Reno had to approve the assault and wanted my okay first Several years earlier, I had faced a similar situation as governorA right-wing extremist group had established a compound in the mountains of north ArkansasAmong the men, women, and children who lived there were two suspects wanted for murderThe people lived in several cabins, each of which had a trapdoor that led to a dugout from which they could fire on approaching authoritiesAnd they had a lot of weapons to fireThe FBI wanted to storm them, tooAt a meeting I convened with the FBI, our state police, and cooperating law-enforcement people from Missouri and Oklahoma, I listened to the FBIs case, then said that before I could approve the action, I wanted someone whod fought in the jungles of Vietnam to fly over the place in a helicopter and make an assessmentThe battlewise veteran who made the inspection for me returned to say, If those people can shoot at all, youll lose fifty men in the assaultI called off the raid, put a blockade around the camp, cut off food-stamp aid to the several families who had been receiving it, and prevented anyone who left the premises to get supplies from going backEventually the holdouts gave in, and the suspects were apprehended with no loss of prada backpacks life When Janet made her case to me, I thought we should try what had worked in Arkansas before we approved the FBI raidShe countered that the FBI was tired of waiting; that the standoff was costing the government a million dollars a week and tying up law-enforcement resources needed elsewhere; that the Branch Davidians could hold out longer than the Arkansas people had; and that the possibilities of child sexual abuse and mass suicide were real, because Koresh was crazy and so were many of his followersFinally, I told her that if she thought it was the right thing to do, she could go ahead The next day, as I watched CNN on a television just outside the Oval Office, I saw Koreshs compound in flamesThe raid had gone terribly wrongAfter the FBI fired the tear gas into the buildings where the people were holed up, the Davidians started a fireIt got worse when they opened the windows to let the tear gas out and also let in a hard wind off the Texas plains, which stoked the flamesWhen it ended, more than eighty people had died, including twenty-five children; only nine survivedI knew I needed to speak to the press and take responsibility for the fiascoSo did Dee Dee Myers and Bruce LindseyBut several times during the day, when I wanted to go ahead, dolce and gabbana George Stephanopoulos urged me to wait, saying we didnt know whether anyone was still alive or whether, if Koresh heard my words, he might snap and kill them, tooJanet Reno did appear before the cameras, explained what happened, and took full responsibility for the raidAs the first woman to hold the attorney generals post, she thought it was important not to pass the buckBy the time I finally talked to the press about Waco, Reno was being praised and I was being criticized for letting her take the fall For the second time in less than twenty-four hours, I had accepted advice that ran counter to my instinctsHe was young and cautious and had given me his honest, albeit mistaken, opinionBut I was furious at myself, first for agreeing to the raid against my better judgment, then for delaying a public acknowledgment of responsibility for itOne of the most important decisions a President has to make is when to take the advice of the people who work for him and when to reject itNobody can be right all the time, but its a lot easier to live with bad decisions that you believed in when you made them than with those your advisors say are right but your gut says are wrongAfter Waco, I resolved to go with my gut Perhaps one reason I didnt trust my chanel coin purse instincts enough is that the administration was being hammered hard in Washington and I was being second-guessed at every turnAfter a great initial appearance on Capitol Hill, Hillary was being criticized for the closed meetings of her health-care task forceSince they were consulting with hundreds of people, nothing they did was secret; they were simply trying to move with dispatch over many immensely complicated matters to reach my overly ambitious goal of presenting a health-care plan to Congress within one hundred daysThe task force heard testimony from over 1,100 groups, had more than 200 meetings with members of Congress, and held public meetings all around the countryIts reputation for being secretive was exaggeratedIn the end, the task force operation proved too unwieldy and was allowed to expire, and we couldnt make the hundred-day deadline anyway As if all this werent enough, I also suffered the defeat of my short-term stimulus package, which was designed to create 500,000 jobs by getting money out quickly to cities and states for infrastructure projectsThe economy was still growing slowly, it needed the boost, and the modest nonrecurring expenditures wouldnt have made our deficit problem worseThe House passed the bill handily and discount chanel quilted handbags the Senate was for it, too, but Bob Dole had more than forty Republican senators who were willing to filibuster itAfter the first filibuster vote, we should have tried to negotiate a smaller package with Dole, or accepted a less ambitious compromise proposal offered by Senators John Breaux and David Boren, two conservative DemocratsSenator Robert Byrd, who was handling the proposal, was adamant that if we didnt bend, we could break the filibusterBut we couldnt, and finally admitted defeat on April 21, two days after Waco In my first term, the Republicans resorted to the filibuster to an unprecedented extent, thwarting the will of the congressional majority, out of either conviction or a desire to prove that I couldnt leadSenator George Mitchell had to have twelve votes to break filibusters just in my first hundred days On March 19, we suffered a personal blow that put politics in perspective when Hillarys dad had a massive strokeHillary rushed to his bedside at StVincents Hospital in Little Rock, with Chelsea and my brother-in-law TonyDrew Kumpuris, Hughs doctor and our friend, told Hillary that her father had suffered severe brain damage and was in a deep coma from which, in all probability, he would never emergeI got there two days chanel quilted cheap handbag late

Over the weekend of January 3031, I brought the cabinet and senior White House staff to Camp David, the presidential retreat in Marylands Catoctin MountainsCamp David is a beautiful wooded site, with comfortable cabins and recreational facilities, staffed by men and women from the navy and the Marine CorpsIt was the perfect setting for us to get to know one another better and talk about the year aheadI also invited Stan Greenberg, Paul Begala, and Mandy GrunwaldThey felt that they had been shut out of the transition, and that an obsession with the deficit had overtaken every other objective I had advanced in the campaignThey thought Al and I were courting disaster by disregarding the deeper concerns and interests of the people who had elected usI sympathized with themFor one thing, they hadnt been in on the hours of discussions that led most of us to the conclusion that if we didnt deal with the deficit, we couldnt achieve sustained strong growth and that my other campaign commitments, at least those that cost money, would die in the stagnant backwater of a sluggish economy I let Mandy and Stan start the discussionMandy outlined the anxiety of the middle class about jobs, retirement, health care, and educationStan said that voters most important concerns were, in order, jobs, health-care fendi handbag replicas reform, welfare reform, and then deficit reduction, and that if deficit reduction was going to require the middle class to pay more taxes, I had darn sure better do something else for themHillary then described how wed failed in Arkansas in my first term by doing too many things at once, without a clear story line and an effort to prepare people for a long, sustained struggleThen she told them about the success wed had the second time around, by focusing on one or two issues every two years, and laying out long-term goals, along with short-term benchmarks of progress against which we could be judgedThat kind of approach, she said, enabled me to develop a story line people could understand and supportIn response, someone pointed out that we couldnt develop a story line as long as we were awash in leaks, all of which concerned the most controversial proposalsAfter the weekend, the consultants tried to come up with a communications strategy that would take us beyond the daily leaks and controversies The rest of the retreat was devoted to more informal, personal conversationsOn Saturday night there was a session, run by a facilitator who was a friend of Al Gores, in which we were supposed to bond by sitting in a group, taking turns telling something about ourselves the others didnt knowThough the chanel logo earrings exercise got mixed reviews, I actually enjoyed it, and managed to confess that, as a child, I was overweight and often ridiculedLloyd Bentsen thought the whole exercise was silly and went back to his cabin; if there was something about him the rest of us didnt know, it was intentionalBob Rubin stayed, but said he didnt have anything to sayapparently such group unburdening wasnt the key to his success at Goldman SachsWarren Christopher did participate, probably because he was the most disciplined man on the planet and thought this baby-boomer version of Chinese water torture would somehow strengthen his already considerable characterAll in all, the weekend was helpful, but the real bonding would come in the fires of the struggles, victories, and defeats that lay ahead On Sunday night, we were back in the White House to host the annual National Governors Association dinnerIt was Hillarys first formal event as First Lady, and she was nervous, but it went wellThe governors were concerned about the economy, which diminished state revenues, forcing them to cut services, raise taxes, or bothThey understood the necessity of reducing the deficit, but didnt want it to come at their expense, in the form of responsibilities shifting from the federal government to the states without funds being provided to omega chronograph watches pay for them On February 5, I signed my first bill into law, keeping another campaign commitmentWith the Family and Medical Leave Act, the United States at last joined more than 150 other countries in guaranteeing workers some time off when a baby is born or a family member is sickThe bills principal sponsor, my longtime friend Senator Chris Dodd of Connecticut, had worked for years to enact itPresident Bush had vetoed it twice, saying it would prove too burdensome for businessWhile the legislation had some strong Republican supporters, most Republicans had voted against it for the same reasonI believed that family leave would be good for the economyWith most parents in the workforce, by choice or necessity, it is imperative that Americans be able to do well both on the job and at homePeople who are worried about their infants or their sick parents are less productive than those who go to work knowing theyve done right by their familiesDuring my time as President, more than thirty-five million people would take advantage of the Family and Medical Leave law In the next eight years, and even after I left office, more people would mention it to me than any other bill I signedMany of their stories were powerfulEarly one Sunday morning, when I came in from my jog, I ran into a family touring the dior White HouseOne of the children, a teenage girl, was in a wheelchair and obviously very illI greeted them and said that if theyd wait for me to shower and get dressed for church, Id take them into the Oval Office for a pictureThey waited and we had a good visitI especially enjoyed my talk with the brave young girlAs I walked away, her father grabbed my arm and turned me around, saying, My little girl is probably not going to make itThe last three weeks Ive spent with her have been the most important of my lifeI couldnt have done it without the family leave law In early 2001, when I took my first shuttle flight from New York to Washington as a private citizen, one of the flight attendants told me that both her parents had been desperately ill at the same time, one with cancer, the other with AlzheimersShe said there was no one to care for them in their last days except her and her sister, and they wouldnt have been able to do it without the family leave lawYou know, the Republicans are always talking about family values, she said, but I think how your parents die is an important part of family values On February 11, as we worked to finish the economic plan, I finally got an attorney general, having decided, after a false start or two, on Janet Reno, the prosecuting attorney of Dade County, d

Looking directly at his father, he said, "Mad-Eye's dead Nobody spoke, nobody movedHarry felt as though something inside him was falling, falling through the earth, leaving him forever "We saw it," said Bill; Fleur nodded, tear tracks glittering on her cheeks in the light from the kitchen window"It happened just after we broke out of the circle: Mad-Eye and Dung were close by us, they were heading north tooVoldemort - he can fly - went straight for themDung panicked, I heard him cry out, Mad-Eye tried to stop him, but he DisapparatedVoldemort's curse hit Mad-Eye full in the face, he fell backward off his broom and - there was nothing we could do, nothing, we had half a dozen of them on our own tail -" Bill's voice broke "Of course you couldn't have done anything," said Lupin They all stood looking at each otherHarry could not quite comprehend itMad-Eye dead; it could not be Mad-Eye, so fendi handbag sale tough, so brave, the consummate survivor At last it seemed to dawn on everyone, though nobody said it, that there was no point of waiting in the yard anymore, and in silence they followed MrWeasley back into the Burrow, and into the living room, where Fred and George were laughing together "What's wrong?" said Fred, scanning their faces as they entered, "What's happened? Who's a150a150?" "Mad-Eye," said Mr The twins' grins turned to grimaces of shockNobody seemed to know what to doTonks was crying silently into a handkerchief: She had been close to Mad-Eye, Harry knew, his favorite and his prota233ga233e at the Ministry of MagicHagrid, who had sat down on the floor in the corner where he had most space, was dabbing at his eyes with his tablecloth-sized handkerchief Bill walked over to the sideboard and pulled out a bottle of fire-whisky and some glasses "Here," he said, and with a wave of balenciaga motorcycle bag his wand, eh sent twelve full glasses soaring through the room to each of them, holding the thirteenth aloft "Mad-Eye," they all said, and drank "Mad-Eye," echoed Hagrid, a little late, with a hiccupThe firewhisky seared Harry's throatIt seemed to burn feeling back into him, dispelling the numbness and sense of unreality firing him with something that was like courage "So Mundungus disappeared?" said Lupin, who had drained his own glass in one The atmosphere changed at onceEverybody looked tense, watching Lupin, both wanting him to go on, it seemed to Harry, and slightly afraid of what they might hear "I know what you're thinking," said Bill, "and I wondered that too, on the way back here, because they seemed to be expecting us, didn't they? But Mundungus can't have betrayed usThey didn't know there would be seven Harrys, that confused them the moment we appeared, and in case you've wholesale gucci messenger bag forgotten, it was Mundungus who suggested that little bit of skullduggeryWhy wouldn't he have told them the essential point? I think Dung panicked, it's as simple as thatHe didn't want to come in the first place, but Mad-Eye made him, and You-Know-Who went straight for themIt was enough to make anyone panic "You-Know-Who acted exactly as Mad-Eye expected him to," sniffed Tonks"Mad-Eye said he'd expect the real Harry to be with the toughest, most skilled AurorsHe chased Mad-Eye first, and when Mundungus gave them away he switched to Kingsley" "Yes, and zat eez all very good," snapped Fleur, "but still eet does not explain 'ow zey know we were moving 'Arry tonight, does eet? Somebody must 'ave been carelessSomebody let slip ze date to an outsiderIt is ze only explanation for zem knowing ze date but not ze 'ole plan She glared around at them all, tear tracks still etched on her beautiful face, silently buy a chanel bag daring any of them to contradict herThe only sound to break the silence was that of Hagrid hiccupping from behind his handkerchiefHarry glanced at Hagrid, who had just risked his own life to save Harry's - Hagrid, whom he loved, whom he trusted, who had once been tricked into giving Voldemort crucial information in exchange for a dragon's egg "No," Harry said aloud, and they all looked at him, surprised: The firewhisky seemed to have amplified his voiceif somebody made a mistake," Harry went on, "and let something slip, I know they didn't mean to do itIt's not their fault," he repeated, again a little louder than he would usually have spoken"We've got to trust each otherI trust all of you, I don't think anyone in this room would ever sell me to Voldemort More silence followed his wordsThey were all looking at him; Harry felt a little hot again, and drank some more firewhisky for something to chanel metallic gilt leather bag

Looking directly at his father, he said, "Mad-Eye's dead Nobody spoke, nobody movedHarry felt as though something inside him was falling, falling through the earth, leaving him forever "We saw it," said Bill; Fleur nodded, tear tracks glittering on her cheeks in the light from the kitchen window"It happened just after we broke out of the circle: Mad-Eye and Dung were close by us, they were heading north tooVoldemort - he can fly - went straight for themDung panicked, I heard him cry out, Mad-Eye tried to stop him, but he DisapparatedVoldemort's curse hit Mad-Eye full in the face, he fell backward off his broom and - there was nothing we could do, nothing, we had half a dozen of them on our own tail -" Bill's voice broke "Of course you couldn't have done anything," said Lupin They all stood looking at each otherHarry could not quite comprehend itMad-Eye dead; it could not be Mad-Eye, so replica chanel handbag tough, so brave, the consummate survivor At last it seemed to dawn on everyone, though nobody said it, that there was no point of waiting in the yard anymore, and in silence they followed MrWeasley back into the Burrow, and into the living room, where Fred and George were laughing together "What's wrong?" said Fred, scanning their faces as they entered, "What's happened? Who's a150a150?" "Mad-Eye," said Mr The twins' grins turned to grimaces of shockNobody seemed to know what to doTonks was crying silently into a handkerchief: She had been close to Mad-Eye, Harry knew, his favorite and his prota233ga233e at the Ministry of MagicHagrid, who had sat down on the floor in the corner where he had most space, was dabbing at his eyes with his tablecloth-sized handkerchief Bill walked over to the sideboard and pulled out a bottle of fire-whisky and some glasses "Here," he said, and with a wave of louis vuitton denim pleaty bag his wand, eh sent twelve full glasses soaring through the room to each of them, holding the thirteenth aloft "Mad-Eye," they all said, and drank "Mad-Eye," echoed Hagrid, a little late, with a hiccupThe firewhisky seared Harry's throatIt seemed to burn feeling back into him, dispelling the numbness and sense of unreality firing him with something that was like courage "So Mundungus disappeared?" said Lupin, who had drained his own glass in one The atmosphere changed at onceEverybody looked tense, watching Lupin, both wanting him to go on, it seemed to Harry, and slightly afraid of what they might hear "I know what you're thinking," said Bill, "and I wondered that too, on the way back here, because they seemed to be expecting us, didn't they? But Mundungus can't have betrayed usThey didn't know there would be seven Harrys, that confused them the moment we appeared, and in case you've fendi spy forgotten, it was Mundungus who suggested that little bit of skullduggeryWhy wouldn't he have told them the essential point? I think Dung panicked, it's as simple as thatHe didn't want to come in the first place, but Mad-Eye made him, and You-Know-Who went straight for themIt was enough to make anyone panic "You-Know-Who acted exactly as Mad-Eye expected him to," sniffed Tonks"Mad-Eye said he'd expect the real Harry to be with the toughest, most skilled AurorsHe chased Mad-Eye first, and when Mundungus gave them away he switched to Kingsley" "Yes, and zat eez all very good," snapped Fleur, "but still eet does not explain 'ow zey know we were moving 'Arry tonight, does eet? Somebody must 'ave been carelessSomebody let slip ze date to an outsiderIt is ze only explanation for zem knowing ze date but not ze 'ole plan She glared around at them all, tear tracks still etched on her beautiful face, silently prada bag with metal handle daring any of them to contradict herThe only sound to break the silence was that of Hagrid hiccupping from behind his handkerchiefHarry glanced at Hagrid, who had just risked his own life to save Harry's - Hagrid, whom he loved, whom he trusted, who had once been tricked into giving Voldemort crucial information in exchange for a dragon's egg "No," Harry said aloud, and they all looked at him, surprised: The firewhisky seemed to have amplified his voiceif somebody made a mistake," Harry went on, "and let something slip, I know they didn't mean to do itIt's not their fault," he repeated, again a little louder than he would usually have spoken"We've got to trust each otherI trust all of you, I don't think anyone in this room would ever sell me to Voldemort More silence followed his wordsThey were all looking at him; Harry felt a little hot again, and drank some more firewhisky for something to cheap chanel knock off bags

On the day the story broke, I did a previously scheduled interview with Jim Lehrer for the PBS NewsHourI responded to his questions by saying that I had not asked anyone to lie, which was true, and that there is no improper relationshipAlthough the impropriety was over well before Lehrer asked the question, my answer was misleading, and I was ashamed of telling Lehrer that; from then on, whenever I could, I just said I never asked anybody not to tell the truth While all this was going on, I had to keep doing my jobOn the twentieth, I met with Prime Minister Netanyahu at the White House to discuss his plans for a phased withdrawal from the West BankNetanyahu had made a decision to move the peace process forward as long as he had peace with securityIt was a bold move because his governing coalition was shaky, but he could see that if he didnt act, the situation would quickly get out of hand The next day Arafat came to the White HouseI gave him an encouraging report of my meeting with Netanyahu, assured him that I was pushing the prime minister to fulfill Israels obligation under the peace process, reminded him of the Israeli leaders political problems, and stated, as I always did, that he had to keep fighting terror if he wanted Israel to move forwardThe next day Mir Aimal Kansi was sentenced to death for the murder of the two CIA agents in January 1993, the first terrorist act to occur during my presidency By January 27, the day of the State of the Union address, the American people had been deluged with a week of coverage of Starrs inquiry, and I had spent a week dealing with itStarr had already issued subpoenas to a number of White House staff people and for our recordsI had asked Harold Ickes and Mickey Kantor to white chanel j12 watch replica help deal with the controversyThe day before the speech, at the urging of Harold and Harry Thomason, who felt I had been too tentative in my public comments, I reluctantly appeared once more before the press to say I did not have sexual relations with Lewinsky On the morning of the speech, on NBCs Today show, Hillary said that she didnt believe the charges against me and that a vast right-wing conspiracy had been trying to destroy us since the 1992 campaignStarr issued an indignant statement complaining that Hillary had questioned his motivesThough she was right about the nature of our opposition, seeing Hillary defend me made me even more ashamed about what I had done Hillarys difficult interview and my mixed reaction to it clearly exemplified the bind I had put myself in: As a husband, I had done something wrong that I needed to apologize and atone for; as President, I was in a legal and political struggle with forces who had abused the criminal and civil laws and severely damaged innocent people in their attempt to destroy my presidency and cripple my ability to serve Finally, after years of dry holes, I had given them something to work withI had hurt the presidency and the people by my misconductThat was no ones fault but my ownI didnt want to compound the error by letting the reactionaries prevail when I walked into the packed House chamber, the tension was palpable both there and in living rooms across America, where more people were watching my State of the Union address than since I delivered my first oneThe big question was whether I would mention the controversyI began with what was not in disputeThe country was in good shape, with fourteen million new jobs, rising incomes, the highest rate of home ownership vintage chanel jewelry ever, the fewest people on the welfare rolls in twenty-seven years, and the smallest federal government in thirty-five yearsThe 1993 economic plan had cut the deficit, projected to be $357 billion in 1998, by 90 percent, and the previous years balanced budget plan would get rid of it entirely Then I outlined my plan for the futureFirst, I proposed that before spending the coming surpluses on new programs or tax cuts, we should save Social Security for the baby boomers retirementIn education, I recommended funding to hire 100,000 new teachers and to cut class size to eighteen in the first three grades; a plan to help communities modernize or build five thousand schools; and assistance to help schools end the practice of social promotion, by providing funds for extra learning in after-school or summer-school programsI reiterated my support for a Patients Bill of Rights, opening Medicare to Americans between the ages of fifty-five and sixty-five, expanding the Family and Medical Leave Act, and called for a large enough expansion in federal child-care assistance to provide support for one million more children On the security front, I asked for congressional support in combating an unholy axis of new threats from terrorists, international criminals, and drug traffickers; Senate approval of the expansion of NATO; and continued funding for our mission in Bosnia and our efforts to confront the hazards of chemical and biological weapons and the outlaw states, terrorists, and organized criminals seeking to acquire them The last section of my speech dealt with appeals to bring America together and look to the future: tripling the number of empowerment zones in poor communities; launching a new clean water initiative for our replica gucci handbags rivers, lakes, and coastal waters; providing $6 billion in tax cuts and research funds for the development of fuel-efficient cars, clean-energy homes, and renewable energy; financing the next generation Internet to transmit information up to a thousand times faster; and funding the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, which, because of congressional hostility, didnt have the resources to handle sixty thousand backlogged cases alleging discrimination in the workplaceI also proposed the largest increase in history for the National Institutes of Health, the National Cancer Institute, and the National Science Foundation so that ours will be the generation that finally wins the war against cancer and begins a revolution in our fight against all deadly diseases I closed the speech thanking Hillary for leading our millennium campaign to preserve Americas treasures, including the tattered old Star Spangled Banner, which inspired Francis Scott Key to write our national anthem during the War of 1812 There wasnt a word in the address about the scandal, and the biggest new idea had been to save Social Security firstI was afraid Congress would get into a bidding war for the coming surpluses and squander them on tax cuts and spending before we had dealt with the baby boomers retirementMost Democrats agreed with me, and most Republicans didnt, though over the coming years we would hold a series of bipartisan forums around the country in which, despite everything else that was going on, we searched for common ground, arguing about how to provide for retirement security rather than whether to do so Two days after the speech, Judge Wright ordered that all evidence related to Monica Lewinsky be excluded from the Jones case because it was chanel lookalike bags cheap not essential to the core issues, making Starrs inquiry into my deposition even more questionable, since perjury requires a false statement about a material matterOn the last day of the month, ten days after the firestorm began, the Chicago Tribune published a poll showing that my job approval rating had risen to 72 percentI was determined to show the American people that I was on the job and getting results for them On February 5 and 6, Tony and Cherie Blair came to the United States for a two-day state visitThey were a sight for sore eyes for both Hillary and meThey made us laugh, and Tony gave me strong support in public, emphasizing our common approach to economic and social problems and to foreign policyWe took them to Camp David for a dinner with Al and Tipper Gore, and held a state dinner at the White House with entertainment by Elton John and Stevie WonderAfter the event Hillary told me that Newt Gingrich, who had been seated at her table with Tony Blair, had said the charges against me were ludicrous, and meaningless even if true, and werent going anywhere At our press conference, after Tony said that I was not just his colleague but his friend, Mike Frisby, a reporter for the Wall Street Journal, finally asked the question I had been waiting forHe wanted to know whether, given the pain and all the issues about my personal life, at what point do you consider that its just not worth it, and do you consider resigning the office? Never, I answeredI said I had tried to take the personal venom out of politics, but the harder I tried, the harder others have pulled in the other directionStill, I would never walk away from the people of this country and the trust theyve placed in me, so Im just going to keep showing up for chanel body jewelry