Tuesday, April 17, 2007

Bubba and the Band




This is from Leah Garchik's column in today's
San Francisco Chronicle:




LEAH GARCHIK

Tuesday, April 17, 2007


Bill Clinton was here this weekend, and "everyone just loved him,'' said Cindy McCullagh, who organized what she called "a gathering of old friends'' Friday night in his Fairmont suite. The roughly 20 guests included Google guys Sergey Brin and Larry Page with Lucy Southworth, Steve Jobs and Laurene Powell Jobs, former Defense Secretary Bill Perry, Herb and Marion Sandler, Dick Blum, Gavin Newsom, Susie and Mark Buell, Martha Whetstone, Walter Shorenstein and former Chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers Laura Tyson. Clinton was in blue jeans.

After a Saturday morning hike to the Embarcadero and up the Filbert steps, Clinton put in his appearance at a KCBS health event. The Eyewitness Blues Band performed a few numbers before his arrival, but due to over-schmoozing, there wasn't time for music later, and organizers' dreams of a Clinton jam didn't come true.

Interviewed onstage Saturday by KCBS' Mike Sugerman, Clinton got testy when Sugerman interrupted his history of Iraq to ask what he would do. "After 15 minutes, I wanted him to get to the point,'' Sugerman said Monday. "I'm CBS, not NPR.'' The newsman, who'd just seen a tape of a Clinton set-to with Chris Wallace, says Clinton gave him "exactly the same look, (pointing) with the exact same finger. It was scary.''

Later, Sugerman was driving home when Clinton called, wanting to explain -- despite various cell phone blips and the need for repeated calls -- his concerns with health care and with heart problems they'd both had. "So e-mail that story of yours to my foundation, and next time I'm out here, I'll prepare and I'll play my horn with you guys,'' he said. But "he never gave me his e-mail'' address, Sugerman said. "How is he going to get my story?''

(The calls to Sugerman prove my theory. Difference in professions aside, Bill Clinton is Tony Soprano: undisciplined, passionate, powerful, approval seeking and irresistible. Smart Hillary/good girl Carmela loves him and the power of being attached to him.)


No comments: