Clinton Tour Returns to Arkansas

Wednesday, January 17th 2001, 12:00 am

By: News On 6

LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (AP) â€” In a sentimental journey home, Bill Clinton made his final trip as president to Arkansas, where he was thanking voters for electing him attorney general once, governor five times and twice helping him become president.

The latest stop on his extended farewell to the presidency took Clinton to the white-marbled state Capitol for a Wednesday afternoon speech to the Legislature and, later, to an airport send-off open to the public.

It was a poignant trip from the start.

When Clinton arrived at Andrews Air Force Base in Maryland to depart for Arkansas he was greeted by his entire ground support and flight crew wearing navy blue jackets and jumpers. They took a group photograph with Clinton before the president boarded the plane. As Air Force One took off, the crew stood in line on the tarmac and saluted in sequence, like a row of dominoes.

On the plane, the president poked around the door of the press cabin and said, ``You got anybody you want to pardon?''

He joked that ``everybody in America either wants somebody pardoned or a national monument'' in his last days in office. Clinton created seven new national monuments before leaving for the trip.

``I feel great,'' Clinton said. of the trip. ``I'm glad my last trip is going home to the legislature, the place where I was inaugurated governor five times.''

Soon to be the 42nd former president of the United States, Clinton is flailing into the sunset: He visited New Hampshire and Michigan in recent days to tour other political stomping grounds.

``The president has a deep and abiding commitment to Arkansas â€” his home state â€” and he wanted to thank the people there for helping make it possible for him to be the president of the United States and serve his country over the last eight years,'' White House press secretary Jake Siewert said.

Wednesday's five-hour trip was sure to recall the best and worst of his presidency. A few blocks southeast of the Capitol is the governor's mansion, where Clinton lived on and off for 12 years. The same distance to the northeast lies the Old Statehouse, where he announced his candidacy in 1992; the Excelsior Hotel, where he met Paula Jones; and the site of his yet-to-be-built presidential library.

Clinton plans to build an apartment in the library, and split his time as a restless retiree between Arkansas, Washington and New York.

Born is Hope, Ark., and raised in rowdy Hot Springs, Ark., Clinton returned from college in Washington and Oxford, England, to run for Congress in 1974. He lost, but a solid showing against a Republican incumbent paved way for Clinton to win the attorney general's race two years later.

In 1978, at 32, he became the nation's youngest governor, but lasted only one term after striking voters as arrogant and liberal. He asked Arkansans to forgive him, and they did â€” returning Clinton to the governor's office in 1982, where he stayed for the next decade while plotting his race for the White House.

Clinton polarized voters in Arkansas like he would as president, eking out victories over a series of poor opponents in a state steadily turning Republican. He twice carried Arkansas as a candidate for the White House, though many Arkansans now believe the far-flung Whitewater inquiry hurt the state more than his presidency helped.

``We thought Arkansas was going to have its day in the sun. I think we've had our day under a toxic cloud,'' said University of Arkansas political science professor Hoyt Purvis.

He is still a potent political figure in his home state. Clinton's 11th-hour campaign trip to southeast Arkansas helped Democratic congressional candidate Mike Ross defeat GOP incumbent Jay Dickey in November, and some Democrats argue that Vice President Al Gore would have won the state had he allowed Clinton to campaign in Arkansas more often.

Siewert dismissed a reporter's suggestion that Gore's loss in Arkansas reflected poorly on Clinton.

``I'm not going to get back into an analysis of who voted for whom, when, but the people of Arkansas obviously made their own decisions about who they wanted to support in the election,'' Siewert said. ``They overwhelmingly supported President Clinton in '92 and in '96. They elected him governor a number of times, elected him attorney general.''

Democratic consultant Bill Paschall said Clinton rubbed many Arkansas voters the wrong way, but even his foes found some measure of pride in his accomplishments on the national stage.

``Any bad feelings that exist from when he was governor or from when he was president will fade away as people say, `We had a president from Arkansas and we should be proud of that,''' he said.