Hillary snubs New York to buy home in Washington
By Philip Delves, Broughton, in New York
Press releases - The White House
Hillary 2000
FLUSH with the funds from her lucrative book deal, Hillary Clinton was due
to buy a �2 million house in Washington yesterday.
The senator-elect, who will be sworn in next Wednesday, was buying a
six-bedroom, seven-bathroom Georgian-style house near Embassy Row. The house
will enable her to entertain in grand style and to provide the Clintons'
main family home. The purchase should leave plenty of change from the
estimated �5.3 million book deal. Even so, the couple's friends are rallying
round to buy them fancy dinner services, which up to now they have had
gratis in their government housing.
But while Mrs Clinton unpacks the porcelain, those New Yorkers who argued
that she was using their state merely as a platform for a return to
Washington are now saying: "Told you so." The Clintons' new house purchase
breaks with the tradition by which Presidents and First Ladies, when they
leave the White House, return home. The Reagans went back to California, the
Bushes to Texas, the Carters to Georgia. No First Couple has wanted to hang
around looming over their successors.
But Mrs Clinton wants nothing more to do with Arkansas, her husband's home
state. Her ascent to the Senate and a possible presidential run in 2004 have
put the Clintons on yet another upward trajectory rather than into a slow
fade. Like it or not, the Clintons are neither leaving Washington nor
national life for a good many years yet.
But Mrs Clinton is suddenly realising that if she wants to be a grande dame
she is going to have to pay for it. This is going down badly with her new
constituents, to whom her behaviour since she won election in November has
seemed hubristic. First she went out and signed the deal to write her
memoirs, incurring the condemnation of newspapers across New York state.
The New York Times, for example, said in an editorial: "She above all should
know not every deal that is legally permissible is smart for a politician
who wants and needs to inspire public trust." When pressed by her new Senate
colleagues to present the details of her book deal to the Senate Ethics
Committee, she flatly refused, saying her lawyers told her it was
unnecessary.
Even after all the unpleasant lawyering of the Clinton presidency, it
appeared, Mrs Clinton still preferred to proclaim her virtue behind the
protection of lawyers rather than through openness. Rival executives who
tried to woo her say she was asking for the entire �5.3 million by Jan 31.
They also say that at no point did anyone ask if she would be writing about
Monica Lewinsky. The publishers' delicacy may haunt them if Mrs Clinton
delivers a turgid, scandal-free script.
For now, however, she has her money to cover both her big needs and big
debts. According to the most recent accounts of the Clinton Legal Expense
Trust, set up to pay lawyers in the Clintons' numerous legal battles, it
still owed �2.5 million. Then there is the mortgage on the house in
Chappaqua, the New York suburb where the Clintons bought a white elephant of
a home to establish Mrs Clinton's residency before she stood for the Senate.
After having to turn down a friend's loan because of a political outcry, the
Clintons went to the bank to fund the �1.1 million mortgage.
The couple claim they will hang on to the house and commute from there to
offices in Manhattan. Few believe, however, that suburban life will suit
them. A flat in New York city would be more their style.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/et?ac=004072251230472&rtmo=ps34UUNe&atmo=rrrrrrrq
&pg=/et/00/12/30/wclin30.html
Hillary snubs New York to buy home in Washington.url
