Man of the World: The Further Endeavors of Bill Clinton Read Online Free Page B

himself. He would promise to stop, and then get on the phone with friends and ask whether they had seen the latest cable TV slurs against him.
    “You’ve got to stop it!” McAuliffe told him. “Stop reading this stuff and stop watching this junk on TV! You’re going to drive yourself nuts.” But he couldn’t help himself. He watched constantly.
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    As January ended, a few small signs appeared of possible relief from the cable-driven scandal storm. After the Clintons voluntarily returned several items of furniture to the White House, the gift stories started to recede. The vandalism stories began evaporating, too, because Fleischer could never produce the “list” of damage incidents that he had said the Bush staffers were compiling; there was never a single photograph of any trashed office, or even a missing W. (Eventually Mark Lindsay, Clinton’s former assistant for management and administration, who had forcefully denied the vandalism charges at every step, would be vindicated by a General Accounting Office investigation that found no basis for them.)
    Nor had the missing champagne glasses on Air Force One been stolen. A White House photographer, on board for Clinton’s final flight as president, had smashed them accidentally. When the steward came out of the galley carrying the glasses, the photographer had turned and, with her telephoto lens, hit and knocked over about ten of the tall flutes. Shards of glass falling into a celebratory cake had left it inedible.
    But revulsion against the Rich pardon showed no sign of fading away—just the opposite. Both the Senate and House investigating committees were preparing to subpoena witnesses, including several top Clinton aides, Denise Rich, and the prosecutors who believed that Clinton had made a corrupt bargain to vacate their case against Rich. Worse still, rumors were circulating that the Justice Department, under a new Republican attorney general named John Ashcroft, who had voted to convict Clinton in the Senate, would open a criminal investigation of the pardon.
    The prospect of a criminal investigation, with a grand jury calling witnesses under penalty of perjury, revived chilling memories of the very worst days of the Starr investigation. For anyone who had ever worked for Clinton, this was a nightmare déjà vu.
    As for the Clintons themselves, the idea that they would again have to hire lawyers to defend themselves was utterly depressing. They were still deeply in debt to David Kendall and the other attorneys who had handled their defense in Whitewater and all the other fizzled scandals that Starr had investigated, plus the Lewinsky case, with unpaid bills that still totaled somewhere north of $11 million. To pay off that obligation, as Hillary told friends, her husband would have to earn at least $25 million before taxes. Now there would be more debt, not less.
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    While the roar of contemptuous media coverage, bipartisan congressional probes, and prosecutorial threats continued, Band and Tramontano had the satisfaction of knowing that at least a few important goals had been achieved. Most significant was the contract she had helped to negotiate with Don Walker, a prominent and highly respected booking agent whose agency would set up lucrative speaking engagements for the former president both in the United States and abroad. He paid a significant sum up front that helped the Clintons to retire their mortgage.
    Walker had gotten off to a rapid and successful start, inking contracts for a heavy schedule of appearances, mostly at corporate events, that would pay no less than $100,000—and as much as $250,000—for what usually amounted to no more than a few hours of travel, talking, and face time. Having declined to join any corporate boards, as so manyof his predecessors had done, paid speeches and book deals looked to Clinton like his only hopes for erasing the burden of debt hanging over him and Hillary and paying for the costs of two big homes. He