Local Clintonites
stand by their man
Forty Hawaii supporters give
By Pete Pichaske
$3,180 to help pay the president's
mounting legal bills
Phillips News ServiceWASHINGTON -- Bruce Bigelow went to Yale Law School with Bill and Hillary Clinton 25 years ago, and on one of their visits to Hawaii, the first couple thrilled Bigelow's son by inviting him to see Air Force One.
So the Honolulu attorney is not about to desert the Clintons in their hour of need.
Bigelow, a loyal Democrat, was one of 40 Hawaii residents who contributed a total of $3,180 to the Clinton Legal Expense Trust, the legal defense fund set up earlier this year to help defray the president's staggering legal bills.
"I know them both well and believe in them both strongly," said Bigelow, who contributed $100.
"It doesn't seem right that you can be persecuted like that and come out a pauper. I'm willing to help them. If people don't, public office will just become a road to poverty."
The trust fund was set up in February by former U.S. Sen. David Pryor of Arkansas, a longtime Clinton ally. The trust does not accept money from political action committees, corporations, labor unions or other organizations, and limits contributions to $10,000.
Records for the trust's first six months of operation reveal it has raised $2.2 million from about 17,000 donors in all 50 states. A list of donors and donations provided by the trust, however, covers only the period until June 30, during which $1.5 million was collected.
The list includes such well-known Clinton pals as director Steven Spielberg, singer Barbra Streisand and actor Tom Hanks, all of whom gave the maximum $10,000.
The list also includes the 40 lesser-known contributors from Hawaii, whose more modest donations ranged from $25 to $500.
"First of all, I'm a Democrat," said Honolulu retiree Kenneth Neifert, when asked why he decided to give $50 to the legal fund. "Second, I think that if Clinton had not been president, he would never have been subjected to all these things."
The investigation running up the embattled president's legal bills and its revelations, added Neifert, "don't have much to do with running the country."
Retired librarian Dorothy Morris, who gave $100, said she is a longtime Clinton fan who also believes everyone has the right to legal counsel, "no matter who you are or what you've done."
But Morris, who like the others made her donation before Clinton admitted his relationship with former White House intern Monica Lewinsky, said the latest revelations hit her hard.
"I've gotten a couple appeals for more money, but I told my husband, 'I just can't do it now,' " she said. "I'm probably not going to send them any more money -- at least not for a while."
Morris' shaken faith might be shared by others, but not lawyer Bigelow.
"I still think he needs a defense," said Bigelow, who added: "This investigation started with a land deal in Arkansas. How they ended up with (the Lewinsky affair), I don't know."
The Clinton Legal Expense Trust replaced a previous defense fund that folded in January after raising only $1.5 million in 3-1/2 years.
Pryor, who until his retirement two years ago was Clinton's closest friend in Congress, said he was very pleased with the fund-raising effort.
"We believe that no first family should face such a financial burden while trying to carry out the work that the American people elected the president to do," he said.
