Not Now, Says Hillary

By Rick Horowitz

You there! You with the itchy trigger finger, poking your remote every 60 seconds, trying to catch the latest steamy, seamy serving of White House dirt. You, who couldn't care less about the showdown with Iraq or the Indonesian economy, suddenly unable to put the newspaper down.

More details! you cry. Bring me more details!

Forget about it. At least forget about getting any more details from the man in the middle of the muddle, the president of these scandal-besotted United States, William Jefferson Clinton.

Hillary says nope. Not now. Not soon. "Eventually."

You have to hand it to the First Spouse: She knows how to get in there and mix it up. Everyone else at the White House may have been hiding under the desks after the story broke. But there she was, the first one out of the bunker, hitting the morning TV shows and throwing herself in front of the moving vans that were bearing down on her guy. Playing for time.

Stay calm, said Hillary Clinton to an anxious nation. Don't go jumping to conclusions.

"Take a deep breath and relax and just, you know, sit back," said Hillary -- the very words a certain young intern might have uttered to The Leader of the Free World more than once. But that's just speculation. Engaging in hypotheticals. Hillary wouldn't approve.

"I don't think it's fruitful at all to speculate or to engage in hypotheticals," Hillary declared. "I'm interested to know what the facts are, and we know very few facts right now."

She may be "interested" in the facts, but she's not exactly insisting on them, or urging her husband to toss any more of them out there for public inspection. Au contraire: She made it clear again and again on her TV rounds that anyone expecting the Big Guy to produce a full accounting any time soon -- the Big Guy, after all, being one of two people in the whole wide world who know precisely what (if anything) he and "that woman" were up to -- anyone expecting that kind of thing is barking up the wrong politician.

"These things take time," said Hillary. "I know that the American people will eventually know the story," said Hillary. "It's going to take some considerable length of time," said Hillary.

Not that the president wouldn't like to talk about it, she seemed to be suggesting, but it's out of his hands.

"Lisa," she informed her interviewer with every ounce of earnestness she could muster, "because there is an investigation going on, nobody can expect the president to say anything more publicly, because -- if there weren't an investigation he could, but because there is an investigation, he can't. And I hope every American understands that."

Understands what? That if only that nasty Mr. Starr weren't looking into it, the president would be delighted to discuss the whole sordid mess in prime time? Not a chance.

"I know that that must be very frustrating for people," Hillary conceded, trying to tamp down the expectations, "but that is the way the system works. And you won't hear any more from Vernon Jordan. You won't hear any more from my husband, because they have to abide by the rules that they operate under when they have these investigations."

Those would be the Rule Against Sticking Your Foot in Your Mouth, presumably, and the all-important Rule Against Saying Anything That Might Get You Nabbed for Perjury.

Sure, there's a gag order on his deposition in the Paula Jones lawsuit, but other than that, the president is free to spill his guts anytime, anywhere he wants to. He was talking last week, when he tried to wiggle past the problem with a few carefully worded denials. He'll talk again the very moment his pollsters tell him he has to.

If he's not talking now, it's not "can't" -- it's "won't." It's not "rules" -- it's strategy.

"These things take time," said Hillary. They're desperate for time.

1/30/98