THE POTEMKIN WHITE HOUSE
Carlson, Tucker
THE POTEMKIN WHITE HOUSE Let's Just Make Believe the Scandal Doesn't Exist By Tucker Carlson The day after terrorists blew up two U.S. embassies in East Africa, Sandy Berger, President Clinton's...
...Most of them are beyond language so they can't actually articulate their feelings...
...and, "at a time when our nation is experiencing extremely severe weather," can hardly wait to deny heat to elderly poor people during the winter months...
...I'm not coming home from vacation for that...
...According to Clinton, the heartless GOP also wants to rid America of safe, affordable daycare centers...
...In addition to speaking at an astounding number Tucker Carlson is a staff writer for THE WEEKLY STANDARD...
...According to Morris, Clinton demands that those around him participate in the charade, and thereby strikes an unspoken deal: "As long as we all make believe it's not there, we can go on...
...I wasn't going to be part of it if we had some sort of twisted defense...
...I just don't...
...The very allegation that Clinton would have an affair with an intern, Begala said at the time, was "bizarre and disgusting and awful...
...hopes for a return to "exploitative" child labor...
...Four days later, Clinton traveled to San Bruno, Calif., to assure citizens there that his administration is doing its best to keep their municipal reservoir clean—not an easy task, he reminded the crowd, given the "disturbing trend" among Republicans to oppose clean drinking water...
...The following week, judging from White House press releases, was even more productive...
...And," said the president gravely, "that's not all the Republicans plan to do away with...
...That's enough...
...The White House's refusal to acknowledge the effect of the scandal comes as no surprise to former presidential adviser Dick Morris, who describes Clinton as "one great big denial mechanism...
...Every Friday morning, senior members of the White House staff— Rahm Emanuel, Paul Begala, and Ann Lewis among them—meet in Rep...
...In speeches, his rhetoric frequently becomes comically overheated...
...Few others close to the president can affect the same calm...
...Begala emerged from the campaign devoted to Clinton and has remained a loyal supporter...
...On Friday he gave a speech to the Boys Nation class of 1998, and by Monday he was hard at work again, chatting about the entitlement mess at a forum on Social Security reform...
...It's $50 million for four strands of DNA...
...Asked how he'll feel if, as just about everyone at the White House expects, Clinton finally admits to some sort of a relationship with Lewinsky, Begala refuses to answer...
...I believe in this man...
...But that doesn't mean he has been idle...
...Dick Gephardt's office to talk strategy, coordinate events, and develop the following week's political message...
...The secretaries of state and defense, along with the attorney general and the heads of the CIA and the FBI, were there...
...In fact, he has never been busier...
...In the past few weeks, he has threatened to veto seven of the 13 congressional appropriations bills, challenging the Republican leadership to another government shutdown...
...A seasoned and accomplished scandal manager, Begala spent much of 1992 swatting down reporters' questions about the candidate's draft record, his relationship with Gen-nifer Flowers, and countless other now-forgotten flaps...
...Seven months later, it's not clear what Begala believes...
...One thing nobody talks about is the scandal: "We operate the meetings as if the Lewinsky thing doesn't exist, like it never happened...
...An ordinary president trapped in a humiliating, possibly felonious, sex scandal might hesitate before needlessly antagonizing his political opponents...
...I just don't want to talk about my feelings...
...Clinton's second-term agenda has turned out to be largely insignificant, and many congressional Democrats are mad about it...
...Satisfied that Clinton was telling the whole truth— not just the legal truth—Begala did interview after interview, making statements that are almost painful to read now...
...Maybe one day I'll be able to share my feelings...
...I don't want to talk about my feelings," he says...
...I wanted to be sure, to a certainty," Begala explained, "that what we meant by this was not anything cute or sick or twisted, but that it was a simple, decent meaning of these words...
...The president has looked me in the eye," Begala said at one point with what appeared to be genuine conviction, "looked the American people in the eye, and said he did not have an improper physical relationship, that he didn't ask anyone to lie...
...Then I'll get on with my life...
...On August 7, he appeared in the Rose Garden to sign the Work Force Investment Act, possibly the most important piece of legislation, Clinton explained, since the Credit Union Membership Access Act, which he had signed earlier that morning...
...Facing the threat of impeachment and in a perpetual huddle with his lawyers, Clinton doesn't spend much time these days running the White House, much less the country...
...I'll act like I'm president, you act like you're staff, and we'll all have a wonderful time...
...It's nothing," says urspinner James Carville of the Starr investigation...
...Some Clinton loyalists don't seem to mind playing along...
...Between July 20 and 26, Clinton promoted "discipline and safety in schools," improved "the quality of nursing homes," announced "new grants to fight crime," signed the IRS Reform Act, and took on "agriculture issues during a radio press conference...
...You have to have see them in the flesh and read their expressions...
...And he flees to that cocoon—the frenetic fund-raising, the 18-hour-a-day campaigning, the speeches every day—to get away from the real world...
...Clinton's failure to show up to an important national-security meeting was taken by many in Washington as confirmation that he has become utterly distracted by the Monica Lewinsky scandal, and no doubt he has...
...Rough words from a practitioner of Third Way politics, though not rough enough to add heft to his policy proposals...
...Lanny Davis, who left his job as a White House spinner several months ago, says his former colleagues who stayed behind are by this point "absolutely frustrated, beyond frustrated, disgusted...
...At an event in Maryland earlier this month, Clinton warned a crowd of high-school students that the Republican Congress wants to eliminate their summer jobs...
...Virtually none of them means much, but the sheer volume is impressive...
...To get over the cacophony of Monica," says one Hill staffer who participates in the meetings, "we're going to need to have a couple of very high-profile positions on issues like HMOs, education, and Social Security...
...Yet despite endless events at the White House, the staffer says, "little if anything we talk about gets translated into anything real...
...Clinton, by contrast, has become belligerently partisan since January...
...Absent from the table, however, was Bill Clinton...
...Former Clinton aide Bill Curry, now safely residing in Connecticut, agrees...
...One of the most bewildered expressions must belong to Clinton adviser Paul Begala...
...The first half of August was, if possible, even more frenetic...
...After a morning engagement with his personal lawyer, the president took the rest of the day off and played golf...
...Consider: In a single seven-day period in early July, the president gave public lectures on HMO reform, handgun safety, teen drug use, the year 2000 computer problem, and the importance of restoring historic sites...
...of campaign-season fund-raisers and taking frequent trips out of the country, Clinton has talked up a new public-policy initiative nearly every day for the past several months...
...For Democratic members of Congress facing a midterm election in November, coming up with a message is not an idle concern...
...Until then, he says, "I've got to keep my head down and help get him through this difficult . . ." Begala's voice trails off...
...embassies in East Africa, Sandy Berger, President Clinton's national security adviser, held a meeting at the White House to discuss the American response to the bombings...
...Over a span of less than two weeks, the president hosted events on welfare reform, job retraining, global warming, health care, information technology, and gun control...
...He sounds sad...
...The president, says Morris, "exists in a cocoon of his own, where this stuff is never talked about, never referred to...
...He also participated in a race-relations "dialogue" on PBS and celebrated the 200th birthday of the Marine Corps band...
...Yet, when the Monica Lewinsky story broke, Begala was shaken...
...Before going on television to defend his boss, Begala met with lawyers in the White House counsel's office to find out what exactly Clinton meant when he denied a "sexual relationship" with Lewinsky...
Vol. 3 • August 1998 • No. 47
