Death of American Virtue - Ken Gormley [44]
Nussbaum and Foster were immediately assigned the task of “vetting” President-elect Clinton’s appointees who would need to go through the grueling Senate confirmation process. Because the two men, unlike other high-level appointees, were not subject to congressional approval, they decided to vet themselves. Amid unpacked boxes in the empty West Wing offices, Nussbaum and Foster asked each other, “What’s the worst thing they can say about me?” For Nussbaum, it was that “I was a corporate lawyer. Representing big companies. I had no feelings for the people.” Of course, Nussbaum believed this criticism was silly; he had grown up on the Lower East Side of Manhattan to a family of Polish-Jewish immigrants with a grandfather who ran a shoe repair shop and a father who was a working-class labor organizer. He would refute these verbal attacks when they arose. Now it was the younger man’s turn. Foster told Nussbaum, “They’re going to say I’m very close to Hillary. They’re going to say I was having an affair with Hillary.” That rumor had already danced around Arkansas during the presidential election. It would surely flip up its petticoat again. Nussbaum was silent for a moment. He looked Foster straight in the eye and asked, “Did you?” Foster replied softly: “No. I did not.” Nussbaum raised his hand and brought the topic to a close. He declared, “Let them say what they want.” If crass rumors like this bubbled up in any fashion, the White House team would address them in a dignified fashion.
Years later, Nussbaum reflected on this moment in his New York law office: “I believe that Vince was telling the truth.” It was evident that Hillary and Vince were “very close friends.” At firm retreats, friends noted that they often walked off together, absorbed in deep conversations. She had a lot of “trust and reliance in him,” said Nussbaum. As they began working in the White House together, Vince “helped Hillary on health care. He also handled the personal financial papers for the Clintons.” From the start, they were “close professional colleagues.” At the same time, Nussbaum insisted, “I saw no indication of any [intimate] relationship.” In assessing Foster’s denial that he ever had an affair with Hillary Clinton, Nussbaum said quietly, “I have no way of telling for sure, but I believe him.”
Those who knew Vince Foster described him as “a man of honesty and integrity,” widely respected “for his intelligence and judgment.” Bernie Nussbaum witnessed those traits with his own eyes. Yet the job clearly weighed on Foster. Perhaps due to his heightened sense of Southern propriety, Foster seemed uneasy in this new dog-eat-dog environment. “I would describe him as uncomfortable,” said Nussbaum. “I have never said that before.” He paused. “Yes, uncomfortable.”
Although Foster “came in on a high,” he was quickly thrown off balance when the political assaults began so quickly and intensely. First, there were fireworks over the failed attempts by the White House to appoint Zoe Baird, and then Kimba Wood, as attorney general. Both of these women were forced to withdraw as nominees because of “nanny problems.” (Baird had failed to pay social security taxes for her live-in nanny. Wood had paid taxes, but her nanny was an illegal alien, which created “perception” problems.) There was also the debacle involving Lani Guinier, an African American law professor who had been a classmate of the Clintons at Yale Law School. The White House announced that Guinier would head up the Civil Rights Division of the Justice Department, but her name was abruptly withdrawn due to the controversial nature of some of her writings. The Clinton team was barely out of the starting gate, and it was already taking a drubbing by the press. Political naysayers were clucking that this pack of Arkansas hillbillies couldn’t run a country and chew gum at the same time.
Bernie Nussbaum had been involved in Democratic politics most of his life. He knew that Clinton would be subjected to rough