Clinton Scandal Shakes the Faith of Party Faithful

MASON, Ohio —  Sandwiched between a high school marching band and a church van, Democratic Rep. Ted Strickland had to move too fast along the parade route Saturday to engage in much meaningful conversation with his constituents.

With his Ford Explorer rolling along beside him, and a rooftop speaker blaring patriotic tunes, he counted on handshakes and waves, and a batch of “Ted Strickland for Congress” signs, to make his pitch for him in this town of 11,000 people.

But for Strickland, who faces stiff Republican opposition in November, the pageantry and small talk came as something of a relief.

Confronted by a president who has admitted to having an “inappropriate” relationship with a White House intern, facing the prospect that the House may launch impeachment proceedings against that president in the fall, Strickland is grappling with an array of emotions: “sympathy, sadness, anger.”

Many Democrats interviewed in the last week have expressed feelings of betrayal, confusion and uncertainty. But unlike most of his colleagues, Strickland, 57, is willing to talk about his feelings publicly. A former minister and a psychologist who once counseled inmates in Ohio prisons, he sounds one moment like a Washington insider and the next like a sensitive guy, trying to figure out what’s going on in his head.

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“I want to do what the law says I should do,” says Strickland, looking as serious as ever, even as a group of shaggy dogs wearing American flag bandannas passes by. “I hope [lawbreaking] didn’t happen. I don’t think it happened. But if there is proof positive that there has been purposeful obstruction of justice or perjury, then I would have to take that very seriously. . . . I think at a point in time, all of us are going to be confronted with trying to determine within ourselves what is in the best interests of the country.”

Strickland has invited President Clinton to campaign in his sprawling district in Ohio’s southwestern corner, and that invitation stands, despite the president’s personal struggles. The politician in Strickland says he would still stand on a stage with his party’s leader, shake his hand and praise his policies with gusto. At the same time, however, Strickland the psychologist is grappling with a variety of emotions about Clinton’s behavior, including some grave thoughts the White House would probably rather not hear.

Like this: “The presidency may fall.”

Or this: “Will the president have to leave office? I don’t know.”

After watching Clinton’s admission last week of an inappropriate relationship with former intern Monica S. Lewinsky, Strickland felt as confused as the rest of the Democratic caucus. As he prepared to march in the parade, Strickland struggled to explain himself.

“The night after the speech, I felt conflicted,” he said. “I felt lots of things. I am not even sure how to express it. I felt sympathy, sadness, anger. I felt things I couldn’t identify. It was just conflict within me.”

It is a conflict that makes this former Methodist minister sound very unlike a programmed, partisan politician.

“My wife and I were talking about this on the way over here,” he said. “Will the president have to leave office? I don’t know. But that will be a personal tragedy. It will be really sad for the country.”

At the start of the wholesome small-town parade down Main Street, Strickland pumped a constituent’s hand and offered his trademark greeting: “How are you doin’, my brother?”

If Strickland had slowed his pace, he would have found no consensus about how to handle the Lewinsky matter--ambivalence that is in line with recent polls that show healthy job approval ratings for the president (62% in last week’s Times Poll) amid growing doubts about Clinton’s integrity and personal behavior.

Such mixed emotions are no great surprise in this mostly rural district, where voters supported George Bush by a hair in 1992 and then backed Clinton’s reelection.

Strickland knows that his constituents can change their minds. They elected him in 1992, only to send him packing two years later. He came back in 1996 and is trying for a third term in November.

One of his supporters, Dr. Susanne Solomon, said she does not waste time thinking about independent counsel Kenneth W. Starr’s investigation of the president.

“My life is too busy to worry about silliness,” she says. “I have a 1-year-old child and a medical practice. Whatever energy I have left at the end of the day I don’t devote to thinking about Monica Lewinsky.”

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On the other end of Main Street, near the booth promoting Strickland opponent Lt. Gov. Nancy Hollister’s campaign to oust him from office, some GOP members were willing to talk about the case.

“Strickland strikes me as a person who toes the party line,” said attorney Bruce McGary, a Republican precinct chairman, about whether the congressman could ever sanction his party’s top elected leader.

Hollister has not sought to make the Starr investigation an issue. But local GOP activists did ride along in the parade in a pickup truck, hauling a sign bearing this message:

“Republicans. The Party of Honest Abe. A Role Model for Today’s Kids. Integrity, Truth, Honesty.”

It was a not-so-subtle reminder that Clinton’s troubles may not be his alone.

* MARTHA’S VINEYARD: This year, vacation seems taxing, not relaxing. A14