Cash crunch now for Clintons

By Roger Franklin

Herald correspondent

NEW YORK - As President Bill Clinton's defence team swings into action in the US Senate today the conventional wisdom continues to insist that he will survive his ordeal on Capitol Hill. But survive or fall, there is one punishment from which even the smartest lawyers cannot save him.

He is broke - stony, flat, busted.

And the irony is that those same lawyers, the ones who kept special counsel Kenneth Starr at bay for so long, are the reason America's First Defendant would be hard pressed to keep a roof over his head if the US taxpayers did not provide one at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.

The depth of the Clintons' predicament became apparent last week when he signed a cheque for $850,000 to end Paula Jones' sexual harassment lawsuit once and for all. Almost half that sum came from the Chubb insurance company, which paid out $475,000 under a civil liability policy Clinton had the foresight to arrange before arriving in Washington.

The rest, however, was extracted from the $1 million-or-so Hillary managed to put aside during her career as a Little Rock lawyer.

"It must have been a cold and frosty night in the White House," former Clinton pollster and political guru Dick Morris chortled.

"Not only did Clinton's sexual adventures get him in trouble again, Hillary had to come to his rescue one more time. This time, though, it wasn't political capital but real capital from her own account."

And it is not as if the First Lady doesn't have debts of her own. Of the $4.5 million the couple owes to lawyers, more than $1 million is due to the lawyers who represented Hillary when Starr looked into her role in the Whitewater land deal.

Nor could Clinton have expected much sympathy from the staffers who have stood by him through five scandal-ridden years. His former Whitewater partner, the late Jim McDougal, once described the Clintons as "tornadoes who blow through people's lives and leave wreckage when they move on."

White House aides can only agree, since almost every member of the Clintons' inner circle is in hock to lawyers for five-and six-figure sums.

Clinton's secretary Betty Currie owes her lawyers almost $180,000 while Maggie Williams, Hillary Clinton's former chief of staff, must come up with $350,000.

Harold Ickes, the White House chief of staff, escaped with only a $20,000 bill because he handled much of his own legal work. But George Stephanopoulos, who left the Administration two years ago for a career as a TV commentator, is still paying off more than $100,000 in legal bills.

Not one of those hard-pressed loyalists can expect the slightest help from the man whose talent for trouble forced them to hire lawyers in the first place.

Although the Clinton's legal defence fund holds some $3 million contributed by supporters and celebrity buddies like Tom Hanks, Michael Douglas and Barbra Streisand, it is earmarked solely for the Clintons' use.

Not that the fund's charter is any guarantee it will actually be used to help the First Couple meet their obligations. As a conservative group prepares to challenge its legality, and the FBI investigates if all the donations were above board, the defence fund may well be tied up in court for years after Clinton leaves office.

"That's one reason why Clinton's people were decidedly cool to the suggestion that he make amends for the affair with Monica [Lewinsky] by giving up his pension: the fact is, he needs the money," explained Morris, who says Clinton still owes him for polls her conducted last year.

With no home to mortgage, less than $1 million remaining in their bank account and a negligible portfolio of Government bonds, the Clintons will need to find a lot more cash than they can raise by selling their only other significant asset - a 1986 Buick Cutlass now sitting on blocks in a Little Rock garage. Which, as usual, puts the pressure back on his wife.

However, Rupert Murdoch may have a solution. According to a rumour, a division of his Harper Collins publishing house has offered to put up $5 million for Hillary's autobiography.

All she has to do is dish the dirt on her life with a man who seemingly cannot stay out of trouble. Given the hit her bank account has just taken, Hillary might just be in the mood to do that - and more.