Copyright © 1996 The Telegraph plc. All Rights Reserved. Reproduced with permission.
International News Electronic Telegraph
Saturday 31 August 1996
Issue 465

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Sex scandal fails to dent Clinton's lead
By Stephen Robinson in Chicago


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Convention Watch '96




President pins his hopes on 'bridge to 21st Century'
The mystery of the betrayed aide

A MESSY sex scandal within his circle caused fleeting embarrassment but had done nothing to loosen President Clinton's grip on the election as he left the Democratic convention in Chicago yesterday, to campaign in the American heartland.

Mr Clinton, his wife Hillary, and Vice-President Gore and his wife,embarked on a six-state Mid-western bus tour in a seemingly unassailable position for the November election. Most opinion polls suggest that Mr Clinton is back to a lead of about 15 percentage points over Robert Dole, a commanding margin with just over two months to go to election day.

The Democrats put on a lightweight show in Chicago, more trivial and bereft of serious debate even than the Republican offering in San Diego a fortnight before. But embarrassing policy splits were avoided and there were no public rows over welfare reform, so Democratic party managers could justly claim the convention had been a success. The resignation of Dick Morris over links to a prostitute leaves Mr Clinton with a little egg on his face and short of a trusted political strategist in the weeks ahead.

Mr Morris has been Mr Clinton's closest adviser for almost 20 years, and losing him will be a wrench. There is some speculation that Mr Clinton may turn to James Carville, who advised him during the 1992 campaign, but who has been eased out of the picture as the administration has moved to the Right. Mr Morris has been told he will play no further role in this campaign, and the man who was once spirited to all the best tables in Washington "power" restaurants cut a pathetic figure as he was driven back to his Connecticut home by his wife.

When a prostitute named Sherry Rowlands, 37, sold her story of exotic sex sessions with him in a Washington hotel room, Mr Morris originally argued with White House aides that he could ride the scandal out. But this bravado was rejected by staffers, who worried not so much about the sex as Mr Morris's reported adolescent indiscretion in showing Miss Rowlands a draft of a speech to be delivered by Mrs Clinton and allowing her to listen in to his telephone conversations with the President. Mr Morris's wife, Eileen McGann, a lawyer, who appears to be standing by her husband, left the house briefly to tell reporters there would be no further statement from her husband.

A hired gun who would work for Democrats or Right-wing Republicans, provided the money was right

Miss Rowlands, who has been paid a five-figure sum for her story, has gone to ground. Her neighbours in the town of Lake Ridge, Virginia, said she was a private, hard-working mother of three teenaged sons who in daylight hours runs her private house cleaning business, A Woman's Touch. A neighbour, Britta Barber, said Miss Rowlands regularly entertained a man who drove a maroon estate car. "Yeah, that looks like him," she said when shown Mr Morris's picture in the Star tabloid, which published the story.

Mr Clinton's staff in Chicago dismissed the flap as a one-day media wonder. Secretly, several were delighted to see the back of a man known for his political cynicism, a hired gun who would work for Democrats or Right-wing Republicans, provided the money was right. Yet even his enemies acknowledge that Mr Morris was the central figure in Mr Clinton's political revival, the man who drew up a Centre-Right campaign programme for his re-election.

Mr Morris most recently persuaded Mr Clinton to sign a tough Republican welfare Bill which cuts off mothers' benefits after five years. Once Mr Clinton announced he would reluctantly sign the legislation, Mr Morris went around the White House telling staffers victory in November was now assured.

Publicly, Republicans said they had no wish to exploit a man and wife's private problems, though they were certainly not unaware that Mr Morris's humiliation would exacerbate Mr Clinton's long-term "character" problem. Moreover, Mr Morris's departure revives speculation about how liberal Mr Clinton might prove to be in a second term, knowing that he faces no more elections. Mr Dole tapped at that concern in his first reaction to the saga: "Well, Morris has been trying to make President Clinton a Republican," he said. "Now, maybe he'll revert to the liberal Democrat that he is."

The Morris affair has highlighted the need for the Clinton campaign to avoid making any mistakes in the coming weeks. Mr Clinton's acceptance speech on Thursday night was a cautious, almost muted performance. In the nine weeks ahead, there will be no sweeping policy initiatives or grand gestures, rather a series of modest proposals for minimal government activism, most of them designed to "protect our children" or "honour our values".



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