Controversy Still Boils About Clinton’s Speech

President Clinton spent his 52nd birthday Wednesday out of the public eye, as his aides took the pulse of some of his most important supporters to determine the extent of the political damage that needs to be repaired.

Fewer than 48 hours after the president acknowledged having a relationship that was “not appropriate” with former intern Monica S. Lewinsky, the controversy generated by Clinton’s televised statement to the nation Monday night and his testimony to a grand jury continued unabated.

Some of the president’s key Democratic supporters criticized Clinton’s address--particularly his decision to use the speech to assail independent counsel Kenneth W. Starr.

Summing up the comments senior presidential aides are hearing, one aide said: “If the president wants this to be over, he has to act like it and not look like he’s continuing a war” with Starr. “We’ll stick with him, but we don’t want to carry out a grudge match.”

At the same time, however, Lewinsky’s planned return to the grand jury room today and unconfirmed reports that Starr’s office had requested and obtained a DNA sample from the president demonstrated that the legal battle was far from over.

James Kennedy, spokesman for White House counsel Charles F.C. Ruff, refused to comment.

“On Monday night, the president acknowledged an improper relationship and apologized for that,” Kennedy said, reading a prepared statement. “The president also said it’s time to reclaim his privacy. We are going to respect that and not comment on leaks that come out of the investigation.”

In recent weeks, Starr’s office submitted to the FBI for testing a blue dress of Lewinsky’s that she said was stained with the president’s semen. Results of that testing have not been publicly revealed. If the stain was found to contain organic matter, a DNA sample from the president would be required to determine if it is his.

Since Clinton reportedly testified Monday that Lewinsky had performed oral sex on him, it is unclear why Starr would still need a DNA sample from the president.

Clinton and his aides had hoped that his historic testimony would settle the legal allegations of perjury and obstruction of justice and that his unprecedented public statement would help his standing politically.

But Democratic mayors and other political contacts who spoke to another senior presidential aide, expressed these points: “They’re disappointed. They thought the president made a mistake. They’re glad he owned up to it.”

At the same time, the senior aide said, they felt the controversy had “been going on too long; it’s time to wrap it up,” and that he should focus on the domestic policy agenda he presented last winter in his State of the Union address.

As for the defiant nature of Clinton’s remarks about Starr’s seven-month investigation of his relationship with the former intern, a White House official speaking on condition of anonymity said the president could not refrain from voicing his personal animosity toward Starr.

“He’s [angry] and he’s going to say so,” he said. “That’s what he wanted to do.”

White House Press Secretary Mike McCurry, meanwhile, drew a congenial picture of the Clintons as they began a vacation in this retreat where they have found comfort in three previous visits.

The president, First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton and their daughter, Chelsea, “woke up late, enjoyed the setting they’re in. They’ve been spending the day, quite a lot of time together as a family, just lounging around, taking some walks. They had lunch and breakfast together,” McCurry said. To celebrate the presidential birthday, McCurry said, the Clintons planned a dinner with longtime friend Vernon E. Jordan Jr. and his family.

In the sixth year of his presidency, when his lame-duck status might finally give him a degree of privacy, Clinton is finding himself more than ever living in a fishbowl--even on this vacation.

Each time Clinton is driven away in an armored sport utility vehicle from the estate on Oyster Pond where he and his family are quartered, he will be under scrutiny, down to the clothes he wears, the company he keeps, the shops he visits and the physical distance--or closeness--between himself and the first lady.

Is there significance in what he is wearing? A report in the New York Times Wednesday that he had worn a tie given to him by Lewinsky on the day she testified before the grand jury investigating their relationship has given his attire new prominence--even potential legal standing if he had been trying to send her a signal.

It was at the Black Dog gift shop here that he was said to have purchased a T-shirt last year for Lewinsky. Will he visit there again? Will he party at crowded watering holes, as he has in the past, with the likes of Carly Simon, the singer who greeted him as soon as he stepped off his plane Tuesday? And why was the first lady seen wearing sunglasses?

Never mind that it was a sunny day, that Simon and other regular visitors to the island are counted among the president’s friends and that the gift shop is a popular spot on the island. The Lewinsky scandal has put such minute details of the president’s vacation in the spotlight.

On his other visits to the island, Clinton unwound for a few days at his vacation residence--an estate owned by Richard Friedman, a Boston real estate developer and longtime Clinton acquaintance--and then began a round of outings to restaurants, golf courses and the homes of friends and supporters.

McCurry predicted a similar schedule during this visit, shorter than previous vacations because the president is leaving for Russia early in September. But even the extent of the vacation is up in the air.

The White House staff is debating whether it would be wiser politically for Clinton to stay out of public view for the next two weeks or to make occasional one-day jaunts off the island to draw attention to domestic political issues and show the nation a president who is at work and undaunted by controversy.

So far, vacation mode has won out. The White House quickly abandoned an idea that he visit Philadelphia on Friday to talk about health care. But his schedule for next week remains uncertain.

If the tenor of the president’s mood was one of attack Monday night, the public persona that was presented through his spokesman Wednesday was considerably more benign.

McCurry tossed aside calls from some Republicans for Clinton’s resignation, saying: “I think the president believes that he has a significant amount of work that he needs to do for the American people. He was elected by the American people to do it and he intends to proceed with that work.”

“The president is confident that he enjoys the trust of the American people who elected him,” the spokesman said later.

Clinton’s telephone calls, McCurry said, generally were limited to an update from national security advisor Samuel R. “Sandy” Berger and birthday greetings from his brother, Mrs. Clinton’s brothers and his stepfather.

Times Washington Bureau Chief Doyle McManus contributed to this story.

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