Clinton Looks to Define New Role

Former President Clinton seems to be everywhere these days: at a memorial service with British Prime Minister Tony Blair; at a news conference with New York Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani; hugging rescue workers at the World Trade Center; comforting family members of victims; praying with 25,000 others at Yankee Stadium.

This week, he plans to take four commercial flights to reassure the nation that air travel is safe--even after two hijacked planes crashed into the twin towers here, another hit the Pentagon and a fourth crashed in southwestern Pennsylvania.

Call it the former president’s reemergence as a goodwill ambassador. Or call him a supportive spouse to Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.). Or call him simply a hometown booster.

“I’ve been very proud to be a citizen of this country in the last few days,” Clinton told the Foreign Policy Assn. last week. “And I have been very proud of all of our friends from around the world who have rallied to our side. This can be the most exciting time in all of human history.”

Clinton’s former chief of staff, John Podesta, said the former president is trying to help the city and nation at a difficult time.

“He understands he’s only playing a supporting role, and I think he’s happy to do whatever he can to be helpful,” Podesta said. “That’s what every New Yorker and every American is doing too. . . . He is not exceptional in that sense.”

But Clinton isn’t like every other American. He has received a briefing from National Security Advisor Condoleezza Rice, a courtesy extended to other former presidents as well. In addition, an Air Force jet flew him from New York to a prayer service at the National Cathedral in Washington.

Some confidants say Clinton has been struggling to decide how visible he should be.

“The problem is that he’s such a lightning rod,” one former aide said. “Nothing that Bill Clinton does is low-key.”

Spokeswoman Julia Payne said the former president has tried to stay out of the spotlight. “He has spent a lot of time, every single day, as quietly as he can--sometimes hours each day--with these families in New York,” Payne said. “We don’t call the press. He really is just there for his family and for the people of New York.”

Although he threw a street party in July to open his office in Harlem, Clinton has remained largely out of sight for months, delivering speeches and traveling the world. His low profile earlier this year followed stinging criticism of his last-minute presidential pardons, the removal of gifts from the White House and his attempts to secure costly office space in Manhattan.

Clinton’s recent reemergence has caused some tension. After one of Giuliani’s news conferences, Clinton lingered for about 10 minutes to answer reporters’ questions. Twice, a Giuliani spokeswoman shouted at reporters to end the questioning, but Clinton continued answering. At one point, Giuliani’s spokeswoman told Payne: “My boss is waiting.”

Clinton was in the middle of a two-week speaking tour in Australia when he learned of the attacks via a cell phone call. He tried to call Washington from his hotel, but was unable to get through. When he finally succeeded, Bush sent a military cargo plane to pick him up from Port Douglas in Queensland.

Almost immediately upon returning to New York, Clinton and his daughter, Chelsea, visited an assistance center for victims’ families at the Capital Armory on Lexington Avenue.

After that, the former president went on a shopping spree at the NBA store in midtown Manhattan, where he spent $342.79. He bought two large bagfuls of New York Knicks sweatshirts, Washington Wizards hats and a child-size Los Angeles Lakers jersey.

He gave the NBA gear to children of people who died in the World Trade Center.

“I just try to do what the mayor asks,” Clinton said Saturday. “Yesterday, he asked us to go shopping, so I went shopping.”

Clinton said he now wants to encourage Americans to take to the skies. “I feel quite confident that the airlines are safe to travel again, and that New York is safe for visitors,” he said.

Former National Security Advisor Samuel R. “Sandy” Berger said Clinton is still settling into his role as a former president.

“He recognizes that in a crisis like this, there’s only one president,” Berger said. “He feels his role is to be supportive of the president, to be as helpful as he can in the New York context, and over time, we’ll see what that evolves into.”