Payback: Was Bill Clinton Rejected As An Augusta National Member?

Martha Burk, über-feminist leader of the National Council of Women's Organizations, sent an extortion letter to Augusta National chairman Hootie Johnson on June 12 after Burk read reports about Augusta National not having women among its 300 members.

"We know that Augusta National and the sponsors of the Masters do not want to be viewed as entities that tolerate discrimination against any group, including women," was one threatening line in the letter by Ms. Burk.

Burk later released a purported letter by former Senator Sam Nunn that supposedly backed up her position. The letter was later found to be a hoax, but Burk continued to try to use the forgery to strengthen her indefensible shakedown attempt:

"Normally when we get a hoax, it's written with eighth-grade grammar," Burk said. "For instance, we received a forged letter, purportedly from Augusta National, that said women need to stay on their backs, [etc.]. But it was clear that a lot of thought went into [the Nunn forgery]. We thought it was going to be the first trickle of water we'd need to change the tide of Augusta National's membership opinion. I'm sorry he didn't write it."

Translation: "It almost doesn't matter" that Nunn didn't write the letter, to quote the famous line from John Leo's excellent book, Incorrect Thoughts. A lie that serves Burk nefarious shakedown attempt is a good lie.

Simple. Bill Clinton is a celebrity golfer. Almost every more-than-casual golfer would kill to become a member of the hallowed Augusta National Club.

Knowing Big Bill's ego, I have little doubt that he tried to get on the Augusta waiting list, and also knowing somewhat of the ways of Augusta National, I have equally little doubt that he was soundly rebuffed.

Martha Burk had 8 years in which Clinton ruled to pull a stunt like this, with guaranteed White House support, but she didn't. This is a very curious omission on the part of the Clintonites, who rarely overlook a chance to stick it to their cultural enemies.

It's my theory that if Burk broached the idea to the Clinton White House, she was warned off by her Clintonite masters.

A more likely theory is that a vengeance-minded Clinton sicced his toy poodle Burk on Hootie and Augusta after being rejected. This would be in keeping with standard Clintonite revenge tactics. Predictably, Begala, Clinton's attack chihuahua, savaged Hootie Johnson in a televised discussion of the subject.

http://www.civicweb.com/nwpc.html
Martha Burk Director of the Center for the Advancement of Public Policy told Ms. " The right wing has taken this opportunity to attack us . Its not because we elected Clinton. Rather, it’s that we stand for principles that his enemies are squarely against. " She also said "the reason we are in this mess is the deep-seated opposition to having women in the White House. Imagine Madeleine Albright in the White House and these questions being asked."

Martha Burk, editor of a women's newsletter, said, "She [Monica Lewinsky] will be enough of a celebrity to nail a good job with some entertainment company that wants glitz and notoriety. She won't lack for offers. I bet she'll go get a job as a talk show host."

Taking Second Chances: Par for Clinton's Course: News/Current Events News Keywords: THE MULLIGAN, OR DO-OVER IN GOLF, AS A METAPHOR FOR THE CLINTON PRESIDENCY
Source: New York Times
Published: August 29, 1999 Author: DON VAN NATTA Jr.
Posted on 08/29/1999 13:23:49 PDT by Elle Bee

WASHINGTON -- President Clinton stepped up to the first tee at Farm Neck Golf Club on Martha's Vineyard the other day and shanked the ball into the wrong fairway. "Aw, I killed it," the President blurted to himself. "I need help."

Without hesitation, Mr. Clinton fished another ball out of his pocket, placed it on the tee and lined up a second shot. In golf parlance, the do-over is known as a mulligan, a benign term for a shot not endorsed by the United States Golf Association. The mulligan is common among weekend duffers, who will gladly take one or even a handful of do-overs if their fellow players assent.

But Mr. Clinton never asked the permission of anyone in his foursome, which included Senator Frank R. Lautenberg, the New Jersey Democrat. Apparently being President means never having to say double bogey. His second shot mimicked the crooked path of the first, veering onto an adjacent fairway. "Aw, I did it again," Mr. Clinton said, stomping toward his golf cart.

Indeed, the President does it again and again and again. He grants himself bushels of mulligans -- off the tee, usually, but Presidential mulligans have also been witnessed while Mr. Clinton was ankle-deep in sand or lost in a thicket of evergreen trees. Mr. Clinton jokes that he gives "Presidential pardons" to his errant golf balls. A S this vacation season draws to a close, and Mr. Clinton pursues another interlude of golf and fund-raisers, the mulligan presents itself as the perfect metaphor for his Presidency. The voters have given the Comeback Kid more than one mulligan. Mr. Clinton was granted a second chance by the Senate in February after the House impeached him for his behavior in the Monica S. Lewinsky matter. And it can be assumed that Hillary Rodham Clinton has given Mr. Clinton a few mulligans too.

Most past Presidents were golf purists who wouldn't contemplate even asking for a mulligan (the term's derivation is obscure), let alone taking one. George Bush apparently never took a do-over. For him, it was more important to put the game out of its misery; he once bragged that he raced through 18 holes in 1 hour, 42 minutes.

John F. Kennedy, probably the best golfer to occupy the White House this century, did not need to take mulligans. Richard M. Nixon, on the other hand, was known to kick the ball out of the rough to give himself a better lie.

Golf was also a defining metaphor of Dwight D. Eisenhower's Presidency. Ike spent so much time puttering around the links that his diversion symbolized his entire era of placid postwar prosperity and conservatism.

Mr. Clinton's game symbolizes something else. In his new book, "Shadow: Five Presidents and the Legacy of Watergate" (Simon & Schuster, 1999), Bob Woodward writes that Gerald Ford, an avid golfer, was disgusted after watching Mr. Clinton repeatedly take mulligans during a round in Colorado in 1993. After playing 18 holes with Mr. Ford and the golf great Jack Nicklaus, Mr. Clinton told reporters he had shot an 80.

This claim apparently infuriated Mr. Ford and Mr. Nicklaus. Mr. Woodward writes: "Nicklaus leaned over to Ford and whispered in disgust, 'Eighty with 50 floating mulligans.' "

A golfer who routinely takes mulligans is rarely taxed by the game's cruelties. A handicap aided by second chances allows the golfer to maintain an optimistic outlook on life. On the other hand, one who never takes mulligans cannot help brooding about the game's harshness and unfairness.

Bob Dole, who does not play golf, attempted to transform the mulligan into an issue during the waning days of his losing Presidential campaign in 1996. "I don't know whether he shot an 83 or a 283 or a 483," Mr. Dole growled in response to the President's claim that he shot an 83 in Albuquerque, N. M.. "You'll never really know."

On a glorious spring day in May, Mr. Clinton appeared incapable of getting the kinks out of his swing on the first tee at the Andrew Air Force Base course. He took one mulligan. Then another. And then another. Each shot was spectacularly ugly, zig-zagging this way and that. Finally, the President was satisfied with his fourth shot, which managed to land in the fairway.

Paul Bedard, a writer with U.S. News & World Report who witnessed the flurry of mulligans, called it "the highest-ever number of cheater's shots the First Duffer has taken before witnesses." B UT beyond the first tee there are few witnesses. Reporters, armed with scorecards and little pencils, are forbidden from following the Presidential foursome around the course. Thus, even though Mr. Clinton is far along the back nine of his Presidency, it has been almost impossible to document how many mulligans Mr. Clinton takes during any single round.

Terence McAuliffe, a friend and frequent golfing partner of Mr. Clinton, vouched for the President's claim that he grants Presidential pardons only to balls hit from the first tee. "And only rarely," he added. Mr. McAuliffe said his matches with the President are far too competitive for either one of them to indulge in a multitude of mulligans.

"It's a dogfight out there," he said. "He is as competitive about golf as he is about life. He doesn't like to lose, and neither do I. Neither one of us will give the other guy a break."

Despite such assurances, cynics in the gallery continue to believe that the President's scores -- he claims to shoot around 80 and as low as 75 -- are enhanced by at least a half-dozen mulligans. Sure, the President is a pretty good golfer, the cynics say. He's just not that good.

Skepticism is, of course, understandable. Mr. Clinton, after all, claimed that he did not inhale, and that he did not have sexual relations with that woman. Why wouldn't the President also put the spin on his golf score?

Rick Reilly, a senior writer for Sports Illustrated who played with the President in 1996, recalled that Mr. Clinton took just one mulligan at the Congressional Country Club in Bethesda, Md., before carding an impressive 82. "He hit a lot of mad balls -- he'd chunk one, or skull one, and he'd get mad and hit another shot, but then he'd always play the first bad shot," said Mr. Reilly. "He had a reporter and a photographer with him, so he was really on his best behavior."

During his Martha's Vineyard vacation in August 1997, Mr. Clinton hammered three straight tee shots into the woods near the first fairway. Afterward, the White House press secretary, Mike McCurry, dutifully reported that the President had carded a seven-over-par 79. Journalists were aghast. They immediately demanded to know how many mulligans the President had taken.

Mr. McCurry, as they say, "declined to comment."

At the time, John Omicinski, a commentator for the Gannett News Service, admonished, "In golf as in life, he's got to learn to take his punishment and learn from his mistakes, rather than covering them up." That was five months before the world was introduced to Monica Lewinsky.

This month, Mr. Clinton presented the Medal of Freedom to Jimmy Carter and his wife, Rosalynn. Mr. Carter seized the opportunity to inform Mr. Clinton about what to expect after he leaves the White House in January 2001.

"You'll be able to play golf without any telephoto lens focusing on your stroke," Mr. Carter, a non-golfer, told the President. "But there is a downside: I understand golfing partners don't give as many mulligans" to ex-Presidents.

Mr. Clinton smiled, but it was a slightly pained smile. Before long, he will have to relinquish his job and all its privileges.

The mulligan, or do-over in golf, is a metaphor for the Clinton Presidency. The President hit this tee shot badly on Martha's Vineyard last week, and promptly teed up again.

It's only his private life - so it really doesn't matter.

1 Posted on 08/29/1999 13:23:49 PDT by Elle Bee (LQQK4LB@home.com)
[ Reply | Top | Last ]

Golfing clubs give Clinton cold shoulder
Security issues, waiting lists, past problems hurt his chances at joining

Steve Holland/Associated Press

Former President Clinton's attempts to join a golf club, such as the prestigious Westchester Country Club, have been stifled by clubs' long waiting lists and reluctance to provide preferential treatment.

By John J. Goldman / Los Angeles Times

NEW YORK -- It is a delicate diplomatic mission, with emissaries making back-channel inquiries to avoid embarrassment.
The initiative is not about Mideast peace, repairing relations with China or forging an arms control agreement with Russia's prime minister.
The goal is getting Bill Clinton into a golf club.
The effort began while the former president still occupied the Oval Office, after he and now-Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, D-N.Y., had bought a home in Westchester County -- a mecca of private courses.
Months later, it is clear that Bill Clinton has a handicap.
Some prestigious clubs such as the Winged Foot Golf Club (site of four U.S. Open championships) and the Westchester Country Club signaled no preferential treatment.
Clinton would have to apply like everyone else. The waiting list at Winged Foot is more than a decade.
Ditto the Mt. Kisco Country Club. And at the Whippoorwill Club, closer to the Clintons' home in Chappaqua, N.Y., the reception was equally chilly. No jumping the line.
It's not just Monica. It's also the mulligans and the problem of post-presidential protection.
"On the one hand, it is a compliment to a club that the former president would be interested in joining," said Peter Landau, historian of St. Andrew's Golf Club in Westchester County and co-author of Presidential Lies: The Presidential History of White House Golf.
"There are a lot of nightmares connected with having a president. If they had (security) dogs sniffing in the ball washers, it would not be a particularly pleasant experience."
Added Chris Hodenfield, editor in chief of Golf & Travel Magazine: "People who belong to these clubs don't like to be told the club is closed off because the president is playing here today. Some presidential interloper comes by with his squadron of walkie-talkies. They just don't like it."
Club admissions committees consider many factors when someone -- even a former president -- applies for membership.
The character not only of the applicant, but of his or her immediate family members, often is weighed, as are the depth of family roots in the community. It helps to have a close and enduring relationship with several club members.
Being viewed as congenial -- and as someone who would use the club regularly -- are definite pluses.
Then there is the issue of the former president's golfing habits.
"When Bill went out to play, they tended to be practice rounds," Hodenfield noted. "He took mulligans. Some people got a little stiff in the neck about that. They would say, 'Is he a golf guy?'
"Clinton fatigue figures in as well. When somebody mentions they belong to a club, they want someone to say an important event happened there, like a U.S. Amateur (Championship). ... It gets down to prestige. Will he lend prestige to our club?"
In a November interview with Golf Digest, Clinton sought to mute criticism of his mulligans.
"My mulligans are way overrated," he said.
The president explained that he lets everyone have an extra shot from the first tee. If someone hits a ball terribly during the round, he will allow another mulligan -- and he will give the other players one as well.
But he said one mulligan every nine holes is his limit.
The boards of directors at some clubs are aware that discussion of Clinton's application could cause splits in the membership.

http://www.detnews.com/2001/politics/0106/01/a06-231032.htm

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.