Click here for an Easy Print Version

            C O N F I D E N T I A L

To:  	The President
        The Senator
        The James
Cc:  	Meeting Attendees
Bcc:	Mullings Readers

From:	Rich Galen

Re: 	The President's Legacy Meeting

-------------------------------------------------
1.  Background:
    President Clinton called a meeting, a week ago,
    to deal with what he feels is a diminishing
    memory of his Administration's accomplishments.
    The triggering event was a two-part article in
    the Washington Post which unfairly suggested
    that we paid the most minor possible attention
    to bin Laden, al Qaeda, and terrorism in
    general.

    Unjust attacks by the remaining shards of the
    Vast Right Wing Conspiracy upon The Senator
    regarding her actions toward The Current
    Occupant of the White House during the TCO's
    Joint Session Address have exacerbated this
    situation.

    To that end, this meeting was convened.

2. Lessons Learned:
    Former Secretary of Energy Bill Richardson was
    quoted extensively by Rick Berke of the New
    York Times with the goal of placing this
    meeting in its proper context.  We had presumed
    that a story about the President's legacy,
    would bring forth a chorus of support.  The
    story did not have the desired effect.

    In fact, the meeting has caused a surprisingly
    negative reaction. Berke quoted an unnamed
    source as saying, "The Clinton hard core [are]
    not on message."  Either the "Clinton hard
    core" was not properly briefed after the
    meeting, or - and this is more problematic -
    the few remaining members of the "Clinton hard
    core" were IN the meeting.

    It was not helpful for Berke to have written
    that The President felt it necessary to "defend
    his legacy against criticism on matters
    including his role in the current recession and
    his failure to strike a fatal blow against
    Osama bin Laden or his terrorist network after
    the embassy bombings in East Africa in 1998."
    This only served to remind readers that we DID
    fail to strike a blow - fatal or otherwise -
    against bin Laden and that the signs of
    recession (which we so skillfully obfuscated
    during our last six months in office) WERE, in
    hindsight, clearly visible.

    It was also not helpful for our former National
    Security Advisor, Sandy Berger, to have been
    quoted as saying, "I feel very uncomfortable
    talking about these meetings."  It will only be
    a matter of time before some reporter picks up
    on the phrase "THESE meetingS" sted "THIS
    meeting" and begins to inquire as to how many
    of "THESE meetingS" have taken place, their
    frequency, attendees, assigned tasks, etc.  I
    suspect the holidays have distracted reporters,
    thus no one has pounced on this error.

3. Salon.com Blunder:
    One of our most un-critical support
    organizations, Salon.com, was not briefed.  In
    a column dated December 20, 2001 - one day
    AFTER the meeting - Asla Aydintasbas, wrote
    that former CIA chief James Woolsey (appointed
    by The President in 1993) was unsuccessful in
    getting The President to take seriously the
    terrorist threat.

    "Disillusioned by Clinton's disregard for
    intelligence matters," the article states,
    "Woolsey left the agency after a brief tenure
    and returned to civilian life�"

    Aydintashbas writes Woolsey so "failed to
    penetrate Clinton's inner circle� after a
    disturbed man crashed a plane on the White
    House grounds in 1994, a joke made the rounds
    in Washington that it was Woolsey trying to get
    in to see the President."
    This is not what we need from our friends in
    the media.

4. Village Voice Miscalculation:
    The CURRENT edition of the "Village Voice" -
    the Limousine Liberals' Bible - has an article
    about The Senator and a constituent from the
    Bedford-Stuyvesant section of Brooklyn, Maribel
    Soto.  
    Writer Chisun Lee wrote that The Senator
    and this woman met in NOVEMBER and The Senator
    suggested they get together to compare
    political agendas.

    According to the Village Voice, "Last week,
    Soto was still waiting to hear back from
    Clinton's people, who warned that The Senator
    could only squeeze Soto in on a Saturday."

    We can hold all the meetings we want in Harlem
    but if The Senator disses Bed-Stuy we will only
    continue to lose ground.

5. Summary:
    Considering this was our break-out week for
    Legacy Enhancement we did not fare very well.
    The fault, to paraphrase Shakespeare, is not
    in our Gingrichs nor in our Starrs, but in
    ourselves.