Washington PC

WASHINGTON, Jan 25: Don't use the word intern. Trainee will do just fine. Apprentice is okay too...Suddenly, intern' has become taboo, a po...

WASHINGTON, Jan 25: Don8217;t use the word intern. Trainee will do just fine. Apprentice is okay too8230;Suddenly, intern8217; has become taboo, a politically incorrect term, thanks to President Clinton8217;s alleged affair with former intern Monica Lewinsky. Interns, the females in any case, are dissolving in embarrassment when described by that term. What was only yesterday a fashionable vogue word bandied about as a stepping stone to jobs is suddenly an avoidable epithet.

Washington DC is a quintessential interns town. Each semester, the city is invaded by thousands of neophytes out of schools and colleges looking for some work experience, if not a job. As the home of the federal government, the legislature, media outlets and lobbying firms, Washington absorbs more interns than any other city in the United States.

They can be found everywhere: In federal departments like commerce, justice and treasury. On Capitol Hill, seat of the American legislature. In newspaper and wire service offices. In large law firms. Withthe adjoining states of Maryland and Virginia, the Washington area itself is home to more than 20 large universities, but interns come from far and wide to look for that Washington imprimatur that looks good on their resume. DC drinking holes like Crow Bar and Ha8217; Penny Lion are usually teeming with under-25 interns during early evening Happy Hours, when the beer is cheap and the conversation raucous.

Typically, interns do the grunt work in offices8230; like writing standardised replies, punching in data, sorting mail and attending phones. When they apply for jobs, they glorify these tasks, often describing them using terms like 8220;provided valuable input into projects8221;, 8220;conceptualised ideas8221;.

Being an intern is a part of every American student8217;s life. Even Bill Clinton was an intern in Washington when he passed out from school.

The White House itself absorbs some 1000 interns each year. Most of them get to work in the Old Executive office building next to the main building housing the departments like the National Security Council and the Vice President8217;s office. Only a privileged few get to work in the West Wing, where the President8217;s office is located.

All White House interns have to undergo a mandatory security check and a drug test. But the benchmark for the West Wing interns 8212; who are given what is known as a Blue Pass 8212; is even stricter. An FBI background check.

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Moreover, there are strict rules for White House interns and a dress code no jeans or short skirts.

From all accounts Monica Lewinsky sailed through all tests and checks and landed only four doors from the President8217;s Oval Office.

Tripp planned to book8217; Clinton

Linda Tripp, the former White House employee whose taped conversations with Monica Lewinsky helped created a Presidential crisis, tried to publish an expose of President Clinton8217;s love life two years ago, the New Yorker magazine has said.

The magazine said that before Tripp linked up with Lewinsky and secretly taped that young woman8217;s story of an affair with the President, she proposed a book called Behind Closed Doors: What I Saw Inside the Clinton White House.

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The New Yorker, releasing a copy of an article to be published tomorrow, said Tripp worked on the book project with New York literary agent Lucianne Goldberg, a woman known to dislike the Clintons.