Crisis Becomes Him

WASHINGTON, D.C.: Calmly confirming that legal bills have nearly bankrupted him, defending the honesty of his wife, and stubbornly insisting that no matter what Newt Gingrich says, a balanced budget agreement could very easily be reached "in fifteen minutes," a feisty President Clinton faced reporters Thursday in his first full-length press conference since last August. It was a masterly performance by a president who, by any measure, is facing extraordinary personal, political and financial difficulties just as the presidential election season gets underway. As he has in past crises, Clinton rose to the beleagured occasion with an easy blend of humor and toughness, smoothly batting away questions about Travelgate, tax cuts and his mounting legal problems. Asked about a Money Magazine report that his more than $2 million in legal bills have driven him to the brink of bankruptcy, Clinton conceded, "That's probably right. I haven't added it all up, but it's probably right." Pressed to explain why Hillary Clinton is the most controversial First Lady in modern politics -- on a day when a Senate committee was grilling one of her former Little Rock legal colleagues about Mrs. Clinton's Whitewater work -- he went the reporter one better, saying his wife was the most controversial First Lady since Eleanor Roosevelt. It was a deft and flattering reference to a First Lady who was famous for her blunt candor and who was harshly criticized for her unusually high visibility during FDR's administration. As for the budget, Clinton said that if congressional Republicans would only put off resolving key policy differences on Medicare, Medicaid and the environment until after this year's presidential election, an agreement could be reached in a snap.