Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: TUESDAY, March 17, 1992                   TAG: 9203170290
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A-1   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Los Angeles Times
DATELINE: CHICAGO                                LENGTH: Medium

LET POLITICAL SPOUSES PURSUE CAREERS WITHOUT FEARS, HILLARY CLINTON URGES

On Sunday, former California Gov. Jerry Brown accused Arkansas Gov. Bill Clinton of having improperly "funneled money to his wife's law firm." Clinton angrily denied the charge and said Brown was "not worth being on the same platform with my wife."

On Monday, Hillary Clinton herself went on the offensive.

"I suppose I could have stayed home and baked cookies and had teas, but what I decided to do is fulfill my profession," she told reporters, setting off a new round of jitters among campaign aides fearful of offending women who are full-time homemakers.

Insisting she had "done everything I know how" to avoid any conflict between her law practice and her husband's political career, Hillary Clinton tried to shift the focus of the debate away from Brown's question of conflict of interest.

The real issue, she said, is "women making the choices that are right for them."

"This is uncharted terrain," she said. "There is no road map.

"How to avoid the appearance of conflict while still allowing the spouse to pursue the work of their lives is going to be the issue" for politicians coming to national prominence, she said. "It's a generational change," one that "is still difficult for people to understand right now."

On Sunday, Brown, citing a report he had heard from Ralph Nader about a Washington Post article on the Clintons, accused Clinton of enriching his wife's firm, the Rose Law Firm. The Post made no such direct accusation; instead, it described the influence the firm wields and noted that Clinton critics have alleged a conflict of interest. It said that people "who want something out of the state" often solicit support from both the governor and his wife's law firm.

Until recently, the question of whether a spouse's work conflicted with or influenced the other partner in the marriage seldom arose. Politicians, almost all of them male, had spouses like Barbara Bush, women who stayed home, reared the children and appeared in public only in the role of the supportive and dependent mate.

But recently, the list of women or men whose employment has embarrassed their political spouses has grown long. In some cases, it was because of actual conflicts of interest; in others, because the situation looked bad.

In Illinois, Jayne Carr Thompson opted to put her legal career on ice when her husband, James Thompson, was first elected governor in 1976.

Marilyn Quayle, wife of Vice President Dan Quayle, explored joining a law firm in 1988 after her husband was elected to national office, but abandoned the idea.

Marion Javits, wife of the late senator from New York, Jacob Javits, was one of the first spouses to encounter this problem. In 1976, she was criticized for taking a $67,500 public relations job with Iran National Airlines while her husband served on the Foreign Relations Committee. Critics said her employers gave her the job in an effort to influence her husband.

"Not a chance," she said. "I've earned what I've gone after." She resigned the airline account, but continued with her career.

Some Clinton advisers believe Brown may lose support among women because of the appearance of attacking Hillary Clinton's work.

Brown moved Monday to try to avoid that perception, insisting at a campaign stop that his quarrel was with Bill Clinton only, not with his wife. "We're not talking about his wife," he said. "She can do whatever she wants. . . . We're talking about a man who is running for president, and it's up to him to purge his administration of conflict of interest and cronyism."

But the facts of Clinton's case indicate that the issue is far more complicated than Brown's remarks might suggest.

The Clintons say Hillary Clinton has avoided doing business with the state throughout her husband's career. So far, that assertion has been challenged in only one case: Her possible representation before a state agency of a real estate partnership in which the couple had invested.

Hillary Clinton became the first female partner in her law firm in 1979, around the time when her husband was elected governor. She then voluntarily agreed to give up whatever portion of her salary would be attributable to the firm's business with the state.

Keywords:
POLITICS