Path: bloom-picayune.mit.edu!snorkelwacker.mit.edu!americast.com!americast.com!americast-post Newsgroups: americast.twt.news From: americast-post@AmeriCast.Com Organization: American Cybercasting Approved: americast-post@AmeriCast.com Subject: Clinton takes advantage of the lull before the storm Date: Sun, 8 Nov 92 15:50:37 EST Message-ID: \SE A;NATION \HD Clinton takes advantage of the lull before the storm \BY Ronald A. Taylor \CR THE WASHINGTON TIMES \DT LITTLE ROCK, Ark. LITTLE ROCK, Ark. - President-elect Bill Clinton tried to make his first post-election Saturday a relaxing one yesterday before facing a tough week of activity and decisions. Even a published report that President Bush has been asked to consider a pardon for indicted former Defense Secretary Caspar Weinberger, an erratic golf game and irritation at an intrusive press corps couldn't compete with a spectacular Arkansas autumn day as Mr. Clinton got ready to give shape and direction to the government he will soon be forming. Mr. Clinton refused to respond to a story in The Washington Post yesterday that a pardon for Mr. Weinberger is being urged on President Bush. He said he was confident in the transition team leadership he installed on Friday to guide Cabinet selection, other political appointments and his administration's attempts to match campaign promises with policy management. "They're great," he said of the team's chairman, Vernon Jordan, and director, Warren Christopher. The two men, both of whom are veteran Washington operators, directed the Clinton campaign's search for a vice presidential nominee. "If they do as good a job of this as they did helping me pick a vice president, we'll have the best government in the history of the country," he said yesterday an hour into a 4 1/2-hour round of golf at the Chenal Country Club in an exclusive development northwest of here. It was one of the few comments the president-elect made to reporters yesterday. The 2-year-old club is framed by an upscale cluster of lavish houses, some with four-car garages. Both the development and the country club are integrated. During the campaign Mr. Clinton was criticized for playing golf at a segregated country club in Little Rock. As reporters waiting at the clubhouse mused about whether blacks played the course, a black man drove up in a late-model Mercedes convertible, unlocked a trunk adorned with communications gear antennas, removed a set of clubs and proceeded to start a round of golf. After a morning of meetings with campaign chief of staff Eli Siegal and other key aides at the governor's mansion, Mr. Clinton bolted for the golf course. He played a twosome with Webb Hubbell, a partner in the law firm in which Hillary Clinton is a partner. The two played 18 holes in sunny, breezy weather, interrupting play for lunch after nine holes. Of his golf game, Mr. Clinton said, "It got better as it went along." His score was not revealed. Although his drive is less than artful, he made difficult shots, including a 100-yard drive to recover from an errant tee shot on the 15th hole. The ball landed in a creek at the bottom of a ravine. From that poor position, he placed the ball within 18 feet of the hole with one swing. Then he took three putts to complete the hole. Dressed in a Georgetown University rugby shirt, khaki slacks and a black Clinton-Gore campaign baseball cap, he displayed little patience with reporters during this post-victory period at home. He snapped at an aide when news photographers closed to within 100 feet as he prepared to drive from the first tee. He said he was under the impression that photographers weren't going to be that close. Mr. Clinton was unaware that the country club manager had approved of the photographers' movement, staff aides said later. Earlier this week he voiced dismay at the dimensions and proximity of the media contingent trying to chronicle his four-block stroll to a neighbor's home for brunch on the morning after the election. On his return to the governor's mansion yesterday, he was greeted by a small crowd and fielded some of their questions, including one about whether he had talked to a 15-year-old Florida boy with acquired immune deficiency syndrome. Mr. Clinton said he talked yesterday with the boy, who was the subject of a news story in which he implored other young people to be aware of the AIDS virus and to protect themselves by refraining from sexual intercourse. In a television interview recently the boy said there was "no such thing as safe sex." He and his brothers are hemophiliacs who contracted AIDS through infected blood transfusions. "I had a wonderful conversation with him today," Mr. Clinton said. "I talked to him and to his mother. I told him to hang in there. He said he wanted to come to Washington to see me and I told him I was pulling for him to do it. We had a great talk." This article is copyright 1992 The Washington Times. Redistribution to other sites is not permitted except by arrangement with American Cybercasting Corporation. For more information, send-email to usa@AmeriCast.COM