It’s a Landslide, and Mudslide, for Clinton

This is not the serene Hawaiian getaway that President Clinton anticipated after a grueling campaign. The weather has been lousy. The trip has been cut in half. Golf courses are soggy. And a weary Clinton laments he’s been working “as hard as I’ve ever worked.”

Even a presidential helicopter ride to his oceanfront VIP bungalow had to be scrapped for a long motorcade drive because of a downpour shortly after his arrival with his wife, Hillary.

“Rain Toll in the Millions” was the gloomy newspaper headline that greeted Clinton on Saturday. After dark clouds in the morning, however, the sun broke through by afternoon.

The president squeezed in a little business, calling South African President Nelson Mandela about humanitarian efforts in eastern Zaire.

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Hawaii has been deluged with more rain in the last couple of weeks than fell in all of 1995. It has caused destructive mud and rock slides. Pools of water sit on golf courses.

Despite the soggy conditions and sporadic showers, Clinton got in a round of golf with Hawaii Gov. Ben Cayetano, who said he described the destruction and made a pitch for federal disaster relief while on the course. “‘We’re very, very confident that when we file for relief, we will receive favorable consideration,” the governor said.

Cayetano pronounced himself soaked but said of Clinton: “Rain doesn’t bother him.”

And there will be more golf on the golf-mad president’s horizon.

The three-night stay in Hawaii is the first stop of a 12-day trip, with state visits to Australia and Thailand and a summit in the Philippines of Pacific Rim nations still to come.

In Australia, Clinton has a golf date with PGA pro Greg Norman. The president said the game came about when someone asked what he wanted to do in Australia. “Play golf with Greg Norman,” he replied breezily. The president seemed amazed that Norman accepted readily.

The Australia leg of the trip, beginning Tuesday, actually holds the promise of several other golf games as well as an excursion to the famed Great Barrier Reef.

It will be Clinton’s first trip to Australia and, chatting with reporters on Air Force One, he seemed excited about it.

The president recounted that he and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu were talking Thursday about the Middle East peace process when “out of the blue” Netanyahu suggested he should visit Ayers Rock.

Many consider that popular tourist destination the Australian continent’s greatest natural feature.

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But it’s “in the middle of nowhere,” Clinton said, and he didn’t expect to have time to see it.

It was past midnight in Washington--just after 7 p.m. Friday here--when Clinton and the first lady arrived in Hawaii. Air Force One was almost empty; practically all of Clinton’s senior staff remained in Washington. Some will catch up with him in Manila.

The president was supposed to have started his vacation Tuesday and stay for almost a week. The trip was chopped in half by discussions about staff replacements--half of his Cabinet is leaving--and issues such as sending troops to Zaire and extending the mission of U.S. forces in Bosnia.