Clinton Inches Toward Lewinsky Affair Apology

President Clinton edged closer Friday to publicly apologizing for his behavior in the Monica S. Lewinsky affair and appeared to ask for forgiveness for the angry, defiant words he directed at independent counsel Kenneth W. Starr during a nationally televised speech last week.

Clinton told a friendly audience celebrating the 35th anniversary of Martin Luther King Jr.’s “I Have a Dream” speech that he was “having to become quite an expert in this business of asking for forgiveness.”

At the same time, he said, he had learned that to get forgiveness, “you have to be willing to give it.” As a result, he said, “it is important that we are able to forgive those we believe have wronged us, even as we ask for forgiveness from people we have wronged.”

The president’s remarks--the first time since his Aug. 17 television address that he has publicly referred to the Lewinsky matter--astonished top Clinton advisors, who apparently had no idea that he was even going to allude to the issue in his speech Friday.

Almost since making the earlier speech, Clinton had been under heavy pressure to make a “second” statement about his “inappropriate” relationship with the former White House intern. The Aug. 17 address, in which he lashed out at critics for “prying” into his private life, hit a sour note with many Americans.

However, his vaguely worded remarks Friday, which stopped short of the kind of straightforward apology some critics have demanded, were confusing to some onlookers, who responded with some laughter and a smattering of applause. His only reference to an apology was an indirect one--”even as we ask for forgiveness from people we have wronged.”

Remarks Were Clinton’s Words

Douglas B. Sosnik, one of Clinton’s key lieutenants, told reporters Clinton got up late Friday morning and began writing his speech by hand. “That’s the way he felt when he wrote it,” Sosnik said, referring to the president’s choice of words.

White House officials here on Martha’s Vineyard declined to provide a fuller explanation of what Clinton had in mind. “I don’t think we’re going to be in the interpretation business,” said Deputy White House Press Secretary Barry Toiv. “The words speak for themselves.”

In Washington, however, Rahm Emanuel, a top Clinton political advisor, portrayed the remarks as a reiteration of the message Clinton had intended to deliver in his earlier address--a plea for forgiveness for his conduct in the Lewinsky matter.

Emanuel said Clinton has been talking with his family, with his own staff and with members of Congress about the scandal for the last several days and has “been asking for forgiveness for obvious reasons,” which he declined to detail.

“I think it’s kind of straightforward,” Emanuel insisted, referring to Friday’s remarks. “I won’t presume to interpret what is in his mind, but he has been saying, ‘I take responsibility. The American people know what I said.’

“He’s asking for forgiveness. That’s what he said.”

Clinton’s advisors debated last week whether he needed to make a more explicit apology, and most said they believed he would make some kind of additional statement. But the president resisted the idea that he should devote extended remarks to the issue, aides said.

In a closely watched appearance at Worcester, Mass., on Thursday, Clinton avoided any reference to his relationship with Lewinsky or Starr’s lengthy investigation of it.

His brief comments Friday appeared to be Clinton’s chosen way of handling the issue--combining a brief, indirect reference to his asking for forgiveness with a rhetorical olive branch to critics--presumably including Starr.

Clinton said in his Aug. 17 address that it was “time to stop the pursuit of personal destruction and the prying into private lives and get on with our national life.” He said Starr’s investigation had “gone on too long, cost too much and hurt too many innocent people.”

Even so, Clinton did not specifically mention his earlier criticism of Starr, and, despite Emanuel’s assessment, many analysts believe his remarks stopped well short of offering a direct apology and an appeal for forgiveness.

Clinton Moved by Show of Support

Clinton’s remarks came during an emotion-filled celebration of the 1963 civil rights march on Washington. In introducing the president, Rep. John Lewis (D-Ga.), who participated in that historic event, vowed to Clinton: “I was with you from the beginning, and I will stand with you from now to the end.”

Charles Ogletree, a Harvard University law professor, assured the president that Friday’s audience was loyal to him. “I know the president has had a lot of fair-weather friends. This is not a fair-weather crowd.”

Aides said Clinton was moved by the expressions of support.

“It reminded him how the ideas of the civil rights movement had affected him,” one official said.

The celebration, which took place at the Union Chapel in Oak Bluffs, a town on Martha’s Vineyard, where the Clintons are vacationing, was held amid unusually heavy security, with school buses positioned to block all intersections around the building.

Clinton, the featured speaker at the event, appeared alone. Aides said his wife, Hillary Rodham Clinton, had been invited, but they gave no reason for her decision not to attend.

Washington Bureau Chief Doyle McManus contributed to this story.

To join a continuing discussion on the Monica S. Lewinsky investigation on The Times’ Web site, go to:

https://www.latimes.com/scandal