-Caveat Lector- September 8, 1999 LIBERTIES / By MAUREEN DOWD She Wants to Babaloo Too WASHINGTON -- Hillary Clinton likes to think of herself as Eleanor Roosevelt. Bill Clinton likes to think of himself as Jack Kennedy. But the couple are a lot closer to Lucy and Ricky. The Clintons' marital pratfalls seem to be playing out in black and white and Formica. The "I Love Lucy" show was driven by this dynamic: Lucy didn't like waiting at home on that little couch while Ricky was out babalooing and having a glamorous career at the club. She was always conniving to get in on her husband's act. She wanted to be a star too. Hillary never wanted to wait on a big couch in the East Wing while Bill was out babalooing and having a glamorous career in the West Wing. She was always conniving to get in on her husband's act. She wanted to be a star too. That is how we always end up tangled in these dizzy policy messes like the contretemps over clemency for the Puerto Rican terrorists. We keep getting yanked back to the Clintons' kooky connubial deal, which seems much more 50's than 90's. Husband strays. Wife gets mad. Husband brings flowers, and if he's been really bad, earrings, and if he's been really, really bad, the health-care portfolio. Whenever Bill tries to placate Hillary for his naughty behavior, giving her a political gift in return for a personal betrayal, he turns into a caricature of a bungling 50's husband, losing his shrewd political instincts, doing anything just to get back in her good graces. Bill repaid Hillary for her "60 Minutes" appearance that saved his campaign after Gennifer Flowers by giving her health care (disaster) and going along with her wish to have a female Attorney General, who turned out to be Janet Reno (disaster). Bill can never pay off his debt to Hillary, because he's always falling deeper into arrears. After Hillary had to pay the Paula Jones settlement, and after the Monica humiliation, the sky's the limit on what the President owes his wife as she begins her own political climb. The clemency flap crystallizes how downright strange it is to have the First Lady running for Senate in a state where she's never lived, while her husband is still in the Oval Office making decisions that have a big impact on New York and that race. The Clintons deny that they ever talked about the clemency deal -- even though the First Lady told Talk magazine that they talk constantly: "I was cutting Bill's grapefruit this morning, and we had the best idea we ever had about day care." But it's a measure of how much public trust the Clintons have lost that as soon as they say they did not plot the clemency deal to help Mrs. Clinton win the Puerto Rican vote in New York, we suspect that they did. The White House has been contorting itself for several days, contending that marital politics and New York politics are not at play in the deal to release terrorists from jail. But few people here buy it. Most agreed with Senator Phil Gramm, who said on ABC's "This Week" last Sunday: "I think what happened is that this was an effort by the President, by the First Lady, to manipulate politics in New York. I think it blew up in their face and I think the First Lady's trying to distance herself from it, but even her distancing I don't think works." The Clintons' new dream house in Chappaqua is another part of their wacky deal. So Hillary could hit the right demographics for her Senate bid, and project a wholesome suburban image, the couple bought a house that seems as wrong for them as that Connecticut farmhouse did for the relentlessly urban Ricardos in those late "I Love Lucy" episodes. It's like that time Dick Morris poll-tested their vacation options and sent them west on a camping trip. You know the Clintons would rather have had a tony co-op in Manhattan. But the most disturbing part of the dream house is its financial strings. The Clintons' resources have been strained by their legal debts and the $850,000 payment to Paula Jones, much of which came from Mrs. Clinton's blind trust. We have a President who cannot qualify for a mortgage. The $1.7 million Dutch Colonial house was financed by Terry McAuliffe, the First Sugar Daddy, who put up $1.35 million of his own money. The businessman has raised millions for the President's campaigns, legal debts and library, and now he's fund-raising for Mrs. Clinton. Although the arrangement is legal, it is one more large and awkward debt for a couple who never get out of debt, emotional or financial. http://www.nytimes.com/library/opinion/dowd/090899dowd.html Bard DECLARATION & DISCLAIMER ========== CTRL is a discussion and informational exchange list. Proselyzting propagandic screeds are not allowed. Substance—not soapboxing! These are sordid matters and 'conspiracy theory', with its many half-truths, misdirections and outright frauds is used politically by different groups with major and minor effects spread throughout the spectrum of time and thought. That being said, CTRL gives no endorsement to the validity of posts, and always suggests to readers; be wary of what you read. CTRL gives no credeence to Holocaust denial and nazi's need not apply. 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