Clinton Struggles To Circle The Wagons Aide Who Devised Gennifer Flowers Strategy Brought In

President Clinton recruited veteran political warrior and longtime adviser Mickey Kantor to become his personal counsel as an increasingly isolated White House struggled Saturday for an effective defense against allegations of sexual misconduct that threaten to engulf the Clinton presidency.

Kantor, a prominent Los Angeles attorney and Democratic activist, played a key role in devising the response that saved Clinton’s 1992 bid for the presidency when nightclub singer Gennifer Flowers accused the Arkansas governor of having a 12-year affair with her.

In the week since independent counsel Kenneth Starr began investigating claims that 24-year old former intern Monica Lewinsky had a sexual escapade with Clinton, the White House has seen its position steadily erode. Aides, hobbled by legal concerns and unsure about the facts, have been unable to counterattack.

And, as senior administration officials noted bitterly on Saturday, efforts to persuade congressional or other prominent Democrats to speak out for Clinton have almost uniformly failed. Indeed, Clinton’s former chief of staff, Leon Panetta, publicly suggested it might be best for Vice President Al Gore to take over if the allegations prove true.

Against this background, there were these other developments:

Clinton acknowledged to friends that he became emotionally close to Lewinsky while she was working at the White House but insisted to them that their relationship never became sexual, sources told the Washington Post.

Clinton asserts that Lewinsky’s claims on surreptitiously recorded tapes that they had a sexual relationship are either a fantasy or untruthful boasting, according to two people who have spoken directly with both Clinton and first lady Hillary Rodham Clinton and others who are close to Clinton’s inner circle.

Also, Clinton late Saturday night signed off on a set of “talking points” to be used by his defenders that include this statement: “He certainly denies that he ever had oral sex with Miss Lewinsky.”

In telephone conversations secretly tape-recorded by a friend, Lewinsky reportedly said they had oral sex. The president’s previous denials were viewed as being worded artfully so that they might exclude oral sex.

New excerpts of Linda Tripp’s tapes, released by Newsweek magazine, show the two women discussing Lewinsky’s plan to lie about her relationship with Clinton, as well as pressures she was under to cover it up.

Tripp and Lewinsky also allegedly laughed about a ruse for Tripp to fake a “foot accident” and avoid having to give sworn testimony about Clinton’s affairs.

Television film was unearthed showing Clinton surrounded by voters at an outdoor rally in November 1996, with a broadly smiling Lewinsky standing in front of him and then leaning forward for a embrace.

After a debate over tactics, the White House decided not to avoid this morning’s television talk shows but instead to send three aides, Rahm Emanuel, Paul Begala and Ann Lewis.

The decision to bring Kantor onto the team reflected a realization by Clinton and his inner circle that events were outrunning their efforts to protect themselves.

Not only was almost no prominent figure rising vigorously to the president’s defense, but the torrent of leaks about the nature of Clinton’s relationship with Lewinsky was so shocking that by Saturday impeachment and forced resignation were topics of open discussion on television and elsewhere.

“There’s nobody for him,” one veteran Democratic operative said. “Even Nixon had a few people for him at the end.”

Tacitly acknowledging the downward slide and the difficulty in arresting it, Rep. Charles Rangel, D-N.Y., offered mild words of support for the president in a CNN television interview, but added:

“When the president has not more vigorously challenged those who make these allegations, but speaks in terms of legal jargon, it creates a bad situation.”

While his lawyers urged caution from the beginning, Clinton’s political advisers at first argued for prompt disclosure of all the facts - taking it for granted that Clinton, as he had so often in past scandals, could make his case successfully to the public.

Only gradually have some senior aides come to realize that such frank disclosure might not be feasible.