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Working at the White House for Bill Clinton means long hours, hard work and not much appreciation.
Vince Foster committed suicide. Web Hubbell went to jail. Scores of Clinton staffers have been dragged before congressional committees and questioned about Whitewater papers and FBI files.
"Unlimited Access," the best-selling book by retired FBI agent Gary Aldrich, claims many younger Clinton aides are unrepentant ex-drug users. The counterculture mentality runs so deep, Aldrich wrote, Hillary Clinton sent out a memo reminding female staffers to wear underwear.
In this town only Newt Gingrich gets worse press coverage than White House aide-de-camps.
For the record -- and to get AFL-CIO czar Charles O'Leary off my back -- I freely acknowledge the White House employees I have encountered during Clinton's term adhere to conventional dress codes. O'Leary's daughter, I'm told, was a Clinton staffer, which I guess explains his temper tantrum about the Aldrich book.
So on a slow day last week I rang up the White House and invited one of Clinton's guys to lunch. He picked the White House's favorite watering hole, a place called the Oval Room. When I got there, George Stephanopoulos had already set up court. Telephone pagers were going off at the rate of two or three per minute.
There was no problem spotting my lunch companion. He's Angus S. King...