrats.

Instead, he's a 54-year-old politician without portfolio, sent into the oblivion of Chappaqua, N.Y. He was, says an old friend from Little Rock "completely stunned" by the flap over his last-minute pardons, especially that of billionaire fugitive Marc Rich, the embarrassing publicity over moving out White House furniture that had to be returned and his long, non-goodbye farewell at Andrews Air Force Base on Inauguration Day.

He rarely comes back to Washington. Some of his speeches have been canceled by groups worried about bad publicity. He's not even in demand as a fund-raiser for his party.

The man who 100 days ago was the most powerful man in the world didn't even have his own office until this month, when the government signed a contract for a suite in Harlem costing $261,450 a year.

Moreover, the office building has already been the site of a demonstration by the "New Black Panther Party," during which a man in paramilitary garb was quoted as shouting: "Harlem is ours. We will not allow some cracker named Bill Clinton to set the stage and the pace to drive black people out of Harlem."

Across from the White House, there is an office for the immediate past president in which 10 aides work, but it's for routine ex-presidential matters, and Clinton rarely goes there.

In January, he mused that he thought he was too young to be retired. And even though he never expected to practice law again in his post-presidential years, Clinton has had to deal with his law license's suspension for five years in the wake of his admission that he testified falsely in the Paula Jones sex harassment case.

Last month, he paid a $25,000 fine to settle all potential criminal liability that arose out of the many matters loosely known as Whitewater, which federal prosecutors had spent $60 million investigating. But he still owes almost $4 million in legal fees, and New York federal prosecutor Mary Jo White is still deciding whether there was any illegal conduct involving his 11th-hour presidential pardons.

At least for now, Clinton has lost the confidence of a majority of Americans. More than half of all national survey respondents say they don't have a favorable opinion about the former president. While he was president, only about a third of the public rated him unfavorably.

Despite buying a large, elegant brick home in Washington, Clinton hasn't slept there in weeks. His wife, the junior senator from New York, lives in the house during the week and joins him in Chappaqua, a New York City suburb, on weekends.

Once Clinton dined with the rich, famous and powerful from all over the world. Now, he is just as likely to eat alone. He often spends time with Rep. Charles Rangel, D-N.Y., who urged him to set up a Harlem office after a prior midtown Manhattan prospect caused a major public uproar over its expensive real estate.

The New York Times last month described Clinton as "adrift and isolated," saying he was wandering around his 11-room house, unpacking boxes and befuddled by having to learn to use his ATM cash card, Palm Pilot and phone.

Friends are already beginning to try to sell his letters. One Internet site reportedly offered a 28-word Clinton letter to a male supporter briefly selling from more than $3,000. It read in part: "I love you so much. No man could ask for a better friend." Another site featured a saxophone he autographed, priced at $5,000.

When there's a buzz about the former first family these days, it's most likely to be about Hillary Rodham Clinton -- how she's wearing her hair, what she said at a news conference, how she feels about President Bush's budget, whether she will ever run for president. But the senator has been keeping a low profile as a freshman, giving few speeches and trying to stay out of the public eye.

Over the congressional Easter recess, the couple rented a house in the Dominican Republic for a vacation. The last time they were on a beach together -- just weeks before the scandal broke involving his affair with former White House aide Monica Lewinsky -- a photographer hiding in tall grass captured them in swimwear, dancing romantically.

Clinton used to feel it was his duty as president to go personally to areas of the nation hit hard by disasters. Now, he seeks such solace abroad.

Last week, he was in Nigeria, at an AIDS summit attended by 47 African leaders and other dignitaries.

Earlier this month, he traveled to India for a week, with just his Secret Service detail and his valet, Oscar, and laid roses on a muddy path where 156 schoolchildren had been killed in an earthquake. As thousands of Indians chanted "Cleen-ton! Cleen-ton!," he vowed to Indian journalists that he would continue returning to India for the rest of his life.

He told them, "I'm just trying to find something useful to do in a place I care about."

-- Anonymous, April 29, 2001

Answers

Awww.... poor William. (For some reason, the song "Little Willie Won't Go Home" is running through my mind.)

-- Anonymous, April 29, 2001

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