CLINTON ON GAYS, DRUGS AND NIXON

President tells all to Rolling Stone

President Clinton, in an interview to be published today in Rolling Stone,
says the Republicans outmaneuvered him into a failed policy on gays in the
military, calls some current anti-drug policies unfair and confesses a
sneaking empathy for a disgraced predecessor, Richard Nixon.

The Republicans "didn't want me to have a honeymoon" during those first days
in office, Clinton said, and so forced the issue of his campaign promise to
allow gays to serve openly, knowing they had the votes in Congress to defeat
it.

"And it was only then that I worked out with Colin Powell this dumb-ass
`don't ask, don't tell' thing," Clinton said.

He said that policy resulted in "several years of problems where it was not
implemented in any way consistent with the speech I gave at the War College
- -- of which General Powell had agreed with every word."

Still, Clinton conceded, "it was a brilliant political move" on the part of
the Republican leader, Sen. Bob Dole, whose "top priority was making this
the controversy that would consume the early days of my presidency."

The interview, conducted by Jann S. Wenner, Rolling Stone's editor and
publisher, and appearing in the Dec. 28-Jan. 4, 2001, issue, also included a
reference to the main controversy that marked Clinton's tenure, his
extramarital affair with a White House intern.

In a discussion of the impeachment attempt, Clinton was asked if the outcome
was a "referendum on the nature, morality or character" of America.

"Not really. People strongly disagreed with what I did. I did, too," the
president replied.

On the subject of drugs, Clinton, who famously claimed not to have inhaled,
said "most small amounts of marijuana have been decriminalized and should
be."

He said mandatory sentences for drug use should be re-examined.

Clinton said he had invited Nixon to come back to the White House for a
visit.

Nixon, driven from office by the Watergate scandal, could have been "a great
president if he had been more trusting of the American people," Clinton
said.