But success is as ephemeral in politics as it is in showbiz, and now the fickle president has replaced most of the War Room gang with a new crew of political talent (chart). Grunwald has closed her company and now works out of her basement on smaller accounts (such as the anti-Bob Packwood campaign). Greenberg’s contract with the Democrats has been slashed, forcing him to lay off staff and take on corporate clients. Begala, NEWSWEEK has learned, is leaving Washington for Texas and abandoning his partnership with Carville. And neither Stephanopoulos nor any of his War Room comrades are invited to the key political-strategy meeting Clinton holds each week.
Hubris greased their descent. In Grunwald’s case, the cockiness that made her helped bring her down. She had won Clinton’s affection during the campaign by coolly scolding Ted Koppel for doing a show on Gennifer Flowers. But to White House aides, that self-confidence seemed more like condescension; she would barge in on meetings and cut down other people’s ideas with unusual savagery. “Everyone in the place hated her,” says one staffer. Those looking for scapegoats in the health-care debacle were all too happy to point to Grunwald’s ineffective ads.
Begala’s decline is perhaps the most poignant. Few were more devoted to Clinton than the glib Texan, who traveled with the candidate nearly every day in ‘92. Yet Begala lost favor when he counseled a senatorial client to vote against Clinton’s trade policies in ‘94. He infuriated Clinton confidantes by blabbing to Bob Woodward, whose book “The Agenda” depicts comic disarray in the White House. He was quoted calling the then budget director, Leon Panetta, the “Poster Boy for Economic Constipation.” Unfortunately for Begala, Panetta soon became chief of staff. He quickly barred Begala and other consultants from appearing on TV–or in the Oval Office–without his permission.
Greenberg was judged disloyal after reports that he, too, was advising other Democrats to distance themselves from Clinton. But mostly he just developed a reputation for giving bad advice. On health care, he and Grunwald urged Clinton to vow to veto any bill that didn’t offer universal coverage. That made it impossible for Clinton to compromise. The president finally had it with Greenberg when the pollster–who earned $1.9 million from the DNC in 1994–failed to anticipate the recent GOP landslide. “He was not the most prescient,” said a White House official, “just the most expensive.” Clinton complained to friends that Greenberg held forth about the mood of America but offered little useful direction.
The Clintons are famous for abruptly dropping aides when things don’t go well. In ‘92, Grunwald herself gained favor only after Clinton soured on her partner, Frank Greer. “Her view is, you ride it up, you ride it down, you ride it up,” says former partner Carter Eskew. The consultant du jour is Dick Morris, a Republican who worked tar Clinton in Arkansas in the early 1980s. The War Room tends to liberal populism: right now, Clinton wants to move to the center. And temperamentally, their insurgent style does not suit a presidential re-election. “There’s a time for pizza at 1:30 in the morning,” says Carville. “This is not that time.”
But some members of the old crew, especially Carville and Stephanopoulos, are positioned to play major roles in 1996. Carville’s withdrawal was voluntary but temporary: he knows he’s better at campaigning than governing. And the president was so pleased with Stephanopoulos’s recent affirmative-action review that he toasted his aide with champagne. Stephanopoulos is “still the go-to guy in most cases,” says Press Secretary Mike McCurry.
War Room alumni can comfort themselves by looking at the president’s relationship with Morris. The consultant helped elect Clinton in 1978, was then pushed aside, returned a few years later and was squeezed out again. He’s back as Washington’s hot new star–for now.
‘Today’ show liberal foil and Vice President Gore’s former consultant has been brought in to make the campaign’s TV ads. Replaces Grunwald.
Other White House aides resented her contemptuous attitude. Lacking allies, she got blamed for the health-care debacle.
Clinton’s current favorite guru. Worked for the Arkansas governor in the early 1980s but in recent years has mostly worked for Republicans.
Clinton asked Morris to name the best pollster in America and he picked his buddy Schoen, who bumps Greenberg as numbers cruncher.
The pollster didn’t call the GOP landslide in ‘94, and Clinton decided his advice wasn’t worth the millions the party was paying.
Though still a close adviser (and gossip-columnist favorite), he’s left out of key weekly political-strategy meetings with the boss.
The star of ‘The War Room’ takes a sabbatical from politics to write books, make a fortune, marry Mary Matalin and have a baby.
