Critics, Fans Find Common Ground

As Congress went through the grave paces of impeaching President Clinton on Saturday, longtime Clinton critic Paul Greenberg watched TV sporadically, took a bicycle ride and got his hair cut. For Greenberg, editorial page editor of the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, a certain weariness had set in after month upon month of scrutinizing the political agonies of Arkansas’ most famous son.

“I could read about the rest of it in the newspaper,” Greenberg said. “A lot of it was undramatic.”

Many other Arkansans, including ardent Clinton sympathizers, felt the same way. Like most Americans, few were surprised at the House of Representatives’ decision, describing instead a mix of melancholy and distance. Yet, although responses to impeachment here reflected the range of emotions expressed across the country, they were framed with the familiarity of someone describing an errant or estranged relative.

Some, such as railroad worker Fletcher Williams, felt helpless before a Congress seemingly impervious to the electorate. Others, such as Clinton’s childhood friend David Leopoulis, said Arkansans just didn’t register that impeachment would really take place. And some, like Clinton supporter Max Brantley, editor of the alternative weekly Arkansas Times, said they were just wor1847590912out from being disappointed.

“How can you look at the Bill Clinton story with anything but sadness?” asked Brantley, whose take on politics tends toward the irreverent. In the past year, for instance, his paper found a surprise windfall selling $3.95 paper fans, a traditional staple at Southern funeral parlors, emblazoned with: “Shoo away pesky federal prosecutors!”

In light of Saturday’s vote, though, Brantley was somber. While Arkansas has had a forceful core of Clinton haters since the 1970s, he said, a majority in the state likely agreed that Clinton’s misdeeds didn’t merit impeachment.

“That’s been the story of Bill Clinton from the start,” Brantley said. “He’s never lived up to the potential he had. . . . I always wanted so much more of him.”

At her stately, memento-filled house here, former Surgeon General Joycelyn Elders called Saturday’s events predictable but dispiriting. Elders likewise was not surprised at House Speaker-designate Bob Livingston’s decision not to assume the post and to leave Congress. “[But] I do not feel that they need to be resigning over things like that. I think they should be about leading our country, being honest and dealing with the problems of this nation. I don’t care about their sex lives, and I wish they would all stop talking about them.”

Some might find that odd coming from Elders, who resigned in 1994 amid a furor about her comments about masturbation and human sexuality. But Elders, who is now writing a book on the topic, said the congressional action hinged on related cultural paradoxes.

“You know how our society feels our parents have never had sex?” she asked. “I think our society wants to feel like the president has never had sex.”

At Homer’s Grill, whose cinder-block drabness only accents the allure of its savory greens and cornmeal-baked catfish, Clinton supporter Williams said he considered voicing his feelings to Congress--but changed his mind. Williams, who is black, passionately opposed impeachment, saying Clinton has noticeably improved opportunities for African Americans.

“Before he got in office, I always lived in the projects. My wife and I tried to get house loans and things, and they wouldn’t even look at us,” he said. Several years ago, however, they successfully got a loan and bought a house, events he attributed to Clinton’s general influence.

But he didn’t even attempt to contact his congressman, Williams said. “If I thought it would help, I would have called. But they aren’t really going by what people think. They’re going on their personal feelings.”

Grill cook Larry Sheard, on a break after the Homer’s lunch rush had dispersed, called the forces ranged against Clinton larger than this particular Congress.

“I think it’s all the dirty wars of politics,” Sheard said. “I think they have something against Southern presidents. It seems like every president they have from the South, they go after him.”

But Valerie Snover, a Hot Springs answering-service operator, said she is furious at Clinton, precisely for besmirching a region already familiar with disparagement.

Yet even Snover, who didn’t vote for Clinton in either presidential election, opposed the impeachment. “Everybody in Arkansas has known for the last 20 years that Clinton’s a womanizer. They should just wait until he’s out of office, when he’s a private citizen.”

Friends of the president, of course, were livid. “They sit around there and talk like they know him,” Leopoulis, a sales trainer for an Arkansas firm, said of Clinton’s congressional critics. “He has more character in his little finger than they have combined.”

Then there was Clifford Jackson, perhaps Clinton’s highest-profile nemesis besides independent counsel Kenneth W. Starr. Saturday, Jackson maintained that his reaction to the impeachment drama was deep sadness.

“There are two Bill Clintons,” said the Hot Springs attorney, who gained notoriety representing Arkansas state troopers who accused Clinton of misconduct in 1993. “There’s the Bill Clinton who we all know as ‘Slick Willy,’ a persona many Americans absolutely detest. And yet there is a better Bill Clinton, who is capable of greatness; capable of being one of the most effective presidents this country has ever known.”