Labor secretary Reich was alarmed but more forgiving toward McLarty. “Mack got a bad rap because the chaos was blamed on him,” he says. “He could have been a stronger chief of staff, but Bill Clinton didn’t necessarily want a strong chief of staff. Bill Clinton put him in that place because Bill Clinton wanted to run the White House himself and didn’t want to be disciplined.” Podesta says the president did not fully grasp that the chief of staff is a gatekeeper—and honest broker of his cabinet’s views. “He’s a governor. His staff were these guys that ran the Highway Department, right? So I
...more
