THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Tuesday, June 25, 1996 TAG: 9606250254
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Column
SOURCE: Guy Friddell
LENGTH: 53 lines
In advocating flex time for workers to deal with family problems, President Clinton might well cite his own household.
With Hillary in mind, not Chelsea, bless her heart. That child is a steady one, a tribute to her parents.
What Miz Clinton has done is what many creative, outgoing women are wont to do: come up with off-the-wall ideas whomped up by some out-of-the-way zealot.
Come to think of it, looking back on my own journey, women have always been making life more challenging at home, starting way back with Eve saying, ``Looky, Adam, at this strange fruit! Try it.''
And, oh, the difference it has made, the wonder of it all, ever after! Give her the credit.
Women tend to be more inquisitive, less inhibited in thinking, willing to ponder the improbable. Women are cats - men, dogs. Approaching the unknown, women are smarter than men. (By now, some of you, irate, have thrown down the paper in disgust. Ah well, you're probably the better for doing it.)
It is hard to define the two far-out advisers among many who stimulated Hillary to write her book on raising children, ``It Takes a Village.'' Apparently, for the book, it took a multitude. I'd figured some hack or other had assisted. More to it, perhaps, than this dog knew.
One way or another they put Hillary in touch with Eleanor Roosevelt - role-playing, barnstorming, the White House says. And, indeed, Mrs. Clinton had written of such imaginings with Eleanor in her column without public ire.
Oh, the echoes! Eleanor's column, ``My Day,'' made FDR's days hectic. Hillary's musings were trumpeted in the new book by Washington Post editor Bob Woodward, whom some quibblers charge with making up unattributed quotes, starting with Deep Throat.
First Republican to comment, calling Hillary ``a bit flaky,'' was Sen. Orrin Hatch, the flakiest of congressmen. Remember the look of dismay that never left his face in the confirmation hearings for Judge Thomas? Hatch was born to look with alarm.
Bob Dole had the wit to say he hadn't read the book. More in his style would have been a wry aside: ``Oh, well, if it works.''
The White House errs in fearing that Hillary's talks will be likened to Nancy Reagan's chatting with astrologers. Whatever comforts a first lady ought to be left to her. In Iran-Contra days, with a light colonel running a separate foreign policy in the White House adjunct, Mrs. Reagan at least was trying to keep in touch with a higher authority.
Most amusing was one adviser's comment to Woodward that Clinton had been uneasy around them.
``Well, he's basically a very conservative man,'' Hillary told her.
Thus it is, always.
May I confess something? My mind, even in solitude, is occupied with conversations and situations. With whom? Why, you, dear reader! by CNB