At the White House, a week of nonstop meetings failed to produce a clear political strategy. The only real agreement among top advisers assembled in senior aide Mark Gearan’s basement West Wing office was that Clinton needed to move to the right. Exactly where or how far the president should go on issues the Republicans are pushing, like term limits and a balanced-budget amendment, remained uncertain. ““Everybody thinks we should move toward the center – except on their issue,’’ said one frustrated official. Some suggested beating the GOP to the punch by proposing measures Clinton has long supported and that now seem inevitable with the new Republican majority. Justice Department lawyers are crafting language for a line-item veto, and White House aides suggest that Clinton will also seek a middle-class tax cut. Another emerging tactic: paint the GOP proposal on welfare reform – which includes orphanages for children whose mothers can’t care for them – as big government, not to mention callous and Dickensian. ““We’ll mail all the Republican members a copy of Oliver Twist,’’ says George Stephanopoulos.
But the row over school prayer suggests that tacking to the right will be perilous. Clinton angered the left last week after suggesting he was open to a constitutional amendment permitting prayer in classrooms. ““I certainly wouldn’t rule it out,’’ he said. Advisers moved quickly to clean up the mess, saying he only wanted a law allowing a neutral ““moment of silence,’’ consistent with the 1985 Supreme Court decision. But the episode left some staff angry and confused. ““You want to believe he was exhausted and not thinking, but who knows?’’ says one aide. Moderates, led by Vice President Al Gore and chief of staff Leon Panetta, argue that it is good politics to displease traditional Democrats. ““It doesn’t matter what the interest groups want anymore,’’ says Al From of the Democratic Leadership Council.
But the culture of the White House may make it difficult for Clinton to turn his back on the left. It is filled with alumni of liberal groups like People for the American Way and the Children’s Defense Fund. Other aides once served Democratic barons on the Hill. First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton left little doubt about where she stood in the postelection debate last week when she pointed out that the 1,400 servants at the palace of the ancient Indonesian capital in Yogyakarta ““live in subsidized housing with health care.’’ Clinton has told friends recently that he sees himself as an ““activist of the center.’’ But centrists also risk making no one happy. ““You can easily wind up as Jimmy Carter,’’ said one adviser, ““with the [party’s] base hating you and the rest of the country thinking you’re a left-wing nut.’’ Not exactly a formula for re-election.
