Clinton Aide Resigns Over Golf Outing

White House administrative chief David Watkins, a longtime aide to President Clinton who hails from his hometown of Hope, Ark., resigned Thursday after officials learned that he had taken a military helicopter to play golf in rural Maryland earlier this week.

Clinton, saying that he was “very upset” when he learned about Watkins’ trip, revealed his aide’s resignation during a press conference called to announce a decision on most-favored-nation trading status for China.

The cost of the round trip was estimated at $5,000. Clinton promised that the Treasury will be fully reimbursed, though it was unclear whether the money would come from Watkins or other private sources. “The taxpayers will be made whole,” Clinton said.

Watkins, the former head of an advertising agency in Little Rock, Ark., handled all the advertising for Clinton’s initial gubernatorial campaigns in Arkansas and was involved in his presidential campaign as well. He also has been a co-investor with the Clintons, particularly in a highly lucrative cellular telephone franchise.

He now becomes the latest in a series of Arkansas friends of the Clintons whose actions have subjected the President to political embarrassment.

Watkins might have gone unscathed but for editors of the Frederick (Md.) News-Post, who heard Tuesday that a White House helicopter was at the nearby Holly Hills Country Club and sent a photographer in hopes of catching a glimpse of Clinton.

Instead, the paper took--and published in its Wednesday editions--a photograph of Watkins and two other White House aides, dressed in golfing clothes and carrying their clubs, getting into the helicopter as a Marine in full dress uniform stands by, saluting.

At the time, the paper reported that officials of the country club had declined to identify the visitors. But, when the photograph was published, Republican officials quickly recognized Watkins.

The other two officials were Alphonso Maldon Jr., head of the White House military office, and Navy Cmdr. Richard Cellon, the commanding officer at Camp David, Md., the presidential retreat located near the country club.

By Thursday, Maryland Rep. Roscoe G. Bartlett, a Republican whose district includes the golf course, had zeroed in on the issue and congressional Republicans were in full cry, demanding hearings, an official investigation and a full accounting of all staff use of military aircraft.

“The photo of two Marine guards saluting a golf bag as it was carried up the helicopter stairs is truly a picture that’s worth a thousand words,” Bartlett said.

The golf course is about an 80-minute drive northwest of Washington. Former President George Bush frequently played at the course when staying at Camp David. The helicopter came and went from the Pentagon, which is about a 10-minute drive south of Watkins’ residence in the Georgetown neighborhood of the capital.

At the White House, officials reacted with anger and incredulity. Watkins’ actions are painfully reminiscent of the misuse of official airplanes that led to the resignation of John H. Sununu as White House chief of staff in the Bush Administration.

Clinton, mindful of the Sununu episode, had issued a directive to White House staff members early in his presidency intended to limit use of military transportation by senior government officials. As head of the White House administrative apparatus, the task of enforcing that directive fell to Watkins.

The outing is the only time that Watkins is known to have used military transportation for such purposes, White House officials said.

Of the two other aides involved, Maldon has been reprimanded and reassigned for his role, said White House Press Secretary Dee Dee Myers. No action will be taken against Cellon because it has been determined that he had done nothing wrong, she said.

Asked about the trip Wednesday, White House Deputy Press Secretary Arthur Jones told the Baltimore Sun that the three officials had flown to the course to make preparations for Clinton to visit it this weekend.

But Thursday, Myers backed away from that account, saying that Jones had answered the question in “good faith” based on a written statement from a Watkins deputy, but that “I think we’ve gone beyond that now.”

After Clinton’s press conference Thursday, he met with Watkins for 30 minutes. White House officials said it was “not an easy meeting” for Clinton because of the time the two men have known each other.

The incident marked the second time in a year in which Watkins’ conduct has come under fire.

Last year, he was reprimanded for his role in the firing of several employees of the White House travel office after an investigation by White House aide John Podesta found that Watkins had “demonstrated an insensitivity to the appearance of favoritism.”

Watkins had granted a contract to a company headed by a longtime acquaintance and former client, had placed an inexperienced former campaign aide in a role for which she was not qualified and had provided incomplete information to White House spokesmen.

Times staff writers Paul Richter and Sara Fritz contributed to this story.