Looking for a Lift

By Michael Duffy/Washington

Bill Clinton took a seat in the front row of the White House family theater last Tuesday night while a panel of historians, retired generals and combat veterans discussed the Normandy invasion. When the talk turned to Omaha Beach, the costliest battle on D-day, 1944, Clinton listened intently as his guests explained that the deadly Omaha landings had not gone according to plan. The predawn bombing raids had missed their targets; the undertow was so strong that many G.I.s lost or abandoned their weapons before reaching land; instead of one German battalion guarding the shore, the Americans arrived to find three, which immediately pinned down the invaders under murderous fire. Several participants reported later that Clinton seemed fascinated to learn that the most important feat of American arms in the 20th century had been riddled with so many errors.

The next morning, the Commander in Chief passed on the lesson to the graduating class at Annapolis. "Ultimately," said Clinton, "the test of leadership is not constant flawlessness. Rather, it is marked by a commitment to continue always to strive for the highest standards, to learn honestly when one falls short and to do the right thing when it happens."

No one expects flawlessness from the Clinton White House, but last week the Administration struggled through another round of disorder and distraction.

Clinton was thinking about reshuffling his foreign policy team even as he was forced to accept the resignation of yet another politically naive official from Arkansas who took a Marine helicopter ride to a golf course. Further disclosures about the First Lady's commodities trading competed for space in newspaper columns with questions about the President's legal strategy over a sexual-harassment suit. Congress missed the White House's Memorial Day deadline for marking up health-care-reform legislation. Several White House officials said the best reason for taking the week-long tour of Italy, Britain and France is simply to escape from Washington for a while. "This," sighed a West Wing aide, "is no way to live."

Clinton told a friend last week that he believes he has bottomed out, that the dark, five-month period where almost nothing went right is nearly over. But the President's aides acknowledge privately that his political condition is weak and likely to remain so. Much but not all of this despair is based on the curious lack of boost Clinton is getting from the economy. Though it has + been expanding for more than two years, only 31% of Americans believe that the recession has ended where they live, according to a TIME/CNN poll. If the President is not getting credit for an economy that is growing at 3%, the Clinton team fears, he will never recover if the economy slows down. Explained an Administration official: "He's 15 points behind where he should be when the economy is going well. What happens if you come out of this year without health care, without welfare reform and the economy growing at only 1%? What have you got? And we're not even figuring in anything that might go wrong on foreign policy. And there are a lot of prospects for that."

It's a dark view, but last week elements of that scenario seemed to be taking root. On Tuesday the Democrats lost a Kentucky House seat held by the party for more than 125 years. Ron Lewis, an ultraconservative owner of a religious-book store, bolted from total obscurity to a victory over state senator Joseph Prather, the second G.O.P. upset in a Democratic district in as many weeks. Though Prather disdained Democratic Party money in his race in order to signal his distance from the President, Lewis ran hard against Clinton's programs. As a result, the 55%-to-45% vote suggested to many analysts that the Republicans might pick up more than the 20 House seats they are already expected to gain in elections this fall.

Clinton's most conspicuous congressional setback included the probable loss of his chief House dealmaker on health care, Dan Rostenkowski. The Ways and Means Committee chairman spent the week deciding whether to plead guilty to a felony charge or face a criminal indictment on charges that he abused the perks of office. While Rostenkowski's lawyers maneuvered for a deal, it appeared likely that the Chicago pol would have to resign either way. House Democrats began discounting the blow to the health-care plan. "We hope Danny will be all right," said Representative John Dingell of Michigan. "But the House has lots of ability to absorb impact. The system will go forward." However, sensing Democratic weakness, Republican legislators have been emboldened to take a harder line in the health-care debate and appear to have weakened Clinton's insistence on employer mandates to guarantee universal coverage. Instead, any mandate is likely to be voluntary at first. And Senate minority leader Bob Dole in particular has emerged as a spoiler, with his call for minimal health legislation this year.

To gin up support for his embattled plan, the President went to Capitol Hill on Wednesday, but his session with House Democrats turned out to be a political pep rally. White House officials had been complaining in recent weeks about what one top Democratic aide called "the failure of Democrats to crow about the economy." Fearful that lawmakers will be unprepared for criticism of the President's performance during the 12-day recess, the White House readied a 20-page guide on how to argue the President's case while visiting with voters back home. The list of accomplishments: lower inflation, a smaller deficit and a fairer tax code. "We're doing good," Clinton told his troops. "Tell them about it."

Clinton had just returned to the White House that evening when he learned that another old pal from Arkansas had run into ethical problems. White House operations chief David Watkins was forced to resign Thursday after it was disclosed that he commandeered a $2,380-an-hour presidential helicopter for a round of golf in suburban Maryland. Watkins had been a liability for months; he had been reprimanded in 1993 for firing seven White House travel officers on charges of financial impropriety. An embarrassed and angry Clinton promised that the Treasury would be "fully reimbursed" for Watkins' indiscretion. A day later, White House officials admitted that a second chopper shadowed the first on a routine training mission. More than a dozen Clinton aides kicked in money for the copters after Watkins, who is worth more than $1.3 million, reportedly refused to foot the bill himself.

While Clinton quickly dispatched the Watkins episode, his own ethical controversies require far more sensitive handling. White House counsel Lloyd Cutler indicated last week that he would ask a federal judge in Little Rock to postpone consideration of Paula Corbin Jones' sexual-harassment suit against Clinton on the grounds that a President should not be distracted by civil litigation while in office. Cutler's strategy would seem to avoid the suggestion that the President is above the law while postponing the possibility of unseemly depositions until later. This legal course virtually ensures that Clinton can avoid dealing with the Jones matter for at least a year because even if a court turns aside Clinton's request, appeals to higher courts will eat up more time. Meanwhile, special prosecutor Robert Fiske told reporters he would conclude the first phase of his Whitewater probe in June, clearing the way for congressional hearings in July by as many as five committees. The sessions would be limited mostly to investigating whether White House and Treasury Department officials interfered with a federal investigation of a bank with ties to onetime Clinton business partner James McDougal.

No wonder the Clintons are eager to leave town. If nothing else, the European trip gives Clinton a chance to burnish his tarnished foreign policy credentials. His decision last week to extend favorable-trading status to China, while widely seen as the right move, is unlikely to gain him many points for decisiveness since he waffled for months on the issue before doubling back on his campaign position. Public support for his performance abroad has plummeted since January, and Clinton hopes a high-profile trip to honor the World War II generation will help explain his policies in the post- cold war era. "He needs a lift," said an official, and foreign trips always give him a lift. Last year's visits to Tokyo and Vancouver, for example, as well as this year's trip to Russia, proved that Clinton has diplomatic skills.

To be sure, the foreign policy significance of this trip is not large. Most of the stops are more ceremonial than substantive. The more important overseas trip comes next month, when Clinton attends the G-7 economic summit in Naples. But just preparing for the trip has been a tonic for Clinton. Aides admit that until recently he focused on overseas problems only as they arose; for the past month or so, he has had special foreign policy bull sessions on Thursday or Friday to anticipate problems before they crop up. And he has immersed himself with characteristic intensity in preparing for the bilateral meetings as well as the ceremonies marking the 50th anniversary of the liberation of Rome and France. As usual, the immersion has paid off. At Annapolis, Clinton delivered the most cogent explanation of his policy in Bosnia, declaring that the U.S. is trying to help "resolve the problems of the world without having to commit the lives of our own soldiers where they should not be committed."

Behind the scenes, however, officials report that the Clinton foreign policy process is as chaotic as ever. Informality seems the rule. Ideas on how to boost Turkish foreign aid sought casually by senior officials turn up verbatim in talking points for Clinton's meeting with the Turkish Prime Minister. A paper on Chinese human rights finds its way to the Oval Office without first being seen by Secretary of State Warren Christopher. As a top official near the center of the action complained, "Decisions are not done early, not done well, without anything that resembles process." Another State Department official remarked that he is tempted to "give a weekly Oliver North award for foreign policy freelancing."

If Clinton is not getting the kind of advice he needs, he has so far stopped short of replacing either Christopher or National Security Adviser Anthony Lake, who are reported to be sniping at each other. One potential candidate for Christopher's job, Colin Powell, has some White House officials delirious with anticipation. "Our foreign policy problems," predicted an aide, "would go away." Maybe so, but Powell has let it be known that he is busy with a book contract and speaking engagements. He may also be pondering a run for the Oval Office himself.

Clinton aides said the President hopes to transcend his problems in Normandy by thanking the generation that fought and won World War II for its sacrifice both in war and later at home. Clinton will argue that the sacrifices of his own generation must match those of its parents, if in a different way. And perhaps, they add, he may put his problems in some perspective: with the cliffs looming above Omaha Beach in the background, even the challenges facing Clinton seem small by comparison.

CHART: NOT AVAILABLE

CREDIT: From a telephone poll of 600 adult Americans taken for TIME/CNN on May 18-19 by Yankelovich Partners, Inc. Sampling error is plus or minus 4%. "Not sures" omitted.

CAPTION: Do you approve of the way President Clinton is handling his job?

Do you feel the economic recovery will be a lasting one?

With reporting by Julie Johnson, J.F.O. McAllister and Hugh Sidey/Washington