Spinmeister McCurry Leaving the Podium

White House Press Secretary Mike McCurry, who with his verbal acrobatics and unflappable manner helped keep the Clinton presidency afloat through its rockiest days, is leaving the podium.

The 43-year-old spinmeister, who will leave office after Congress adjourns this fall, had reportedly wanted to leave at the beginning of the year. But McCurry and other top staffers in President Clinton’s political and media shops felt they had no choice but to weather the storm generated by independent counsel Kenneth W. Starr’s investigation of whether Clinton had sex with an intern and suborned perjury to hide it.

Convinced that Starr has no intention of wrapping up soon, McCurry decided to take advantage of the relative lull in the interest in the investigation to make his exit after 3 1/2 years as White House press secretary and another two as State Department spokesman.

McCurry explained in an interview that he no longer feels his departure would be “misinterpreted” by the American people, as it might have been early on.

“The story has worn out the American people. Most of them now know everything they want to know,” McCurry said. “There’s also a sense this thing will burble along however long Ken Starr remains obsessed.”

McCurry’s replacement will be Deputy Press Secretary Joe Lockhart, who indicated he knows how daunting the task will be. “It’s like the poor fool who is going to have to step in for [basketball star] Michael Jordan next year,” he told reporters.

Clinton, clearly delighted at scooping the White House press corps, made a rare visit to the White House pressroom to make the announcement himself.

“The long-awaited coup in the press office is finally taking place,” Clinton said with a laugh.

He made it clear that Lockhart, who was the spokesman for the Clinton-Gore reelection campaign and then joined the White House staff last year, has big shoes to try to fill.

“Quite simply, Mike McCurry has set the standard by which future White House press secretaries will be judged,” Clinton said. “In an age where Washington has come to be governed by a 24-hour news cycle and endless cable channels with their special niche audiences, Mike has redefined the job of press secretary in a new and more challenging era.”

In praising McCurry’s “mastery of foreign policy,” Clinton applauded his ability to “respond to developments precisely and, when necessary, not so precisely.” Although the president was talking about international relations, the chuckles in the room made it clear that reporters were thinking about the difficult verbal tap dancing McCurry has been engaging in since January in response to questions about former White House intern Monica S. Lewinsky.

Clinton was referring to McCurry’s modus operandi, which the spokesman has called “telling the truth slowly,” by which he meant telling whatever pieces of the story can be told and filling in the picture over time.

Over most of his tenure as Clinton’s spokesman, McCurry tried to avoid commenting on the many allegations, sexual and otherwise, swirling around the presidency. Surrogate spokesmen were hired primarily to handle questions on Whitewater, the Paula Corbin Jones sexual harassment lawsuit and the campaign finance controversy.

But that strategy of saving himself for weightier topics like foreign policy and Congress-bashing broke down when the Lewinsky story broke. The tone in the White House pressroom became charged with tension. Sensing that this story could bring down the president, normally assertive reporters went into the attack mode. With rumors of resignation in the air, McCurry was forced to field some questions.

Although he was famous for not flinching under the pressure of rapid-fire questions on difficult topics under burning klieg lights, the strain on him was obvious in the weeks immediately after news broke about the Lewinsky allegations.

At one point he was asked whether the president’s lawyers were giving him “full, complete, truthful” information. “Yes,” McCurry said. “And God help them if they’re not.”

But in fact, McCurry conceded that there were answers he did not have, that he was--purposefully--out of the loop.

At times, McCurry’s garrulousness and generally collegial rapport with reporters--sometimes greased by a few scotches--got him into hot water.

He made headlines a few weeks after the Lewinsky story broke when he told a Chicago Tribune reporter that the truth about the relationship between the president and Lewinsky could end up being a “very complicated story.” A “simple, innocent explanation,” he continued, would probably have come out already. Later, McCurry explained the comments as a temporary lapse of sanity.

Within a week he was responding to another gaffe--although this was an old one that came back to haunt him. He had to apologize for an off-the-record conversation during the 1996 campaign in which he reportedly told a group of reporters an off-color joke about the first lady.

Clinton had noted the attractiveness of an ancient Peruvian mummy being displayed in Washington.

“If I were a single man, I might ask that mummy out,” Clinton had said. McCurry is said to have quipped: “Probably she does look good, compared to the mummy he’s been [sleeping with].”

McCurry admitted to making an inappropriate comment, which he has refused to repeat, but insisted it did not involve the first lady.

His relationship with Mrs. Clinton had rocky beginnings. She originally questioned his appropriateness for the job because of his 1992 role as spokesman for Democratic presidential candidate Bob Kerrey of Nebraska, who famously said of Clinton: “I’ll open him like a soft peanut.”

McCurry replaced Dee Dee Myers, who was popular with reporters but was never given enough access to the decision-making process to answer complicated questions.

Despite McCurry’s much-touted good nature, he was not above playing one news organization against another. He told Newsweek magazine that its chief competitor, Time, was getting an exclusive interview with Clinton earlier this year because Newsweek’s coverage of the Lewinsky story was too aggressive.

After 22 years as a spokesman, McCurry says he is ready for a career change. Although he was circumspect about where he expects to land permanently, for a while, he said, he would be accepting speaking engagements and spending more time with his family.

“You know, people always say how they’re leaving to spend more time with their families, and I will,” McCurry said. “But I think my family has held up pretty well and probably would have been just as happy to have me stay here, if I had wanted to.”

At first he plans to combine speaking--for large fees--and consulting for top CEOs and corporate managers of global companies on public relations. After gaining some distance from the White House, he hopes to teach a course on political communications in the era of the 24-hour news cycle.

McCurry said he was tickled by the rumor on Wall Street that the plunge in the Dow was because of him.

“It’s all the more reason to indicate it was time to leave, when you start moving markets,” McCurry said with a chuckle.

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You Can Quote Him on That

Mike McCurry, who called himself Bill Clinton’s “human pinata,” disclosed his resignation as White House press secretary on Thursday by saying, “I didn’t want to hem and haw anymore.”

During his 3 1/2 years on the world’s most public podium, McCurry issued several other memorable lines, some witty, some he no doubt regrets. A sampling:

“Sneering at the president of the United States is common sport here in Washington now, and that’s life. But the Secret Service agents should not be slimed by Ken Starr and his operatives.”

--In response to political criticism that Secret Service agents were covering up for Clinton

****

“That was not a serious statement by a serious person. It was a political argument made by a politician for political benefit.”

--On Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott’s recent call for an independent counsel to look into the controversy over the sale of U.S. missile technology to the Chinese

****

“We reported to you that the president had an ingrown pimple. You guys are beating a dead horse here.”

--Responding to reporters’ questions in 1996 about whether the president’s health records indicated he had a venereal disease

****

“My instinct here is to make it very difficult for reporters to report this story and not do anything to help them.”

--In February, just after the Monica S. Lewinsky story broke

****

“You all look like a bunch of caged animals that have had nothing to eat all day long.”

--In March 1997, when reporters were clamoring for details of the president’s knee injury on the steps of golf pro Greg Norman’s home in Florida

****

“Maybe there’ll be a simple, innocent explanation. . . . I don’t think so, because I think we would have offered that up already.”

--In an interview with the Chicago Tribune last February, on the Lewinsky controversy

Compiled by Times researcher Tricia Ford