Clinton withdraws into a cocoon

He is limited to what he can say to others about the Monica Lewinsky investigation as he prepares to give his side of the story on Monday to a federal grand jury looking into whether he had sex with the former White House intern and broke the law by trying to get her to lie about it under oath. He cannot talk about the investigation to many of his top aides, who could be subpoenaed to give sworn testimony to the grand jury as well. Many aides already have appeared before the grand jury along with his coterie of secret service agents.

In preparing for his grand jury testimony, he is only able to talk about it to his personal three-member team of lawyers, David Kendall, NicoleSeligman and Mickey Kantor, because those conversations are protected by attorney-client privilege.

“Under these circumstances, the number of people he can talk to has been greatly reduced,” said former White House spokeswoman Dee Dee Myers, speaking on ABC news’ This Week.

First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton’s former spokeswoman Lisa Caputo agreed. “There is no loop,” she said. Clinton used to hold some sort of brief question-and-answer sessions with reporters in conjunction with official events two or three times a week, a chance to comment on issues of the day and display his nimble mind.

But those have been abruptly cancelled because of the inevitability of being asked about Lewinsky, replaced in some cases by music from the Marine Corps band to drown out reporters’ shouted questions.

Now, Clinton tends to talk about matters requiring Presidential comment through written statements, or by adding to his speeches, which is how he has reacted to the bombings of US embassies in Kenya and Tanzania.He did venture back briefly to the press cabin on Air Force One on Monday night and chatted as the press pool watched the apocalyptic comet-strikes-earth movie, Deep impact.

When reporters drifted closer with notepads, Clinton slipped away. “Relax, the work day’s over,” he told them.