President Clinton labors tirelessly to remind the American people how hard he works for them -- selflessly totin' dat barge, liftin' dat bale so all of our children may have a brighter future as they cross his bridge toward a newer tomorrow in the new American whatever. And there he was doing it again on November 6, at the dedication of the George Bush presidential library and shrine.
"There are many things that I, not only as president, but as a citizen, am grateful to George and Barbara Bush for," Clinton said. Chief among them, curiously, was that "as president, [Bush] summoned all the governors, including me, to the University of Virginia for a summit on education, where we stayed up more than half the night in a totally bipartisan fashion to write national education goals for our country."
Leaving aside how one goes about staying awake "in a totally bipartisan fashion," the president's memory jogged THE SCRAPBOOK'S own memory -- specifically, of the landmark Los Angeles Times story by William Rempel and Douglas Frantz that became known as "Troopergate." Rempel and Frantz also described Gov. Clinton's night at the University of Virginia. Their account involves yet another of those many women of the president's acquaintance who are referred to delicately as "not his wife."
"The bill for his hotel room," Rempel and Frantz wrote of that historic evening, "showed a call placed to the woman's home was made at 1:23 a.m. It lasted 94 minutes. . . . At 7:45 a.m. the same day, according to the hotel record, the same number was called again and lasted 18 minutes."
Clinton is, clearly, a public servant who never sleeps. Writing national education goals for our country, phoning babes in the wee morning hours -- all in a night's work.