How can someone of Nossbaum’s obvious intelligence and ability turn into a hapless incompetent overnight? Corporate litigators are the bulldozers of the legal world, running over whatever is in their way, Political lawyering is more subtle. Washington likes a velvet touch. Bernie is all brass.
The capital is like a foreign posting for Nussbaum. He was born on New York’s Lower East Side, the son of Polish immigrants who spoke Yiddish at home, and he retains a thick New York accent. He admits he had to look up “redoubtable” in the dictionary when New York Times columnist William Safire used the word to describe his legal acumen. White House associate counsel Ronald Klain says Nussbaum is “lox and bagels in a turkey-on-wheat-bread town.”
Nussbaum’s failures have not been errors of law, but of political vision. His only Washington experience was some 20 years ago when he was Hillary Rodham’s boss on the House judiciary Committee investigating the possible impeachment of Richard Nixon. Today’s White House counsel is expected to understand political spin along with legal nuance. In an interview with NEWSWEEK, Nussbaum plaintively pointed out that not all of his advice has been misguided. He is especially proud of his role in selecting Attorney General Janet Reno, Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg and FBI Director Louis Freeh. “If you’re going to blame me for the false starts, at least give me credit for the strong finishes,” he says. Nussbaum made sure Ginsburg was fully vetted. And when Freeh threatened to back out because of family considerations, Nussbaum told him he couldn’t say no to the president.
Unlike more seasoned Washingtonians, Nussbaum makes no attempt to disguise his excitement at hobnobbing. He starts most morning meetings by regaling staffers with the latest dinner party or embassy reception he attended. Indeed, his social exploits got to be a running joke, with Vince Foster typically sallying that he ate a cheeseburger at his desk the night before.
In their shared battles the two men had grown close. Nussbaum was the only nonArkansan asked by Lisa Foster to be a pallbearer at her husband’s funeral. Yet the way Nussbaum handled the investigation of Foster’s death led to suspicions that the White House was hiding something. Nussbaum is faulted for not immediately sealing Foster’s office, and then for withholding a note found in Foster’s briefcase until he could show it to the president and Foster’s widow. “I’m not ashamed of anything I did,” he says. “Vince’s office was not a crime scene, and nobody was harmed by getting the note on day two instead of day one.”
Nussbaum’s last words to Foster before his death were “Look at these home runs we’re hitting.” “Despondent” is not a word in Nussbaum’s vocabulary. “I don’t see the glass half empty or half full,” he says. “I find it three-quarters full.”
Nussbaum’s joviality makes him easy to pick on. He’s not good at the inside game, and as the oldest person in the West Wing, he is on the wrong side of the generational divide. Young aides who resented being blamed for some of Clinton’s early miscues happily provided tales of Nussbaum’s blunders. Nussbaum concedes that he should have been “more active in knocking out Lani Guinier,” but he wasn’t consulted about Zoe Baird until the day her nomination blew up on Capitol Hill. Then, in typical fashion, with the Senate in revolt, he advised Clinton to fight it out. Baird withdrew that evening under White House pressure.
In Washington, reputations are treasured like porcelain sculptures, and Nussbaum’s has taken a lot of nicks. But as one colleague says: “He can take a baseball bat in the gut everyday. “Nussbaum expects to be around for a while. His office is next to Hillary’s, and he enjoys the backing of both the First Lady and the president. What he lacks in finesse, he makes up for with toughness. As people continue to snipe at him, be looks at the bright side. At least they’re not blaming the president.
