Clinton Administration

THE NATURAL The Misunderstood Presidency of Bill Clinton By Joe Klein Doubleday 232 pages, $22.95 Journalist and author Joe Klein has for years followed the scandals and triumphs of former president Bill Clinton. In 1996 Klein even published a novel, "Primary Colors," loosely based on the Clinton administration, and hid behind the alias Anonymous.

Underscoring the high stakes involved in its new agreement governing relations with agents, the Screen Actors Guild on Thursday confirmed that two former Clinton administration strategists are working for the union as consultants on the issue. Crisis experts Mark Fabiani and Christopher Lehane were hired in January to consult for the union in case either an impasse or agreement was reached, SAG said. SAG and the agents struck a tentative deal over the weekend.

One year after leaving office under a renewed ethics cloud, former President Clinton is reemerging as a top attraction on the political fund-raising circuit. Democrats are delighted. Republicans too. With an eye on history and an ear to the ground, Clinton is hoping to help shape the political debate this election season and beyond, cementing the changes he brought to the Democratic Party and putting a retrospective gloss on his stormy presidency. This week, Clinton will headline events for Sen.

After an eight-month review, the Bush administration announced Tuesday that it will proceed with lawsuits filed by the Clinton administration against polluting power companies because they are consistent with the Clean Air Act. "The department takes seriously its obligation to enforce the laws protecting our nation's environment," Atty. Gen. John Ashcroft said in a statement.

Love him or hate him, you won't find Bill Clinton's name on the ballot anywhere this year. But plenty of folks who worked for the 42nd president are lining up to fill that void. Several veterans of the Clinton Cabinet are running for governor in campaigns across the country, including former Atty. Gen. Janet Reno in Florida. Today, former Energy Secretary Bill Richardson is expected to formally announce his gubernatorial bid in New Mexico. Former Labor Secretary Robert B.

With the nation's attention squarely on war and terrorism, the Bush administration has ruled this fall in business' favor on a range of long-disputed environmental matters. It allowed oil drilling in the red rocks of Utah and canyons of Colorado. It permitted an open-pit gold mine on a California desert site that the Quechan tribe considers sacred. And it signaled to developers across the country that they can, in many cases, build on wetlands without creating ones to replace them.

With a golden shovel full of dirt, Bill Clinton broke ground Wednesday on a presidential library that promises to document both his triumphs and scandals. "The impeachment? Absolutely," Clinton said. "What I did wrong is a matter of record, but what I want is the whole record out." Clinton was impeached by the House in December 1998 on two articles of perjury and obstruction of justice in connection with his affair with White House intern Monica S. Lewinsky.

During the 2000 political campaign and in his first months in office, candidate George W. Bush and then President Bush assailed the previous administration of President Clinton for having neglected the American military. It was claimed that the American armed forces had been denied the funding that would enable them to wage effective war under almost any circumstances. It appears now, however, that the U.S. Air Force, Army, Navy, Marines and various highly specialized groups are highly trained, well equipped and have the very latest in technology that has enabled them, in a very short time, to reduce the previously highly touted Taliban forces to a confused rabble.

Your claim that industry litigation has led to backdoor deals to attack our pristine federal lands cannot be substantiated ("Negotiating Away the Environment," editorial, Oct. 30). Dozens of concerned businesses, and even several states, filed suits over the thousands of pages of new regulations the Clinton administration adopted in its final weeks. In adopting its proposals against mining, the Clinton administration not only ignored congressional mandates and the conclusions of the National Academy of Sciences, it relied upon flawed legal opinions and disregarded procedural requirements.