The shuttle episode is one more revelation in the bizarre story of Dick Morris. And it adds to the question about how the consultant’s more erratic behavior went undetected by the White House. Part of the blame would seem to lie with chief of staff Leon Panetta, who allowed Morris, beginning in 1995, to have frequent access to the White House without undergoing a full FBI investigation. An FBI check might have alerted the Clintonites to Morris’s alleged dark side.
The Morris meltdown is growing stranger. Last week there were new charges, first in the National Enquirer and the Star, that Morris is the father of a 6-year old-old in Texas by a woman who was allegedly his mistress for more than a decade. Messages left by NEWSWEEK at her home went unanswered. Meanwhile, it emerged that Morris has been working on a candid political memoir for several months. Indeed, Morris privately told several colleagues last winter that he was going to write a book about the president and the campaign. But he never bothered to inform the Clintons. Another charge: Sherry Rowands alleges that Morris told her he had secretly traveled to Morocco on the president’s behalf.
More trouble may lie ahead. NEWSWEEK has discovered that congressional investigators are considering subpoenaing not only Morris but his portable computer. The consultant, a dutiful scribe, kept extensive notes on his hard drive. The GOP’s interest: what did Morris know about the FBI ‘Filegate’ episode, in which dossiers were amassed on nearly 1,000 Republicans? According to the diaries of Sherry Rowlands, the former call girl who claims she had a yearlong affair with Clinton’s top adviser, Morris told her that Hillary Clinton was behind Filegate. Mrs. Clinton has denied knowing anything about the origins of the scandal, and Rowland’s account, sold to the Star tabloid, is mere assertion. Still, the very mention of the FBI is whetting the appetites of Republican lawmakers who believe that Morris’s computer files may yield ugly insights into the White House.
Both the president and the First Lady are said to be shocked that Morris is writing a tell-all memoir. He may not have been legally obliged to tell his colleagues that their words were fodder for his Random House book-due out just days after the election. But Morris’s failure to inform the White House about the deal-worth $2.8 million-was, says Press Secretary Mike McCurry, a ‘violation of the spirit’ of the agreement that Morris signed in 1995 to list outside sources of income. Morris did, McCurry adds, tell the White House in 1995 that he had an illegitimate child and that he was fulfilling his obligations to his offspring. Morris’s explanation was considered acceptable, and his work for the president continued.
Like a family haggling after a rich uncle dies, Morris and the political consultants he brought into the Clinton camp skirmished for two days last week over how to divvy up the cash he stood to make from the campaign before he resigned. Many consultants earn most of their money from generating TV ads, and the most lucrative months are still to come. Still, Morris’s take from the campaign could be close to $1 million.
Last week top clintonite gathered in the White House residence for the first big political meeting since Morris’s department Panetta led the session, which Morris used to do. Afterward, Clinton and Al Gore reassured the consultants. Morris had brought in-including pollster Mark Penn and adman Bob Sqier that their status was unchanged. Still, the fallen guru was like a ghost in the room, haunting everything.
