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Scandal Surrounds Clinton's Friend
By Sonya Ross
Associated Press Writer
Tuesday, September 8, 1998; 1:30 a.m. EDT
WASHINGTON (AP) -- A friend of Bill Clinton since they were
teen-agers, Marsha Scott is a fierce defender of the president -- and that
loyalty has placed her at the center of the scandals surrounding his
presidency.
Scott, 50, deputy personnel director at the White House, is rarely seen
with the president. She doesn't lurk in the background as he strides onto
his helicopter or Air Force One, nor is she known to stand along the wall
with other aides, listening dutifully as Clinton briefs the media or delivers
speeches.
But her role is significant.
Scott was at Clinton's side during his 30th high school reunion in
Arkansas, while he scribbled away on a legal pad to document his
conversation with a classmate, Dolly Kyle Browning, who was said to be
claiming she had an affair with him.
She huddled with Monica Lewinsky twice last year. In one of those
sessions, Scott has said, the former White House intern denied a sexual
relationship with Clinton. Last week, it was disclosed that the president
asked Scott to find a new job at the White House for Ms. Lewinsky -- if
it was appropriate -- after she had been transferred to the Pentagon.
And she was a telephonic link between the White House and longtime
Clinton pal Webster Hubbell, who was threatened with a lawsuit by the
Rose Law Firm in Little Rock, Ark., seeking to recover money he got
from overbilling the firm and its clients. Hubbell, a former Justice
Department official who pleaded guilty and was imprisoned for bilking
Rose, where he had practiced law with Hillary Rodham Clinton, also
agreed to cooperate with investigators looking into the Clintons'
Whitewater real estate dealings.
Scott's role in these situations has gotten her questioned a couple of times
by the FBI as well as prosecutor Kenneth Starr's Whitewater grand jury,
which was looking into possible obstruction of justice involving consulting
fees that Clinton friends arranged for Hubbell.
Scott grew up privileged in Little Rock, the daughter of a beauty queen
and a former Philadelphia Eagles halfback. She was a cheerleader and
close friend of Hubbell. She has known Clinton since both were in their
late teens. They are said to have dated briefly back then, and remained
friends.
After finishing school Scott migrated to California, working as a Head
Start teacher and an advertising saleswoman for a newspaper before
coming back into contact with Clinton as a volunteer for his 1992
presidential campaign.
Through a White House spokesman, Scott declined to comment for this
story. And several of her colleagues at the White House agreed to speak
about her only on condition that their names not be used.
Privately, one colleague said Scott's current role in the White House
personnel office is to ensure that friends of the president who are being
considered for appointments are ''qualified, and the best qualified,'' for
those jobs. The colleague described Scott as ''one of the few people in
this town who still believes politics is about loyalty.''
Scott also has been known to operate outside the White House gates to
ensure that loyalties to Clinton remain intact. In fact, it was to Scott that
Clinton turned when his support waned among gays and lesbians because
of his about-face on their status in the military.
Scott became liaison to the gay community in June 1995, assigned to
smooth over the sore relationship -- so that Clinton could hang on to a
constituency that made up 5 percent of the vote that elected him in 1992.
''This was a very angry and disenfranchised community when she took on
this role,'' said Elizabeth Birch, executive director of the Human Rights
Campaign, a gay rights advocacy group. ''She was able to reignite a
certain amount of commitment to the president.''
Richard Socarides, Scott's successor as gay liaison, said the gay
community made up 7 percent of the voters who re-elected Clinton in
1996. It is an increase he attributes to Scott's talent for soothing hurt
feelings.
''This was clearly an assignment that nobody wanted. It had all the
makings of something that wasn't going to be very successful,'' Socarides
said. ''But she took it on and she did a remarkable job.
''She is uniquely perceptive about people and the meaning of events. She
has the unique ability to see things in a more meaningful way,'' Socarides
said. ''That puts her in a position to give really good advice. She also has
a very unusual ability to make the president's friends and supporters feel
appreciated and part of the process.''
Birch said the criticisms of Scott are unfair, and probably are motivated by
stereotypes.
''Sometimes, blond women don't have it so easy in this world,'' Birch
said. ''She gets tagged with all those stereotypes. But I can't tell you how
effective she is. She is as effective as she is misunderstood.''
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