I did my best to convince her there was nothing...
I did my best to convince her there was nothing she could have done, all the while wondering what I could have doneThen Mack and I went over to Vinces house to be with the familyWebb and Suzy Hubbell were there, as were several of Vinces friends from Arkansas and the White HouseI tried to console everyone, but I was hurting too, and feeling, as I had when Frank Aller killed himself, angry at Vince for doing it and angry at myself for not seeing it coming and doing something, anything, to try to stop itI was also sad for all my friends from Arkansas who had come to Washington wanting nothing more than to serve and do good, only to find their every move second-guessedNow Vince, the tall, handsome, strong, and self-assured person they felt was the most stable of them all, was gone

For whatever reason, Vince came to the end of his ropeIn his briefcase, Bernie Nussbaum found a note that had been torn into little piecesWhen put back together, it said, I was not meant for the job in the spotlight of public life in WashingtonHere ruining people is considered sportThe public will never believe the innocence of the Clintons and their loyal staffVince was overwhelmed, exhausted, and vulnerable to attacks by people who mulberry bags didnt play by the same rules he didHe was rooted in the values of honor and respect, and uprooted by those who valued power and personal assault moreAnd his untreated depression stripped him of the defenses that allowed the rest of us to survive

The next day I spoke to the staff, telling them that there are things in life we cant control and mysteries we cant understand; that I wanted them to take more care with themselves, their friends, and their families; and that we couldnt deaden our sensitivities by working too hardThat last bit of advice had always been easier for me to give than to take

We all went to Little Rock for Vinces funeral at StAndrews Catholic Cathedral, then drove home to Hope, to lay Vince to rest in the cemetery where my grandparents and father were buriedMany people with whom wed gone to kindergarten and grade school were thereBy then, I had given up trying to understand Vinces depression and suicide in favor of accepting them and being grateful for his lifeIn my eulogy at the funeral, I tried to capture all of Vinces wonderful qualities, what he meant to all of us, how much good hed done at the White House, and how profoundly honorable he wasI quoted from Leon Russells moving A Song for prada handbags sale You: I love you in a place where theres no space or timeI love you for in my life you are a friend of mine

It was summertime, and the watermelon crop had begun to come inBefore I left town, I stopped at Carter Russells place and sampled both the red- and yellow-meated onesThen I discussed the finer points of Hopes main product with the traveling press, who knew I needed a respite from the pain and were uncommonly kind to me that dayI flew back to Washington thinking Vince was home, where he belonged, and thanking God that so many people cared about him

The next day, July 24, I welcomed the current class of American Legion Boys Nation senators to the White House, on the thirtieth anniversary of my coming to the Rose Garden to meet President KennedyA number of my fellow delegates were also there for the reunionAl Gore was lobbying hard for our economic plan, but he broke away for a couple of minutes to tell the boys, I have only one word of adviceIf you can manage somehow to get a picture of you shaking hands with President Clinton, it might come in handy later onI shook hands and posed for pictures with all of them, as I would do in six of my eight years in the White House, for both Boys and Girls NationI hope replicas bolsas some of those photos turn up in campaign ads one day

I spent the rest of the month and the early days of August lobbying individual representatives and senators on the economic planRoger Altmans war room was working the public side, having me do telephone press conferences in states whose members of Congress could go either wayAl Gore and the cabinet were making literally hundreds of calls and visitsThe outcome was uncertain, and tilting away from us, for two reasonsThe first was Senator David Borens proposal to scrap any energy tax; keep most, but not all, of the taxes on the high-income Americans, and make up the difference by eliminating much of the Earned Income Tax Credit; reduce the cost-of-living adjustments for Social Security and military and civilian pensions; and cap expenditures for Medicare and Medicaid below the projected requirements for new recipients and cost increasesBoren couldnt pass his proposal out of committee, but he gave Democrats from conservative states a place to goIt was also endorsed by Democratic senator Bennett Johnston of Louisiana and Republican senators John Danforth of Missouri and Bill Cohen of Maine

When the budget had first passed, 5049, with Al Gore breaking the tie, tiffany co jewelry Bennett Johnston had voted against it, along with Sam Nunn, Dennis DeConcini of Arizona, Richard Shelby of Alabama, Richard Bryan of Nevada, and Frank Lautenberg of New JerseyShelby was already drifting toward the Republican Party in an increasingly Republican state; Sam Nunn was a hard no; DeConcini, Bryan, and Lautenberg were worried about the anti-tax mood in their statesAs Ive said, I had made it the first time without them because two senators, one Republican and one Democrat, didnt voteThe next time, they would all show upWith all the Republicans against us, if Boren voted no and none of the others changed, I would lose 5149Besides those six, Senator Bob Kerrey was also saying he might vote against the programOur relationship had been strained by the presidential campaign, and Nebraska was a heavily Republican stateStill, I was optimistic about Kerrey because he was genuinely committed to reducing the deficit, and he was very close to the Senate Finance Committee chairman, Pat Moynihan, who was strongly supporting my plan

In the House of Representatives, I had a different problemEvery Democrat knew he or she had maximum leverage, and many were bargaining with me over details of the plan or for help on specific chanel white watches is