Dick Is Back

WASHINGTON: Call Dick Morris the Special Adviser to the President for Peccadilloes. Booted from the Clinton camp in 1996 for that convention-roiling toe-sucking scandal, Morris is back in favor — and he and his old friend Bill Clinton are talking again, reported NBC Monday.

"Dick Morris is someone that Bill Clinton has repeatedly turned to in times of desperation," says TIME Washington correspondent Jay Carney, "and this time is the worst ever." Morris has not been officially rehired by the DNC. But Clinton's occasional calls to Morris over the years have turned this week to a steady stream.

The wisdom of consulting Morris — best known to Americans for a sex scandal of his own — sounds politically suspect in the current situation, and Carney admits it will probably draw some fire. "But Clinton's got far bigger problems to worry about than that."

Monica on the Move
Monica Lewinsky emerged Monday from meetings with Special Prosecutor Ken Starr, and her lawyer said he'd delivered an outline of what Lewinsky would say in court. Even if the outline -- a stunning and formal move toward a deal -- contains the same allegations as on the infamous tapes, Starr's legal case is far from made. But it will be one of the severest blows yet to Clinton's punch-drunk administration.