This is familiar ground for the First Lady. She has, of course, made a career of standing by her man. Her public expressions of faith in Bill’s integrity fueled his upward trajectory through American politics. In 1992 her statement of devotion on “60 Minutes” helped beat back Gennifer; this week she’ll make several public appearances, including one on “Today” on the morning of the State of the Union, hoping to do the same with Monica. But her greatest influence is behind the scenes: Hillary is the most focused, stalwart and aggressive member of Clinton’s damage-control team.
For one thing, she is the president’s most intimate counsel, for legal reasons as well as personal ones. Clinton knows that all of his conversations are subject to Starr’s scrutiny–except for discussions with his private attorneys and his wife. (Neither a client’s lawyer nor spouse can be compelled to testify against him.) Mrs. Clinton has also taken charge of the damage-control operation at the White House, such as it is–a floating conversation in hallways as the president’s aides struggle to end the crisis. She has been the lead advocate of the go-slow strategy, arguing that a hastily arranged interview with the press would only exacerbate the president’s woes. (She was mindful of Al Gore’s disastrous no-controlling-legal-authority press conference.) She prevailed.
Even more important than Hillary’s advice is her drive–something many staff members find infectious. “She is engaged,” says Lisa Caputo, Hillary’s friend and former press secretary. Around the office last week, Hillary was determined to fight what she claimed was a smear campaign by Starr and the president’s political enemies. While Mrs. Clinton doesn’t watch TV or read many newspaper articles during a Clinton scandal, she glommed on the story of Lucianne Goldberg, the New York literary agent who emerged as a close friend of secretary-turned-sleuth Linda Tripp. For Hillary, Goldberg’s ties to Nixon’s dirty-tricks operations offered still more confirmation of a right-wing conspiracy to bring down the First Couple. “She’s in total battle mode,” says one friend.
And one of the things she is fighting to protect is her own reputation. After years in the wilderness following her health-care debacle and the accusations against her in Whitewater, Hillary Clinton had, during the last six months, climbed back. Polls showed her at the peak of her popularity. Indeed, her 50th birthday in October gave her a streak of good press. She had dealt much better with Chelsea’s departure for college than had the president, who has been much more broken up by his daughter’s absence. (But it was the president who actually called Chelsea last week to tell her the stories weren’t true.) What’s more, Hillary’s issues were once again front and center: child care is at the top of the president’s second-term agenda. “Now,” laments a friend, “she has to fight back for herself as much as anyone.”
If she is nursing a private anger toward her husband, she is not showing it to friends and colleagues. While many on the Clinton staff feel dejected and doubtful about their boss–“I really hope he’s telling the truth,” one friend of Hillary says sighing–the First Lady has, at least in front of others, been a Happy Warrior. She’s told colleagues that the president has been attacked before and he’ll get through this again. Psychologists might call it denial, but another way to look at it may be as the zeal of a Methodist missionary, unbroken and unbowed. Despite the big ups and downs in their marriage, and her all-too-painful awareness of Clinton’s infidelities, she wants to use their collective political power to promote their mutual causes. Indeed, last week she made time for several do-gooder policy meetings in her West Wing office on international aid, including one with financier George Soros.
But this time there’s only so much the First Lady can do to save her husband. In 1992 her testimony helped convince the country that he had seen the light. This time the allegation is perjury and the place is the Oval Office. Her word–and her zeal–will count for less.
