For the president, frustrated by countless scandals over the years, the library that will bear his name has taken on a special urgency. It is, at last, something he can control. Clinton envisions the museum and public-policy center, to be built along the banks of the Arkansas River in Little Rock, as a place that will preserve the legacy he believes he deserves–one far different from the one his political enemies will try to depict.
So far the president has kept his fund-raising largely under wraps–shielding the names of donors from the press and the public. Legally, he can do so: as a private, nonprofit organization, Clinton’s library foundation can take unlimited amounts of money from any source–foreign or domestic–and not disclose it. Still, the specter of a president’s raising undisclosed money for his personal benefit is unsettling to political watchdog groups, which see the library as another way for special interests to curry favor. Last year, in the midst of the impeachment crisis, the foundation still raised $3 million, according to the group’s first tax return, obtained by NEWSWEEK. The foundation so far won’t say where it came from.
The library, housing Clinton’s presidential documents and memorializing his accomplishments, is expected to cost $125 million. With that ambitious target, the president has not been wasting time. White House spokesman Joe Lockhart says Clinton holds library events “whenever we have a weekend trip with downtime.”
Actually, it’s not just weekends. On June 28, a Monday, he pitched the library to 50 fashion executives at a French restaurant in New York. Late last month, during a midweek swing through New Orleans, the president veered off to give his library spiel to a group of industry execs. A few days later Clinton was slated to schmooze Hollywood friends at a library event in the home of DreamWorks mogul David Geffen. The event was canceled, but aides say it will soon be rescheduled. On yet another campaign trip to New York last week, the president squeezed in a library chat at the Sheraton in midtown Manhattan.
Technically, aides say, these meetings aren’t fund-raisers, since those who attend aren’t required to buy tickets. Instead, after the president greets the guests and delivers his library appeal, a host encourages them to write a check to the fund. Not surprisingly, the man in charge of the effort is Clinton’s longtime rainmaker and friend Terence McAuliffe, the same man who tried to help finance a mortgage for the Clintons’ future home in New York. Now McAuliffe is tapping his vast Rolodex to find participants for the library events.
Of course, Clinton isn’t the first commander in chief to hit up supporters for library funds. Ronald Reagan and George Bush raised millions the same way (though Bush waited until he’d left the White House). Like them, Clinton hopes his library will not just archive his past, but redefine it for the future.
