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But significantly, Lindsey's protest was within the Establishment: he fought to make his fraternity pledge a black friend (and resigned as a member when the national organization balked), and he fought to drop some curriculum requirements, arguing that academic standards in those courses were so low that students were not learning anything. In the summer of 1968 he worked in Senator J. William Fulbright's office in Washington, where he met Clinton and a group of other bright young anti-Vietnam War idealists, and he returned to a job there upon graduating in 1971. He earned a law degree in 2 1/2 years at Georgetown University so he could return to Little Rock in time to help elect David Pryor Governor.
In the past 20 years in Arkansas, Lindsey has managed to be counselor to the state's three most prominent -- and sometimes rival -- political egos: Clinton, Senator Pryor and Senator Dale Bumpers. He is their "conscience," they say, and their walking institutional memory. "Bill looks up and sees Bruce in the room and feels rooted," says Clinton's longtime friend Carolyn Staley. That is largely because the President-elect knows that Lindsey will never change: that he will always wear khaki pants and a navy blazer, that he will always have the latest political biography on his shelf, that he can sing along to Heartbreak Hotel and play hearts with Clinton until the candidate comes down from his political high and goes to sleep, and that he won't take himself too seriously. "You know what the worst thing about winning is?" Lindsey recently asked a friend. "You have to shave on Saturday."