Gergen Takes Parting Shot, Blasts GOP

Resigning from his post as a top Clinton Administration adviser, Republican David Gergen says “acrimony and anger have reached new lows in Washington” because of unrelenting GOP opposition.

In his resignation letter to President Clinton released Tuesday, Gergen said that when he joined the Democratic Administration in May, 1993, he was convinced it was essential “that we move beyond the scorching partisanship of the past.”

“The very fact that you asked someone who had proudly served in three Republican White Houses to join you in a Democratic White House was, I believe, an important signal that you also valued bipartisanship,” Gergen said.

Meanwhile, Duke University announced that Gergen has formally accepted a visiting professorship at the Durham, N.C., school. He will teach an undergraduate course during the spring 1995 semester called “Governing in Today’s America” at Duke’s Terry Sanford Institute of Public Policy.

Gergen, 52, is a native of Durham. His father taught mathematics at Duke from 1936 to 1967, and his son graduated from the university in 1993.

Gergen began his service in the Clinton White House as a presidential counselor to help mold Clinton’s public image and later moved to the State Department.

In his letter, he said there were “moments when bipartisanship flourished” over the last 17 months. He cited cooperation between the parties in Congress to pass the North American Free Trade Agreement and the National Service Act.

“But there have been many, many other times when the acrimony and anger have reached new lows in Washington; I know how those times have pained you,” Gergen told Clinton.

Gergen’s intention to resign effective at the end of the year had been made known last week.