Clinton’s O.C. Fans Have Little to Cheer About

This is the White House calling. We were wondering if you might like our help in your reelection campaign.

What welcome words for any Democrat. Big fund-raisers. The Prez at your side. Media exposure.

But, of course, that would be before the modified, limited hangout apology Clinton gave on national TV Monday night. Now how do you feel about a presidential campaign boost?

My own congressional representative happens to be a Democrat seeking reelection. So I tried to ask her. After all, Loretta Sanchez has welcomed President Clinton’s appearances on her behalf in the past. He even helped her come-from-behind defeat of Republican incumbent Bob Dornan two years ago.

But that was all before Clinton admitted his relationship with a young female intern was “not appropriate.” Somehow I can’t picture Sanchez shoulder to shoulder in the fall campaign with someone who publicly humiliated his wife with his own adulterous admissions.

Nevertheless, here’s Sanchez’s public statement following Clinton’s TV address to the nation:

“Our Constitution proscribes a procedure that is being followed, and I don’t believe it is proper for me to comment on what may come before the House for me to judge at some time in the future. If the independent counsel determines, after examining all the evidence, that a report should subsequently be issued to the House of Representatives regarding this matter, then I assume one will be submitted. It will then be up to the House to review this report.”

OK, it lacks pizazz. It’s no “Shame, shame, shame, Bill.” It doesn’t have the same ring of indignation as California Sen. Dianne Feinstein, also a Democrat, saying about the president, “My trust in his credibility has been badly shattered.”

On the other hand, Sanchez seems a long way from Vice President Al Gore’s my-friend-is-a- great-president apologia. You get the feeling that if special prosecutor Ken Starr’s report shows compellingly that Clinton is even worse than we thought, Sanchez could bring herself to vote for impeachment.

Sanchez spokesman Lee Godown wouldn’t take the bait when I suggested Democratic candidates might tell Clinton this fall he ought to stay away because they feel bad colds coming on.

“Loretta is not thinking about this politically,” he said. “She’s thinking just about keeping an open mind until the facts are in.”

Not that Sanchez’s opponent, again Bob Dornan, has any hesitation to discuss it.

“Resign!” Dornan yelled at the TV while watching Clinton’s Monday night TV speech at a Republican gathering. Dornan later told a TV reporter: “This is a stunning piece of arrogance.”

Dornan’s views are hardly nonpartisan. He criticizes everything about Clinton from his politics to his backswing. But other Republicans had risked party wrath to back Clinton against George Bush in 1992. Few had to take more heat than then-Supervisor Harriett Wieder. A staunch Republican, Wieder felt Bush had taken her party too far to the right.

Wieder can recall the excitement when she introduced Clinton at a major Orange County gathering just two weeks before Clinton won election that year. And now?

“How stupid he is,” were among her first words. “I might have tried to understand why he lied if he had shown any humility at all. But there was none. He indicated no embarrassment or shame at what he’d done. I was greatly disappointed.”

Though not calling for his resignation, she predicts his worst problems have yet to surface.

Wieder was among those known as the “Orange Eight,” the number of top county Republicans who defected to Clinton that year. The two leaders of the Orange Eight were Roger Johnson, then CEO of Western Digital, and Kathryn Thompson, a leading developer here.

Johnson, who went on to become Clinton’s General Services Administration director for a time, is now leading the effort to raise legal defense funds for Clinton.

“In today’s political climate, public service can exact a disturbing price,” Johnson wrote in a letter two weeks ago seeking funds for Clinton. “ . . . There is no better example of the extremes that this out-of-control process can reach than the financial crisis now facing the President and Mrs. Clinton.”

About $4 million is their legal bill so far, Johnson estimates, adding, “Our president deserves the chance to do his job and serve our nation.” Johnson’s office reports that, post mea culpa, he remains devoted to the defense fund.

OK, Johnson is standing by his man.

Thompson is traveling and couldn’t be reached for comment. But I’m reminded of the campaign button Thompson was wearing the night Clinton was elected. It read “I trust Bill.” How much does she trust him now?

Anita Mangels of Laguna Beach, now head of Californians Against Hidden Taxes, was also among the Orange Eight. Though she’s unhappy with Clinton, her reaction is more shock than anger.

“It’s all so overwhelming,” she said. “I think we all feel betrayed, whether we had backed Mr. Clinton or not.”

She wasn’t ready to say Clinton should resign. But, Mangels said, “I see nothing but trouble ahead for our country no matter what he does.”

Mangels had been with Clinton several times during the ’92 campaign. “I don’t think we [eight] were just unhappy with Bush. We would not have turned had there not been an attractive alternative. We thought that’s what Clinton was. When you meet him in person, he’s very impressive.”

The Orange County opinion that I’ve been the most interested in has been that of my wife. Her life is far too busy for her to get deeply interested in politics. But I asked her: Let’s suppose that you were in Hillary Rodham Clinton’s shoes today; what would your reaction be?

“Exactly the same as Hillary’s is now,” my wife shot back. “Publicly supportive, but kicking him black and blue in private.”

Jerry Hicks’ column appears Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday. Readers may reach Hicks by calling the Times Orange County Edition at (714) 966-7823 or by fax to (714) 966-7711, or e-mail to jerry.hicks@latimes.com.