Bumpers Comes to Clinton’s Defense on Familiar Territory

WASHINGTON — All through 1998, Dale Bumpers agonized for his friend, Bill Clinton. But even at crucial junctures when he had advice to offer, Bumpers refrained from calling the White House, assuming that the president was too preoccupied.

When the two Arkansans finally ran into each other at a recent reception and Bumpers belatedly shared his thoughts, the president rued:

“Dale, I wish you had called.”

As White House lawyers prepared this week to deliver the defense case in the Senate impeachment trial, it was the president who called Bumpers, enlisting the just-retired senator to join the White House defense team.

And when the 73-year-old Bumpers showed up at the defense table Tuesday, his appearance provided one of the trial’s genuine surprises--and delighted Republicans as well as Democrats.

An orator extraordinaire, the popular Bumpers is scheduled to deliver the closing argument today.

Bumpers declined to discuss his role in the impeachment trial when reached by telephone at his suburban Maryland home this week. But during the final months of his 24-year Senate term, Bumpers discussed with The Times the predicament of a man he reflexively refers to as “Bill.”

Among other things, Bumpers has advocated a vigorous defense of the president. And he was taken aback by the negative reactions to Clinton’s Aug. 17 nationally televised address in which he confessed his affair with Monica S. Lewinsky and attacked independent counsel Kenneth W. Starr.

Bumpers becomes the only member of the White House legal team to have long and deep connections not only to most senators now sitting in judgment of Clinton but also to the president himself.

High Expectations of Bumpers in Senate

Senators on both sides of the aisle said they have high expectations of Bumpers, a man whose lofty rhetoric most of them know well. But in the words of one senior GOP strategist, some Republicans view his addition to the defense team as an indication that the White House must be “really scared.”

“I’ve always expected the president to hire some of the best lawyers in America,” said Sen. John Ashcroft (R-Mo.). “And Dale Bumpers is a very dramatic individual.”

Sen. Craig Thomas (R-Wyo.) said of Bumpers: “He’s a good friend and a good guy. I expect him to appeal to his former colleagues--and do an emotional thing.”

“Getting him was a great idea,” added Sen. Paul Wellstone (D-Minn.). “He’s close to the president and has a tremendous sense of history and passion. And he’s someone who everyone in the Senate respects.”

Bumpers’ popularity among his former colleagues was evident the instant he entered the chamber Tuesday afternoon--many Republicans as well as Democrats rushed forward to greet him.

One conservative Clinton critic, Sen. Larry E. Craig (R-Idaho), jokingly told Bumpers: “I thought the White House had a lock on this case--until I saw you!” He called Bumpers “Bumpy.”

Several other Republicans, including Mike DeWine of Ohio, approached Bumpers in the well of the Senate and teasingly asked whether Bumpers will have a long enough microphone cord when he delivers his closing statement. Throughout his Senate years, Bumpers easily had the longest cord of any member, which allowed him to roam far from his desk while delivering speeches.

“As we moved into the Senate phase,” the White House knew it needed “to supplement the team with someone effective in the Senate, someone with sway,” said a White House aide. “Current members were ruled out. So a former member was the logical place to go.”

The White House had considered asking former Senate Majority Leader George J. Mitchell (D-Maine) to make the closing argument but concluded that he would not be as well received by Republicans, who regard him as a partisan figure.

Craig said he believes that the White House drafted Bumpers because it “got spooked” by the House GOP’s presentation against the president. “I think they felt they needed to match the oratory of Henry Hyde with that of Dale Bumpers.”

Aside from his personal relationships with most of the senators, Bumpers brings to the White House team “the mind of a senator--something the executive branch doesn’t teach very well,” said a strategist for Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott (R-Miss.).

“I can’t tell you that he’ll win them any votes. But he’s likely to keep them from making mistakes,” the aide added. “Perhaps he will keep them from losing some [Democratic] votes.”

After retiring from the Senate, Bumpers, a longtime arms-control advocate, became director of the Center for Defense Information, a think tank on military affairs.

A Reputation as a Giant-Killer

A blunt-speaking populist, Bumpers practiced law in Arkansas for 20 years, arguing countless cases before juries all over the state, before entering politics, first as a city attorney and then as school board president in Charleston, Ark.

In 1970, he began to acquire the reputation of a political giant-killer by defeating Orval E. Faubus in the Democratic primary and then beating Republican Winthrop Rockefeller to become governor.

Four years later, Bumpers knocked off incumbent Sen. J. William Fulbright by a 2-to-1 margin in the Democratic primary. He then went on to win the Senate seat that he would hold for nearly a quarter-century.

Over the years, Bumpers took up numerous unpopular causes, most notably his opposition to the space station and a proposed atom-smasher project.

In a formal interview last summer, Bumpers regretted having “chosen too many battles that were negative” and added: “I hate it when I’m just trying to stop things.”

But if Bumpers is successful in his latest quest, he surely will not complain.

Times staff writer James Gerstenzang contributed to this story.