Clinton Strategist Resigns in Flap

Dick Morris, the controversial on-again, off-again Democratic strategist who inspired President Clinton to adopt a more moderate, family-values message, resigned abruptly Thursday in response to reports he had shared campaign secrets with a $200-an-hour prostitute.

Even though many Democrats resented Morris’ influence over the president, they were nevertheless distressed that the resignation would overshadow the final night of the Democratic National Convention and detract from an otherwise successful effort to capture favorable publicity.

The president issued a statement describing his departed aide as a friend and saying that he was grateful for the help Morris had given him.

Morris quickly checked out of his room at the convention headquarters hotel and left town. He refused to discuss the story, saying only that he was resigning to save his family from “the sadistic vitriol of yellow journalism.”

Morris’ departure was precipitated by a story in the Star tabloid newspaper quoting the high-priced call girl, Sherry Rowlands, as saying that Morris permitted her to listen in on his telephone conversations with Clinton during some of their liaisons and showed her a confidential draft of First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton’s convention speech.

Among the other secrets Morris allegedly shared with Rowlands: news that American researchers had found signs of past life on Mars.

The tabloid story was accompanied by a splashy photo spread and a copy of a check Morris had endorsed to Rowlands.

The story immediately became the talk of the convention.

“Everyone’s terribly upset about the timing,” said Bob Bloom, 60, of Mesa, Ariz., echoing the sentiments of many delegates here.

Glee on Other Side

Bob Dole, the Republican presidential nominee, predicted that Morris’ departure would hasten Clinton’s shift back to the left. “Morris has been trying to make President Clinton a Republican, now maybe he’ll revert to the liberal Democrat that he really is,” Dole told reporters in Santa Barbara, where he had been vacationing.

Privately, of course, Dole’s advisors were as gleeful as Clinton’s were upset.

“Character and integrity will certainly be issues in this campaign, but we are not drawing any direct connections [to Morris]. Voters will draw their own conclusions,” said a senior GOP campaign aide.

Clinton aides familiar with Morris’ stormy relationship with the president and the first lady over the last 20 years were not surprised that the mercurial political strategist had caused Clinton public embarrassment at a crucial point in his career.

Morris’ defenders as well as his critics describe him as manipulative, self-absorbed and an opportunist who had no compunction about switching back and forth between the Democratic and Republican parties. Morris has worked for such Republicans as Sens. Jesse Helms of North Carolina and Trent Lott of Mississippi--both friends of Dole.

An Oz Figure

Until recently, Morris’ role in the Clinton campaign was not widely known. A cover story in Time magazine earlier this week titled “The Man Who Has Clinton’s Ear,” served to reinforce a growing view among Democrats that he was a sort of Wizard of Oz figure--pulling levers from behind the scenes.

To be sure, White House officials conceded Morris has had a remarkable impact on Clinton’s political message. He is the author of what political analyst Kevin Phillips calls “the $48 programs”--small initiatives, such as Clinton’s advocacy of school uniforms, that cost the government little or nothing but appeal to American parents concerned about raising their children in a difficult world.

But officials insist that Morris’ influence has been exaggerated. They note that Clinton’s big budget victory earlier this year was won after the president rejected his advice against compromise. In addition, Clinton is known to have rejected Morris’ more recent proposal to make a broad capital-gains tax cut a centerpiece of the campaign.

In recent weeks, sources said, party leaders have rebuffed Morris’ efforts to persuade Democrats to attack Dole in key convention speeches, such as those delivered by the first lady, Vice President Al Gore and party Chairman Christopher J. Dodd.

Dodd not only rejected Morris’ advice, but he used his speech to announce that Democrats would avoid negative campaigning during the fall campaign. These events were widely interpreted, both inside and outside the White House, as evidence that Morris’ influence on Clinton was declining.

“At the end of the day,” said Dodd, “it’s the president and the vice president who make the decisions.”

Morris has many enemies within the Democratic Party, particularly Deputy White House Chief of Staff Harold M. Ickes, a doctrinaire liberal who often opposed the direction that Morris was recommending to the president. The feud dates back to 1960s, when the two young Columbia students struggled for control of the Democratic Party on the West Side of New York City. He was known at that time as a political whiz kid.

In 1977, Morris, apparently in search of clients for his political advice, visited then-Atty. Gen. Bill Clinton in Little Rock, Ark., and the two men became fast friends.

As Morris recalled it in a 1992 Times interview, it was a picture of a scantily-clad Dolly Parton taped inside Clinton’s office bathroom that convinced him that the two men had common interests.

But the relations were not always friendly, and there were stories that the pair once even came to blows. Morris later began counseling Republican candidates and offered savage assessments of Clinton and his vulnerabilities. Morris and Clinton rekindled their association after the 1994 Republican midterm victories left the president casting for a new strategy.

Paid for Her Story

During the campaign, Morris has been living in a hotel in Washington, using an office in the White House and commuting home on weekends to Connecticut, where he lives with his wife, lawyer Eileen McCann. The Star reported that Rowlands and Morris began a yearlong affair after she was dispatched to his hotel room by the escort service for which she worked.

According to the story, she later left the service and stayed with him in his hotel room during his Washington visits. She said that to convince her that he was an important presidential advisor, he let her listen to portions of phone calls he had with Clinton, showed her advance texts of major speeches and tipped her on upcoming news announcements, including the Mars scientific discovery.

Rowlands reportedly took her story to the Star last June, providing the tabloid with diaries and photographs to corroborate her story. Officials of the Star confirmed that she was paid for her cooperation, but they declined to specify the amount.

In Washington, an employee of the Jefferson Hotel, where Morris allegedly met with Rowlands, said he often stayed in Room No. 205, a $440-a-night, nonsmoking suite overlooking 16th Street, about four blocks north of the White House.

“It’s a small hotel,” the employee said. “We know all of our guests’ histories very well. He used to come here with his wife. We were surprised.”

Times staff writers Judy Pasternak in Chicago, Faye Fiore in Washington and William C. Rempel in Los Angeles contributed to this story.