Is There A Way Out?

(7 of 8)
Anyone hoping to persuade Clinton to change his legal strategy had to get past David Kendall first, and last week there was no shortage of people out for his hide. Some Clinton allies were arguing that Kendall's advice has been a disaster: if the President was going to keep stonewalling, he should never have gone before that grand jury in the first place; if he absolutely had to testify, Kendall should never have let it be videotaped. And once all those steps had been taken, the last thing Kendall should have done was go before reporters and try to explain the President's testimony to them, as he did two weeks ago.

But Kendall defenders note that he is the only person who has to focus exclusively on the client's legal jeopardy--and that client is himself a lawyer who likes to overrule his advisers. Clinton's choice of Kendall was a sign that he would never be taken prisoner. Kendall's firm, Williams & Connolly, prides itself on practicing "Green Beret law." The firm's founder Edward Bennett Williams used to say that in life, "every effort is marked down at the end as a win or a loss." Williams called it "contest living."

That whole attitude does not leave much room for compromise. Within the White House, these are not days of wise judgment and thoughtful debate. It is clear to those close to him that Clinton's game is gone, his instincts dead, his psychological state a mystery. He is fearful, unsure of what to do, unable to answer questions about resignation with anything like his earlier conviction. Meetings with his Cabinet and lawmakers have gone uncharacteristically badly.

Even if staff members weren't so distracted, it would still be hard to put together a plausible strategy for dealing with Congress for the next six weeks, as both sides try to agree on how to spend about a trillion dollars next year. Clinton vowed that any budget surplus should be devoted to "saving Social Security first," and so he ruled out any new farm aid. But everything is negotiable now. It's "cash and carry," as one Democratic lobbyist put it. So when potential supporters come asking for money, Clinton is not in a very strong position to bargain--and that's even with members of his own party.

And above all, the White House has little understanding of the motives and moods that are now driving decisions on Capitol Hill. Clinton is drunk on the polls, without knowing how little sustenance they bring. With six weeks to go before the elections, lawmakers do not care what 270 million Americans are saying about keeping Clinton in office, they care what a majority of the roughly 75,000 likely voters in their particular districts are saying. They care about the 30 to 40 House races and 10 Senate seats that are up for grabs. They care about who takes control of the legislatures that will redraw the congressional districts in ways that could keep the Democrats out of power for a generation.