Meet the Dozoretzes
HAYES, STEPHEN F.
Meet the Dozoretzes Clinton's power couple BY STEPHEN F. HAYES WHEN GARY HART was exposed as a philanderer, ending his 1988 presidential bid, Ron Dozoretz stood by him and helped arrange a...
...When Michael Kennedy died in a 1997 skiing accident, Beth Dozoretz bought pizzas and opened her Aspen, Colorado, vacation home to the grieving Kennedy clan...
...The Kennedy Center contributed its Terrace Theater, Glenn Close and Whoopi Goldberg booked their flights, 400 other important people put on their theater-best, and a major event was born...
...But taken together, they provide a perfect coda to the Clinton presidency and a telling glimpse of the people who comfort the comfortable...
...At the last minute, the party's hostess backed out, saying that the gathering would have to be held elsewhere...
...It's an unnecessary action...
...With only two years left to his term and an incoming President Bush, Dozoretz abruptly resigned his position in mid-January, only to have Clinton reappoint him days later to another six-year term...
...If Dozoretz couldn't influence American politics by winning votes, he and his wife have surely tried to do so by dispensing their money and cultivating political friends...
...I knew that she speaks with the former president with some frequency," Quinn said, "and so I was sure she would know of my efforts and no doubt inquire about the status of our application...
...This generosity has its rewards...
...Dozoretz worked at the highest levels of political aspiration as a top adviser to Gary Hart's 1984 presidential campaign and his short-lived 1988 bid...
...this merely accentuates their normal behavior," he said...
...His biography on the company's website claims Dozoretz "has been recruited by health care policy makers in the White House to assist in developing national health care policy...
...And just as Clinton will no doubt continue to wield tremendous influence over the direction of the DemStephen F. Hayes is a writer in Washington, D.C...
...This loyalty—along with millions upon millions of dollars in contributions and dozens of fund-raisers at their Washington, D.C., mansion—has made Ron and Beth Dozoretz well-known figures among high-society Beltway Democrats...
...The pardon came, of course, shortly after Mrs...
...Some of the polls were favorable, but it soon became clear that voters didn't take to Dozoretz...
...One is minor, almost petty...
...Rich gave a reported $450,000 in support of Clinton's presidential library...
...But this is the first I'm aware of someone going through the process of resigning and being reappointed...
...Cuomo, who wants to be New York's next governor, faces a tough primary fight against popular state comptroller Carl McCall, the only black elected statewide in New York...
...Still others point to his medical degree and offer more cerebral reasons...
...The party was not a fund-raiser, but a get-together of the most influential Cuomo backers, an opportunity to show their early support...
...socialites...
...They've given to everyone and his brother," says Larry Sabato, professor of government at the University of Virginia...
...And when President Clinton faced the fallout of scandals from White House fund-raising coffees to Monica Lewinsky, the Dozoretzes were there to help bail him out—financially, legally, and emotionally...
...Some associates say a desire for social status is behind Ron Dozoretz's generous political giving...
...With his deep pockets, Dozoretz hired three staffers and took several polls to test his viability as a candidate...
...Beth Dozoretz helped arrange a "Welcome Home" party for Clinton's HUD secretary, Andrew Cuomo, up in New York, just nine days after Clinton left office...
...Republican presidents reap-point Democrats, and Democrats reappoint Republicans, provided they're active and productive...
...Dozo-retz, worth an estimated $250 million, owns and operates FHC Health Systems, a network of private health care companies that focus on mental health services and substance abuse...
...Less weighty but more curious is the favor Clinton did for Beth's third husband, Ron...
...The hostess...
...venue for a reading...
...Dozoretz's key role, as "a close friend of Denise Rich, and...
...You've got to remember, Ron Dozoretz is a psychiatrist," says a longtime associate...
...The truth is I'm very involved working at the Kennedy Center, redoing the restaurants and improving the kitchen and the catering service," Dozoretz told the Washington Post...
...Quinn, in his testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee, acknowledged Mrs...
...a good friend of President Clinton...
...They'll tell you it's the stress of the campaign, but don't believe it...
...That will take two or three years more, and I want to finish the job...
...Denise Rich...
...It's not uncommon to be reappointed" to the board, said one Kennedy Center officer...
...ocratic party, so will Ron and Beth Dozoretz...
...The same e-mail reported that Denise Rich thought "he sounded very positive" about the prospects of a pardon...
...When we're done, it will enhance the whole image of the Kennedy Center...
...Ten days before the world (and the Justice Department) learned of President Clinton's pardon of Marc Rich, Beth Dozoretz had a pretty good idea that it was coming...
...E-mails between Denise Rich's lawyer, former White House counsel Jack Quinn, and others trying to secure the pardon, place Beth Dozoretz at the center of the intrigue...
...And though they have been gossip-column regulars for the past eight years, they've managed to glide through with little of the media scrutiny visited on so many other Clinton associates...
...In the middle of the 1984 campaign, Dozoretz offered the Washington Post his professional opinion of the rigors of campaign travel, an analysis that ruled out at least one potential excuse for his candidate four years later: "This is not so stressful that it would cause people to do things that they would not ordinarily do...
...And they are close to the still-thriving Kennedy and Cuomo dynasties— the likely source of 2002 gubernatorial candidates in Maryland, New York, and Massachusetts...
...They have contributed to at least half the Democrats currently serving in the Senate, and countless House members...
...The controversies differ in degree, but not in kind...
...In 1996, Clinton named Mr...
...Curiosity may be what prompted Dozoretz to explore his own run for the U.S...
...Dozoretz to a six-year term as a Kennedy Center trustee, a coveted sinecure among D.C...
...Dozoretz, who did not respond to calls for this piece, justified the unprecedented move by pointing to a situation of near-crisis proportions at the Kennedy Center...
...Others note that his giving is bipartisan—he's made scattered contributions to Republicans, mostly from his adopted state of Virginia — and suggest that his real goal is access...
...Two years ago, after she saw Necessary Targets, a play by Vagina Monologues author Eve Ensler, performed in Bosnia, Beth offered to help secure a D.C...
...He's just fascinated by the power of these folks...
...The move surprised other Kennedy Center bigwigs...
...The evening's honoree: Hillary Rodham Clinton...
...If they get rowdy or obnoxious or drink too much or womanize, they didn't get that way here...
...Senate in Virginia in 1988...
...Meet the Dozoretzes Clinton's power couple BY STEPHEN F. HAYES WHEN GARY HART was exposed as a philanderer, ending his 1988 presidential bid, Ron Dozoretz stood by him and helped arrange a much-needed respite in Ireland...
...Dozoretz, a Clinton intimate and former finance chair of the Democratic National Committee, spoke to the president from Aspen...
...Image-enhancement—though it backfired in the case of Ron's reap-pointment to the board, which was criticized as a crude display of political patronage—is something of a preoccupation with both Dozoret-zes...
...Quinn added that he didn't ask Dozoretz to bring up the pardon "in a fund-raising capacity" with Clinton...
...They held a fundraiser at their home in honor of the new Democratic National Committee chairman, Terry McAuliffe...
...At her side sat Denise Rich, the ex-wife of, and chief lobbyist for, the fugitive financier...
...And now, House and Senate committees, federal prosecutors in New York, and the FBI all are investigating Clinton's ultimate presidential act...
...According to the e-mails, Clinton told Dozoretz that he "want[ed] to do it" and that he needed only to "turn around" the White House attorneys opposed to the Rich pardon...
...the other potentially criminal...
...But in the waning days of the Clinton nightmare, the Dozoretz name popped up in two embarrassing news stories...
...He very much wanted it, but he was blindsided and shown the door very quickly," says Sabato...
...That was not unwelcome to me...
Vol. 6 • February 2001 • No. 23
