First Family Departs for 2 Weeks of Summer Vacation

With a bemused laugh, President Clinton turned to his press secretary aboard a small Air Force jet, showed him the crossword puzzle clue he was working and said, “Here’s one that’s appropriate for today.”

The clue for 46-down in the New York Times puzzle, calling for a word of four letters, was “meal for the humble?”

The answer: “Crow.”

And thus the president escaped to Martha’s Vineyard on Tuesday along with his wife, Hillary Rodham Clinton, and daughter, Chelsea, to begin their summer vacation.

The tenor for the trip was set Monday night: “Now,” the president said in an address to the nation as he acknowledged engaging in “inappropriate” behavior with former White House intern Monica S. Lewinsky, “this matter is between me, the two people I love most--my wife and our daughter--and our God.”

Indeed, for Clinton the roughly two-week visit here is a time of private healing, an opportunity “to do some repair work with his family,” said Mike McCurry, the White House press secretary. “This is a family that has some healing to do.”

The first family arrived here on a hot, sun-drenched afternoon, one day shy of the president’s 52nd birthday, his every public move--and those of his wife and daughter--under scrutiny perhaps more intense than at any time in his presidency.

And in yet another turn in a remarkable series of events, the White House found it necessary on Tuesday to reveal to the nation that the first lady is “committed to her marriage and loves her husband.”

The president emerged from the White House diplomatic entrance with his wife, daughter and Buddy, their rambunctious chocolate Labrador retriever. Only the dog demonstrated any spirit as they walked with determination across the South Lawn to a waiting helicopter.

Chelsea paced between her parents--taking each of their hands--and the president held Buddy’s blue leash. At the steps of Marine One, the president reached out to take the first lady’s right elbow, but she walked up the steps unaided, and the president, his gesture unaccepted, followed his family up the steps.

Fifteen minutes later at Andrews Air Force Base, the president waved briefly toward waiting camera crews at the airplane’s doorway; his wife hurried aboard without looking back.

Aboard the twin-engine military version of a DC-9 airplane--the airport here cannot accommodate the Boeing 747 that normally transports the president--Clinton completed the crossword puzzle and settled into “The General,” a Pentagon-based thriller by Patrick A. Davis, McCurry reported.

The Clintons left behind a capital swirling in polls and pols, each weighing the impact of his extraordinary speech Monday night.

To the extent the president desires privacy, it will be sealed in his redoubt, an island estate belonging to Richard Friedman, a Boston real estate developer and Democratic Party contributor whom Clinton has known since the late 1980s.

Among those who showed up to greet Clinton--awaiting him at the bottom of the jet’s steps--was Vernon E. Jordan Jr., the Washington lawyer and presidential golfing partner. Jordan’s role in seeking a job for Lewinsky drew him into the continuing investigation.