| In Fort Smith and Sebastian County, I actually led the Democratic ticket, because of Fort ChaffeeCarter got 28 percentSenator Bumpers, who had practiced law there for more than twenty years but who had committed the unpardonable sin of voting to give away the Panama Canal, got 30 percent
On election night I was in such bad shape I didnt think I could bear to face the pressHillary went down to the headquarters, thanked the workers, and invited them to the Governors Mansion the next dayAfter a fitful nights sleep, Hillary, Chelsea, and I met with a couple hundred of our die-hard supporters on the back lawn of the mansionI gave them the best speech I could, thanking them for all theyd done, telling them to be proud of all wed accomplished, and offering my cooperation to Frank WhiteIt was a pretty upbeat talk considering the circumstancesInside, I was full of self-pity and anger, mostly at myselfAnd I was filled with regret that I would no longer be able to do the work I loved so muchI expressed the regret but kept the whining and anger to myself
At that moment, there didnt seem to be much future for me in politicsI was the first Arkansas governor in a quarter of a century denied a latest fendi bags second two-year term, and probably the youngest ex-governor in American historyJohn McClellans warning about the governors office being a graveyard seemed propheticBut since I had dug my own grave, the only sensible thing to do seemed to be to start climbing out
On Thursday, Hillary and I found a new homeIt was a pretty wooden house, built in 1911, on Midland Avenue in the Hillcrest area of Little Rock, not too far from where wed lived before moving into the Governors MansionI called Betsey Wright and asked her if shed come help me get my files organized before I left officeTo my joy, she agreedShe moved into the Governors Mansion and worked every day with my friend State Representative Gloria Cabe, who had also been defeated for reelection after supporting all my programs
My remaining two months in office were tough on my staffThey needed to find jobsThe usual route out of politics is through one of the big companies that do a lot of business with state government, but we had angered all of themRudy Moore did a good job trying to help everyone and make sure we cleared up all outstanding public business before we turned the office over to Frank WhiteHe and my scheduler, Randy White, pink chanel bag replicas also reminded me, in my periods of self-absorption, that I needed to show more concern for my staff and their future welfareMost of them had no savings to sustain a long job huntSeveral had young childrenAnd many had worked only for the state, including a number of people who had been with me in the attorney generals officeThough I really liked the people who had worked for me and felt grateful to them, Im afraid I didnt demonstrate that as clearly as I should have on many of the days after I lost
Hillary was especially good to me in that awful period, balancing love and sympathy with an uncanny knack for keeping me focused on the present and the futureThe fact that Chelsea didnt have a clue that anything bad had happened helped me realize that it was not the end of the worldI got great calls of encouragement from Ted Kennedy, who said Id be back, and Walter Mondale, who showed extraordinary good humor in the face of his own disappointing defeatI even went to the White House to say good-bye to President Carter and thank him for all the good things his administration had done to help ArkansansI was still upset about his broken pledge and how it contributed to my defeat and led to his prada clutch loss in Arkansas, but I felt history would be kinder to him because of his energy and environmental policies, especially the establishment of the massive Arctic National Wildlife Refuge in Alaska, and his accomplishments in foreign policythe Camp David agreement between Israel and Egypt, the Panama Canal treaties, and the elevation of the human rights issue
Like the rest of the employees of the governors office, I had to find a job, tooI got several interesting offers or inquiries from out of stateBrown, governor of Kentucky, who had made a fortune with Kentucky Fried Chicken, asked if Id be interested in applying for the presidency of the University of Louisvilleshort-speak, he made the pitch: Good school, nice house, great basketball teamCalifornia governor Jerry Brown told me his chief of staff, Gray Davis, himself a future governor, was leaving and asked me to replace himHe said that he couldnt believe Id been thrown out over car tags, that California was a place full of people who had moved there from other states and Id fit right in, and that hed guarantee my ability to influence policy in areas I cared aboutI was approached about taking over the World Wildlife Fund, a chanel shopping bag Washington-based conservation group, which did work I admiredNorman Lear, producer of some of the most successful television shows in history, including All in the Family, asked me to become head of the People for the American Way, a liberal group established to counter conservative assaults on First Amendment freedomsAnd several people asked me to run for chairman of the Democratic National Committee against Charles Manatt, a successful Los Angeles lawyer with Iowa rootsThe only job offer I got in Arkansas was from Wright, Lindsey?Jennings, a fine law firm, which asked me to become of counsel for $60,000 a year, almost twice what Id made as governor
I took a hard look at the Democratic committee job, because I loved politics and thought I understood what needed to be doneIn the end, I decided it wasnt right for meBesides, Chuck Manatt wanted it badly and probably already had the votes to win before I got interestedI discussed it with Mickey Kantor, a partner of Manatts whom I had gotten to know when he served with Hillary on the board of the Legal Services CorporationI liked Mickey a lot and trusted his judgmentHe said if I wanted another chance at elected office, I shouldnt try for the party watch chanel j12 black with diamonds job |
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