She’Ll Be Just Another Senator, Clinton Insists First Lady Asks For No Special Treatment - As New York Media Hangs On Every Word

Hillary Rodham Clinton, the nation’s most famous new senator, said Wednesday she doesn’t want “any special treatment” in Congress.

“I don’t expect it,” she said.

Ending a two-day orientation, the first lady said she understands the need for new members to make friends in the clubby chamber rather than make waves.

“There are a lot of reasons why you, especially as a beginning senator, have to sit back and learn. And there is a lot I have to learn here,” Clinton said.

Asked whether her new duties will mean shelving her role as one of the Democrats’ chief national figures and fund-raisers, Clinton said, “of course.”

In a half-hour meeting with New York reporters, Clinton shot down chatter that she and President Clinton want to unload the home they bought in Chappaqua, N.Y., to establish residency for her Senate run.

“No, no, it’s our house,” she said. “We like our house, the first house we’ve had in a very long time. You are going to make me cry.”

Clinton said she and her husband are looking to rent a house in Washington for when the Senate is in session. “I am not an apartment person,” she said, adding, “We have more stuff than you could possibly imagine.”

There were more signs Wednesday of the adjustments under way in the Senate regarding Clinton and her supernova status.

At a news conference introducing her and the eight other new Democrats, Minority Leader Tom Daschle, D-S.D., drew laughs when he said they would be called alphabetically. (Clinton was fourth.) To guarantee that she did not overshadow the others, Daschle - who boasted that the election of four Democratic women brings the number of female senators to a record 13 - limited reporters to one question per senator-elect.

Clinton, like the other freshmen, operates out of a windowless, one-room transition office in the basement of a Senate office building. Under a formula that penalizes new members who have not held office but rewards those from populous states, Clinton will be 97th out of 100 in seniority.