Former Foes Bush, Clinton Unite to Make Community Service Push

In a display of political unity, President Clinton hosted his Republican predecessor, George Bush, at the White House on Friday as the former adversaries joined in a call for community service to help solve the nation’s problems.

“Mr. President, welcome back,” Clinton said to Bush, prompting loud applause as the Republican former president strode to the podium.

“Thank you very, very much,” Bush responded. Moments later, a visibly pleased Bush added: “I’m very proud to be a part of this and proud to be at your side in this noble effort. Thank you, sir.”

The official reason for the visit was to announce a “summit” on volunteerism, aimed at boosting corporate and private volunteer efforts across the nation.

Former Presidents Gerald R. Ford and Jimmy Carter have pledged their support for the event, scheduled for April in Philadelphia, as have former First Ladies Nancy Reagan and Lady Bird Johnson. It will be run by retired Army Gen. Colin L. Powell, the White House announced Friday.

Yet the fascinating spectacle of Bush sharing a stage with the president who knocked him out of office four years ago almost overshadowed Friday’s announcement. During the ceremony, Bush gazed at the audience, as if looking for old friends--he later shook hands with a cameraman--and at one point smilingly whispered something to First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton. She and Vice President Al Gore had joined the event.

The former president, 72, wore a walking cast on his right foot, the result of a stretched tendon that he suffered while jogging last month, but appeared fit and cheerful. Since his electoral defeat in 1992, Bush has visited the White House only a few times, such as for the dedication of his portrait in July 1995.

The erstwhile rivals “talk from time to time,” White House Press Secretary Mike McCurry said Friday, although they have not been close since the bitter election contest of 1992. But on Friday, at least, bygones were bygones as the two men basked in a warm, bipartisan glow, with Bush approvingly echoing the words of Clinton’s inaugural address.

“The president spoke of a new sense of responsibility and a new spirit of community. And such is our purpose today,” he said.

The “Presidents’ Summit for America’s Future” in April will send “a simple and strong message. And that is, when it comes to addressing many of the problems we face as a nation, it isn’t a question of partisan politics, of one side against another,” Bush said. “It’s a question of all pulling together for the common good.”

That effort, to be run by Powell, will bring together Bush’s Points of Light Foundation, which assists volunteerism, and the Corp. for Public Service, which has been Clinton’s favored vehicle to promote the cause. Powell attended the White House event, as did former Housing Secretary Henry G. Cisneros, who will serve as vice chairman.

Not long ago, in the chill of the budget battle last winter or the heat of the 1996 election campaign, such bipartisan displays would have been hard to imagine. Yet they have been the norm of late.

Friday’s event came just one week after Clinton reached across party lines to award Bob Dole, his Republican opponent in 1996, the prestigious Medal of Freedom--also in an East Room ceremony. The president has identified bipartisanship as a critical element in his call for national unity, along with an appeal for personal responsibility on the part of citizens.

“Much of the work of America cannot be done by government,” Clinton said, continuing a theme that he voiced in his inaugural address. “Much other work cannot be done by government alone. The solution must be the American people, through voluntary service to others,” Clinton told the gathering of community service advocates and corporate sponsors.

It is also true that national service is a less divisive issue than areas of social spending and health care that have driven apart Democrats and Republicans in the past. By pushing for voluntary service, the president is highlighting a way to solve problems outside the apparatus of federal bureaucracy and without cost to the federal budget, an approach that has obvious appeal to fiscal conservatives, including many Republicans.

The White House on Friday trumpeted some of the “concrete” corporate commitments already made for the effort, including the pledge of Columbia/HCA Healthcare Corp. to immunize 1 million children by 2000, a promise by LensCrafters to provide 1 million needy Americans with vision care by 2003 and the plan of Big Brothers/Big Sisters to double their mentoring relationships to 200,000 by 2000.