Bill Clinton Prepares for New Life

CHAPPAQUA, N.Y. (AP) â€” It's time for Bill Clinton to learn how the garbage disposal works. <br><br>Soon after he becomes an ex-president on Saturday, Clinton is also likely to find out what it's

Friday, January 19th 2001, 12:00 am

By: News On 6

CHAPPAQUA, N.Y. (AP) â€” It's time for Bill Clinton to learn how the garbage disposal works.

Soon after he becomes an ex-president on Saturday, Clinton is also likely to find out what it's like to walk the dog in the rain, misplace the house keys and watch helplessly as a desktop computer crashes.

A few hours after leaving 1600 Pennsylvania Ave., Clinton will come home to Chappaqua, to a much more ordinary white house. It will be his first unsubsidized residence in two decades.

He has been paying for the house for over a year â€” it gave his wife, Hillary Rodham Clinton, standing to run for the Senate â€” and he has spent several nights there. But he always had something else to do, always had that other place in D.C., always had Air Force One parked at the Westchester County Airport.

This time, it's not just a visit. On Saturday, the plane is going back to Washington without him. The former first lady will shortly have business in Washington. And Clinton will be knocking around a new suburban home.

White House spokesman Jake Siewart joked on Friday that Clinton would be spending all day Monday â€” and Tuesday â€” ``awaiting the arrival of the Westchester County cable guy.''

``An ex-president finds out quickly that his status in American life has gone down by a couple of notches,'' said Douglas Brinkley, author of ``The Unfinished Presidency: Jimmy Carter's Journey Beyond the White House.''

``Suddenly you have to start learning to use the garbage disposal and deal with a VCR. As much as the Clintons are making money, they don't have the luxury of a real working staff to live with them.''

The Clintons aren't falling as far in the social ranks as some: Carter came home to Plains, Ga., to find his roof leaking and his peanut warehouse in debt.

The Clintons bought the $1.7 million Dutch colonial in one of New York's most exclusive suburbs, plus a $2.85 million five-bedroom home on Embassy Row in Washington.

His-and-hers book deals promise enough to pay the mortgage and retire their $4 million legal debts. Courtesy of the taxpayers, Clinton gets a $157,000 annual pension plus Secret Service protection, office space and office staff. He is looking at some pricey office space in Manhattan.

Clinton also gets a car and a driver, though he hinted Wednesday that he might take his retired 1967 Mustang out of storage ``and start driving a little bit.''

``It's still royalty. It's not the life of an ordinary citizen,'' said Gilbert Robinson, national director of the Center for the Study of the Presidency in Washington.

Nevertheless, it may be impossible to get the level of all-around personal care that the Clintons were accustomed to in the White House.

``They'll probably have a maid, but believe me, it won't be the same as in the White House, where there's a highly organized, very professional staff,'' Robinson said.

Clinton, who has occasionally flashed an American Express card as president, will have to get used to carrying cash. Carter once had to borrow a dime from a librarian in Georgia because he had gone out without cash and wanted to make a photocopy, Brinkley said.

When Dwight Eisenhower left the White House in 1961, ``he didn't even know how to manage a simple telephone call,'' Brinkley said. As a military officer and as president, ``Ike just had to say, `Get me so-and-so on the line' and it was done. In one of his first days back at Gettysburg, he picked up the phone and ended up having an aide teach him how to dial, and how you need an area code for long distance.''

Brinkley said that in the recent past, ``there's almost been a formula: You take a little bit of time after you leave office to rest. You start trying to get your presidential library open. And then you work on a memoir.''

Clinton says he will rest, all right. ``I need to be out of here for a while and get a few nights' sleep,'' he said recently. There will be golf, of course, on Westchester's top-flight courses. And Clinton plans to put in plenty of time on his planned presidential library in Little Rock, Ark.

But at 54, the youngest ex-president since Theodore Roosevelt has said taking a job ``won't do me any harm.''

``I'm going to try to find some way to work in areas that I cared most about as president without getting underfoot of the next president,'' he said last month. In his farewell speech Thursday night, he said he hoped his ``days of service'' were not over.

Many expect Clinton to be an enormous political presence in New York and Washington.

Jim Cavanaugh, chairman of the Westchester County Republican Committee, said he foresees fund-raising parties being held at the Chappaqua home for people running for all sorts of things.

``I'm sure the president will be part of it,'' Cavanaugh said. ``But it's yet to be seen how much time he really spends in Westchester. Between Washington and New York and the library and a couple of trips to Hollywood, I'm sure he'll have a presence here â€” but I think it'll be far from full time, which is fine with me.''

The guys at Lange's Little Store wouldn't mind seeing the ex-president every day. The deli has been one of Clinton's favorite stops in Chappaqua. He favors coffee, egg sandwiches and muffins, said manager George Haletzky.

``I'm hoping he'll be jogging down the road and stop in every day,'' Haletzky said.

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On the Net: Center for the Study of the Presidency, http://www.thepresidency.org