[Newspoetry] story & assignment

[William Gillespie]

Assignment:

Write a lipogram about George Bush and vandalized white house
typewriters, in which you spell all words correctly, and do not use the
letter "W"

For extra credit write the poem entirely in questions.

Story:

Thursday January 25 4:48 PM ET
Clinton Did Not Go Gently Into Post-Presidency

By Steve Holland

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - With his pardon of a fugitive commodities trader,
acceptance of $190,000 in gifts and a spate of farewell pranks by
executive branch staff, Bill Clinton did not go gently into his
post-presidency.

Less than a week after leaving the White House, the dust is still
settling from Clinton's chaotic last hours in office before turning over
power to Republican George W. Bush (news - web sites).

White House spokesman Ari Fleischer said on Thursday the Bush White
House was cataloging reports of farewell pranks by departing staffers
but no criminal charges would be taken.

He resisted repeated invitations to outline the extent of the pranks,
saying that ``whether things were done that were perhaps less gracious
than they should have been,'' Bush wanted to change the tone in
Washington to a more positive one.

``The question is, do you have to blame somebody in this town? And bear
with us -- President Bush is not going to come to Washington for the
point of blaming somebody in this town. It's a different way of
governing, it's a different way of leading,'' he said.

A number of ``W'' keys from computer keyboards in the Old Executive
Office Building were removed, in some cases broken or taped to the tops
of doorways. Some keyboards will have to be replaced.

In addition, new reports surfaced of pranks -- and indeed vandalism.

There was graffiti in bathrooms and scrawled on an office hallway,
severed phone lines and many phone lines misdirected to other government
offices, sources said.

Sources described some makeshift signs. One said ``Office of
Strategerie,'' a reference to a televised spoof on Bush's tendency to
garble words. In a similar vein, another said ''Office of Subliminable
Cyber Space.'' Paper in a Xerox machine had an unflattering picture of
Bush printed on it.

The vice president's suite of offices had trash everywhere, according to
the sources.

Times Of Difficulty

``The president understands that transitions can be times of difficulty
and strong emotion, and he's going to approach it in that vein,''
Fleischer said.

The pranks reflected the ongoing anger and bitterness in the former
administration at Bush's disputed election victory over Democratic Vice
President Al Gore (news - web sites).

An apologetic phone call was made to the office of Vice President Dick
Cheney (news - web sites). Fleischer would not give details, but it was
reportedly to Cheney's wife Lynne from Gore's wife Tipper.

In another incident, sources said 24 glasses embossed with the
presidential seal were missing from a presidential jumbo jet after
flying Clinton, his family and top aides and friends to New York last
Saturday. The sources said the Clintons were not responsible and that
the losses were not considered usual under the circumstances.

Former Clinton staffers claimed some pranks always occur when one
political party takes over another, pointing out that all the computer
hard drives had been removed when Clinton replaced Bush's father George
Bush as president in 1993.

Even some Democrats were annoyed at Clinton's last-minute pardon of Marc
Rich, a billionaire financier who lived in exile for 17 years in
Switzerland while wanted on more than 50 counts of wire fraud,
racketeering, income tax evasion and trading oil with Iran during a U.S.
trade embargo.

Besides Rich and 139 other people pardoned, Clinton's last day included
a deal in which he escaped indictment on perjury charges in the Monica
Lewinsky case by admitting making false statements.

Clinton's decision to make a big show of his departure, with two
speaking events, on Bush's inauguration day also raised eyebrows.

Mayor Daley Critical

Chicago's Democratic Mayor Richard Daley on Wednesday criticized Clinton
for his 11th hour deal and for his behavior in the final days of his
presidency.

``In Esquire magazine, he came out right before the election and said
the Republicans owe him an apology. Then, the Friday before he leaves,
he said, `I'm sorry, I did it,''' Daley said.

Although he still considers Clinton a ``great president,'' the mayor
said he was equally disappointed at Clinton's behavior on inauguration
day.

``In the past, they shook hands, the (former) president went to a
helicopter, and that was it. This was different. He had a rally at the
airport, a rally in New York and a rally at his home. It was really
different, really unusual,'' Daley said. ''That's his style. He wanted
two or three more parties.''

Late on the Friday night before leaving office, the White House put out
a list of $190,000 in gifts that Clinton and his wife, Sen. Hillary
Rodham Clinton (news - web sites), had accepted last year and were
taking with them.

It looked like a wedding gift list: $22,000 in china; $18,000 in
flatware; $2,993 for televisions and DVD player.

Providing two coffee tables and chairs valued at $7,375 was Denise Rich
of New York, a songwriter and Democratic contributor who had pressed
Clinton to pardon her fugitive husband.

``The list demonstrates again the Clintons' defining characteristic:
They have no capacity for embarrassment,'' the Washington Post said in
an editorial on Wednesday. ``Words like shabby and tawdry come to mind.
They don't begin to do it justice.''