Bowles’s deputy, Podesta, was put in charge of managing the Lewinsky “cells”—staffed by lawyers, communications people, and others—while Bowles kept Clinton focused on governing. “John oversaw all of that operation. I thought he was unbelievably talented in areas where I was unbelievably untalented,” says Bowles. “I did not like dealing with the investigations; I just hated it. And John was just great at it.” Podesta—who called himself the “secretary of shit”—would be responsible for trying to prevent the looming impeachment and conviction of the president of the United States.
