Clinton Seeks to Regroup, Tours Stronghold in South

Arkansas Gov. Bill Clinton pushed through his political stronghold in the South Monday, collecting endorsements, money and votes of confidence as he tried to rebound from the allegations of past marital infidelity that have disrupted his Democratic presidential campaign.

One day after he appeared on CBS-TV’s “60 Minutes” with his wife, Hillary, to discuss the charges of adultery raised by a supermarket tabloid, Clinton brushed aside questions about his private life while announcing high-powered and racially diverse committees of supporters here and in Louisiana.

“I’m through with it,” he told reporters when asked about the allegations. “I’ve said all I have to say.”

He did, however, appear on CNN, where he alluded to the controversy. And, during a personal appearance Monday, he briefly denounced the press conference by Gennifer Flowers, the Arkansas woman who last week alleged in the Star, a supermarket tabloid, that she had conducted a 12-year affair with the governor.

Flowers, 42, told the New York press conference that she had lied for two years to protect Clinton and that she was “disgusted” with his CBS interview. “He was absolutely lying,” she said. “The man on ’60 Minutes’ was not the man I fell in love with.” She refused to say how much the Star paid for her story.

Clinton categorically denied the charges at a crowded rally in Baton Rouge, La.--as he has since Flowers came forward. “She didn’t tell the truth,” he said. “Nothing happened in that press conference today to change that.”

As the long, rainy day of campaigning wore on, Clinton appeared increasingly exasperated with the persistent press questions. In Jackson, Clinton said the press was “out of sync” with the public by continuing to focus on his personal life. Later, he told reporters in Baton Rouge: “I can’t find any citizen who will ask me a question about this or seems to be preoccupied by it.”

Elected officials and other supporters who crowded into rallies in both Mississippi and Louisiana expressed similar exasperation. In Baton Rouge, when Clinton told reporters he considered the contretemps “a closed matter,” the audience broke into loud applause.

“It’s over with,” said Don Robinson, a Lafayette insurance salesman. “It’s time to get on with America’s problems.”

But the controversy lingered. Three major networks, ABC, CBS and NBC, featured the Clinton-Flowers story as the lead item on their national newscasts.

Late Monday evening, James Carville, a senior Clinton strategist, angrily lashed out at the press, comparing reporters’ interest in the story to drug addicts’ attraction to crack cocaine.

For Clinton, Monday’s crowded schedule of fund-raisers and press conferences represented the first step in what even supporters conceded would be an arduous and uncertain process of recovering from the allegations of the last 10 days. “This is a critical week for the campaign,” acknowledged Sen. John B. Breaux (D-La.), who was named a co-chairman of Clinton’s Louisiana effort Monday.

At the end of the day, Clinton got a boost from two quick polls of New Hampshire voters that showed his support virtually undiminished. In a Boston Globe poll of 400 likely Democratic primary voters, Clinton won the support of 33%, nearly twice as many as former Massachusetts Sen. Paul E. Tsongas, with 17%. A sample of that size generally has a margin of error in the range of plus or minus 5 or 6 percentage points.

A second poll done for Manchester television station WMUR surveyed 365 likely Democratic primary voters. Thirty percent backed Clinton--compared to 24% in a poll taken between Jan. 6 and Jan. 11--and 25% backed Tsongas, up from 18%. The margin of error given by WMUR was plus or minus 5 percentage points.

Earlier Monday, the rallies in Louisiana and Mississippi provided a badly needed morale boost for the campaign. In neither state were there signs of politicians looking to distance themselves from a candidate who as recently as last week appeared to be at the forefront of the Democratic field.

In an interview, Breaux said “not a single person in New Orleans or Baton Rouge or Alexandria” had backed away from commitments to participate in Monday’s endorsements after the allegations broke late last week.

As he sought to get his campaign back to normal, Clinton agreed to be interviewed by CNN, apparently because his advisers fear that the “60 Minutes” appearance was not as effective as they had hoped. Campaign aides were at pains to point out to reporters that CBS aired less than 11 minutes of an interview that originally ran 90 minutes.

“There were some things on the cutting-room floor that I wish had been in the interview,” Clinton told CNN Monday.

But he appeared invigorated by the signs of continued support in his native South. At an early morning fund-raiser in Jackson, he delivered with unusual passion his frequently repeated charge that President Bush is trying to divide the nation by race to divert attention from economic problems.

In New Hampshire, site of the first primary on Feb. 18, opinion seemed divided about the allegations. If Clinton had an affair “I think it does matter,” said Pam Goulet, a 43-year-old inspector at the Davidson Textron auto parts factory in Dover. “If he deceived his wife, he could deceive the American people too.”

State Sen. Burt Cohen, a Portsmouth Democrat and a member of the New Hampshire Democratic Committee, said he believes Clinton won sympathy from many New Hampshire Democrats because of what many see as unfounded accusations.

Times staff writers Paul Richter in New Hampshire and David Lauter in Washington contributed to this story.