Clinton Takes Early-Morning Jog Past Monuments, Homeless

WASHINGTON —  President Clinton took himself on a Washington-at-dawn tour Wednesday, jogging out the White House driveway in darkness and past its monuments and museums before returning home in daylight.

Clinton was accompanied along the 4 1/2-mile route by Nebraska Sen. Bob Kerrey, a former Democratic presidential rival. Their jog took them past the city’s best and worst--offering views of such landmarks as the Lincoln and Washington monuments and of homeless people asleep on heating grates.

A few startled passers-by jumped up and down in delight as Clinton passed, and cab drivers craned their necks to get a look.

The presidential motorcade, meanwhile, ended up driving along pedestrian walkways on the capital’s Mall and heading the wrong way on one-way streets in an effort to stay close by.

White House Communications Director George Stephanopoulos, at the daily news briefing Wednesday, was asked why the President was jogging on the streets of Washington at a time when the suspect in this week’s fatal shootings outside CIA headquarters remains at large.

“The President has his Secret Service detail, and we feel that he can be fully protected,” Stephanopoulos said. “He enjoys running down Pennsylvania Avenue, he enjoys running on the Mall, he feels perfectly safe.”