Silicon Investor (SI) -- The First Internet Community

STOCKTALK

We've detected that you're using an ad content blocking browser plug-in or feature. Ads provide a critical source of revenue to the continued operation of Silicon Investor. We ask that you disable ad blocking while on Silicon Investor in the best interests of our community. If you are not using an ad blocker but are still receiving this message, make sure your browser's tracking protection is set to the 'standard' level.

Politics : Bill Clinton Scandal - SANITY CHECK -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: rvgent who wrote (54418)	6/28/1999 7:58:00 AM
From: JBL	Read Replies (3) \| Respond to of 67261

Clinton is mad at Gore for his lack of loyalty. Monday, June 28, 1999 President Called 'Livid' at Statements on Scandal ------------------------------------------------------------------------ By John M. Broderand Don Van Natta Jr. New York Times Service ------------------------------------------------------------------------ WASHINGTON - President Bill Clinton is angered and hurt by Vice President Al Gore's conspicuous efforts to distance himself from Mr. Clinton's behavior in the Monica Lewinsky scandal, according to presidential aides and advisers. They say the vice president's words have created a friction that never before existed between the two men. ''This is the most tense their relationship has ever been,'' a close Clinton adviser said last week. ''The president is very upset,'' the adviser said, speaking on condition of anonymity. ''To the people who he is very close to, he is expressing how hurt he is and his dismay at the vice president. It is not a passing thing.'' The president considers Mr. Gore's repeated condemnations of his actions and false statements arising from his relationship with Ms. Lewinsky to be acts of ingratitude bordering on disloyalty, several of the president's advisers said in interviews over the last several days. Mr. Gore called the president's behavior ''inexcusable'' three times in a television interview that was broadcast on the day he announced his campaign for the presidency. He said Mr. Clinton had compromised the dignity of the office by his actions and that, ''particularly as a father,'' he felt Mr. Clinton's relationship with Ms. Lewinsky was ''terribly wrong.'' And, using convoluted language whose meaning was eminently clear, Mr. Gore said that Mr. Clinton had lied to him. The interviewer, Diane Sawyer of ABC, prodded Mr. Gore with repeated questions about the president. But Mr. Gore never cut her off by saying he had already answered the questions, a point raised by two Clinton aides who were critical of the vice president's performance. Publicly, the president has said that he ''took no offense'' at Mr. Gore's remarks and that he has said far worse things about himself. But in private, the president was described by the aides as ''livid'' over the vice president's comments, while at the same time aware that Mr. Gore must deal with questions about the Lewinsky affair and establish an identity separate from the president's to run a credible campaign for the White House. Adding to Mr. Clinton's anger was what aides perceived to be ''gloating'' by members of the Gore team at the success of their efforts to distance the vice president from the president's misbehavior. ''I know Gore's people are calling people saying we've got separation from Clinton,'' a member of the president's inner circle said. ''And they are sort of bragging about it.'' The motives for Mr. Clinton's aides and advisers to talk about the president's feelings toward Mr. Gore were not entirely clear. They may have been trying to help the vice president establish distance from the president. They may have been trying to demonstrate their closeness to Mr. Clinton. Or they may simply have been honestly reporting how Mr. Clinton and his inner circle have reacted to Mr. Gore's statements. Mr. Gore's advisers acknowledged that the vice president had tried to put space between himself and Mr. Clinton on matters of personal morality, which has become a rhetorical centerpiece of his emerging campaign. They are happy that the vice president got a prominent platform for his disavowal of the president's conduct. And, privately, they admit that there is an element of payback for what they see as the president's meddling and second-guessing about the progress of Mr. Gore's campaign. Last month, Mr. Clinton told reporters for The New York Times that he believed Mr. Gore's campaign was off to a stumbling start. The second-guessing has continued, with the president's aides questioning Mr. Gore's decision to announce a forward-looking campaign on the same day that he gave an interview to Ms. Sawyer criticizing the president's past actions. ''We don't mind the vice president saying what the president did was inexcusable,'' said James Carville, a political consultant and adviser to the president. ''But we're glad the vice president is starting to talk about the many good things the president did, rather than the one bad thing.'' Joe Lockhart, the president's press secretary, said that he and Mr. Clinton had discussed Mr. Gore's announcement of his candidacy in his hometown of Carthage, Tennessee, on June 16. Mr. Clinton was in Europe at the time for a meeting of leaders of the major industrial democracies and Russia. ''The president and I had the same take,'' Mr. Lockhart said. ''He was trying to do too much by announcing and trying to separate on the same day.''