Clinton To Listen To Doctor, Give His Voice A Rest

Shut up, Mr. President!

That was the doctor’s order Wednesday after probing President Clinton’s inflamed vocal cords and concluding that he can get his voice back only if he keeps his trap shut.

“The doctors say, ‘No more yak,”’ said Mike McCurry, the White House press secretary.

Or, to be more clinical: “complete vocal rest” for three or four days, McCurry said.

Dr. Connie Mariano, the White House doctor, had told Clinton after he returned from a Thanksgiving weekend at the Camp David presidential retreat that he needed to rest his strained vocal cords, which have reduced his voice to a weak whisper.

That didn’t work.

“There is at least some evidence that the patient is not following doctor’s orders,” McCurry said with a grin. With Clinton’s condition worsening this week, Mariano called in an ear, nose and throat specialist.

Dr. James Y. Suen, who has monitored Clinton’s voice problems in the past, performed a fiber optic probe of the president’s throat in the medical clinic at the White House residence.