The Notebook: Diplomatic Duds

The First Frosh

(TIME, December 8) -- The end of college-football season brings classic rivalries and of course bonfires, pep rallies and death threats against the President's daughter. Berkeley, long thought of as a peacenik kind of place, got medieval last week as the Big Game, the yearly clash with Stanford, turned ugly. Daily Californian columnist Guy Branum printed the name of CHELSEA CLINTON'S dorm and told his fellow Berkeley students to "show your spirit on Chelsea's bloodied carcass." Go, team! The Secret Service, however, didn't find those words so inspiring and instead bum-rushed Branum's dorm while they were in town for a Hillary Clinton speaking engagement. Agent Chris Van Holt showed up on campus to check Branum's medical records and search his room -- and the spunky undergrad taped the entire proceeding. "I want to make sure you don't have any weapons or any of the stuff that you see on TV...like a big picture of Chelsea with a big X in blood," said Van Holt, who had studied Branum's past writings. He even brought some of them up: "Sexual Predator in Chief? Isn't that a low blow?" In the end, Branum was let go with a gentle warning. Meanwhile, Stanford won the game but lost a goalpost to a swarm of Cal students in a postgame melee.

Diplomatic Duds

Few remember the accomplishments of the annual Pacific Basin APEC economic summits. But the clothes! Last week Canadian Prime Minister Jean Chretien chose for his guests a brown elk leather, $400 Roots flight jacket, each personalized with the summiteer's name, title and APEC logo, and cut to size (Clinton's: XXXL, tall). Such outfits -- a Philippine barong tagalog in 1996 and an Indonesian batik shirt in 1994 -- are now high on the agenda. Host countries "check out the President's size pretty carefully," says the White House.

Anglo-American Politics

Building that bridge to a special relationship

When HILLARY CLINTON visited England in November, one of her meetings was kept private. Along with a delegation of top American officials, she spent a Saturday at Chequers, the country retreat of British Prime Ministers. Sitting around a conference table with TONY BLAIR and his political brain trust, they worked together on ways for "New Labour and New Democrats to develop policies in a complementary way that are a model for other center-left parties around the world," says Peter Mandelson, the media guru who has helped shape Blair's image.

The whole process began in April 1996 when Hillary met with Blair, then in opposition. After Blair was elected last May, Clinton adviser SIDNEY BLUMENTHAL started working with Mandelson and Blair's chief of staff, DAVID MILLIBAND, to set up a more formal connection. In addition to Clinton and Blumenthal, the Americans at Chequers included Housing Secretary ANDREW CUOMO, Budget Director Franklin Raines, Deputy Treasury Secretary LAWRENCE SUMMERS and Democratic Leadership Council president AL FROM. Besides Blair and Mandelson, the Brits included Chancellor of the Exchequer GORDON BROWN; Baroness MARGARET JAY, deputy leader of the House of Lords; and ANTHONY GIDDENS, the director of the London School of Economics. Hillary was a driving force. Says Mandelson: "She had a tremendous presence."

The central assumption was that both the Democrats and Labour must shed their image of big-spending liberalism. "Center-left parties today should be the parties of fiscal prudence," says Blair. Each side worked on ideas for welfare-to-work programs, tough anticrime measures, national standards for education and a commitment to free trade. They also discussed a philosophy of community that tempered the coldness of capitalism as well as the need to promote a civic society where individual rights carry social responsibilities. The alliance harks back to the conservative one shared by Margaret Thatcher and Ronald Reagan. But Clinton and Blair are personally closer. "For them it is a generational bond, having come to power in a postideological and post-cold war era," says a White House aide.

Fund-Raising Probes

An uneasy legal tango

FBI director LOUIS FREEH tried hard to talk Attorney General JANET RENO out of closing the criminal investigation into fund-raising telephone calls by President Clinton and Vice President Gore -- but not because he believes that either could ever be prosecuted for soliciting money from the White House. Freeh's fear, according to knowledgeable federal sources, is that once the investigation is closed, FBI agents will be hamstrung in their ability to pursue other, potentially more serious questions about fund-raising activities by Clinton or Gore. Justice lawyers have insisted that FBI agents cannot fish around in the affairs of high-level officials unless there is an open investigation and "predication," meaning a specific basis for believing that the person under scrutiny may have broken a law. The dialing-for-dollars case had provided the FBI with a hook to ask extensive questions about fund raising by Clinton and Gore.

Now that Reno seems on the verge of closing that inquiry, FBI officials are worried that Justice lawyers will return to micromanaging agents' information-gathering forays that touch on the conduct of Clinton, Gore and other senior figures. Ultimately, FBI officials warn, the fundamental question of the affair--Was there an overarching scandal to violate campaign laws?--may go unresolved.

Justice officials counter that what the FBI regards as micromanaging is good stewardship of the Constitution--and that the bureau is really seeking unbridled power to probe anyone for any reason. "It's a little bit chilling," says a Justice aide.

--By Elaine Shannon/Washington