Irish Eyes Are Smiling for Clinton

For Tess Costello, the thrill of seeing President Clinton on the streets of her hometown Saturday was laced with concern about the pummeling he is receiving at home because of the controversy over his affair with Monica S. Lewinsky.

“Is he going to make it?” Costello, who owns an antique shop, asked an American visitor. “I do hope so. I think he’s such a good man, and he has been very good for Ireland.”

Clinton’s weeklong trip to Russia, Northern Ireland and Ireland, which ended here Saturday, marked the first time that his relationship with the former White House intern and the legal troubles connected with it have emerged as a major theme during a presidential mission abroad.

The president, who returned to Washington late Saturday, addressed the matter at length twice--during a news conference at the Kremlin and in the prime minister’s office in the Irish capital, Dublin. And whether or not he was talking about it, Clinton’s extramarital affair and its potentially dire consequences were on the minds of the people who came out to meet him.

Even White House Press Secretary Mike McCurry acknowledged that the Lewinsky matter had “detracted” from the trip, and he grumbled about the traveling media corps’ focusing on the spectacle of a scandal-scarred president abroad instead of on international relations. McCurry stressed that Clinton had still managed to send a strong message to Russia to stay the course of reform and to Northern Ireland to propel the peace process forward.

The overwhelming view of the average citizens who came out to see Clinton and First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton seemed to be that independent counsel Kenneth W. Starr’s probe and the couple’s public humiliation have gone too far.

“What did our Lord say--’He who is without sin should cast the first stone’?” Costello asked. “He made a mistake, but he said he is sorry.”

The reasons for that attitude varied slightly from country to country. In Ireland and Northern Ireland, Clinton has won the public’s devotion because of his success at prodding the peace process forward after 30 years of sectarian violence.

“It would bring down a politician here in Ireland,” said Simon McDonald, 19, an employee at a computer plant that Clinton visited in Dublin. “But we overlook it in Clinton because he’s been the best president ever for Ireland--since Kennedy anyway.”

“I don’t think the Irish care” about the Lewinsky matter, added Louise Flood, 25, a quality control inspector at the plant. “He’s done too much for us to worry about that.”

In Russia, where politicians’ personal lives have yet to be dissected at such length by voters or the media, no one seemed to believe that someone’s sex life could threaten his stability in office.

“I don’t think the affair is important,” said Lena Babova, 28, a seamstress at a clothing factory that Mrs. Clinton visited in Moscow. “Everyone should be allowed to have a personal life. All kinds of things happen in families--even presidents’ families.”

Clinton has traveled abroad four other times--to Africa, Chile, Germany and Britain, and China since the Lewinsky story broke 7 1/2 months ago. During those trips, the scandal was usually nothing more than a murmur in the background. Whole news conferences went by without the topic being raised.

The one time Clinton’s legal troubles intruded on his historic two-week journey through Africa involved good news. On the final day of that trip, a judge threw out Paula Corbin Jones’ sexual harassment suit against the president.

Clinton has frequently used the excuse of a meeting with a foreign leader to avoid questions about the scandals that have dogged his administration. So it was surprising that on Wednesday in Moscow, he seemed prepared for questions about Lewinsky and answered them at some length.

Clinton’s facial expressions betrayed the distress he felt discussing his sex life while sitting next to the leader of another major nuclear power. He flushed red as he spoke. After the news conference ended, anger flashed across his face as he spoke with McCurry.

But in Ireland, he seemed much calmer. It was only when asked about the prospect of punishment by Congress that he recalled his rule about not commenting on domestic scandals while abroad.

“I shouldn’t be commenting on that while I’m on this trip,” he said, addressing the fourth question on the topic he had taken while standing next to Irish Prime Minister Bertie Ahern in that foreign leader’s office.

Irish journalists surmised that one reason for his relative comfort discussing the issue in Ahern’s office was that the Irish prime minister has his own complicated story.

Ahern’s marriage fell apart in 1992, and for many years he has been openly involved with a woman, Celia Larkin, who was his assistant while he was still living with his wife. Although he has never divorced his wife--divorces were illegal in Ireland until 1995--his relationship with Larkin is so well-known that she appears with him in public and has been on his arm at the White House. And she was present and acknowledged by Clinton in Dublin on Friday and Limerick on Saturday.

And unlike Clinton, Ahern limited his political enemies’ ability to use the relationship against him by going on television and announcing that his marriage was over and then later referring publicly to Larkin as his partner.