BOARDMAN Former aide speaks on Clintons, need to move forward

Hillary Clinton is a demanding woman, but it served her well as first lady, a former aide said.
By BOB JACKSON
VINDICATOR STAFF WRITER
BOARDMAN -- Don't look for former first lady Hillary Rodham Clinton to make a bid for the Oval Office, at least not any time soon.
As for what's next for her husband is anyone's guess.
"He's brilliant," said Maggie Williams. "He's such a young person, and he's so gifted. He could do anything."
Williams was the featured speaker Saturday for the Youngstown Area Urban League's 35th annual dinner and awards banquet at Mr. Anthony's Banquet Center. She served as Mrs. Clinton's chief of staff from 1993 to 1997, and was also an assistant to the president at the same time.
Presidential plans? Mrs. Clinton is now a U.S. senator in New York and has been touted by some political observers as a possible presidential candidate. Williams didn't rule it out but doesn't believe it's a priority for the former first lady.
"I think she is just going to concentrate on being a senator. That's a pretty busy job," Williams said.
Mrs. Clinton's reputation as a demanding person is well-deserved, but that shouldn't be perceived as negative, Williams said.
"Her expectations were that if you were going to work for the people of America, she was going to be demanding," Williams said. "It's not a bad thing to be demanding."
A native of Kansas City, Mo., now living in Maryland, Williams said it was her first trip to Youngstown. She had heard of the city's reputation as a mighty steel producer and was disappointed at the industry's demise.
She said Mahoning and Trumbull county officials are on the right track by taking a regional approach to economic recovery and development.
"That is the next big leap in local politics," said Williams, whose own history of political involvement dates to 1977, when she went to work for the late Arizona congressman Morris K. Udall.
She said local governments, counties, and even states must work together to compete with foreign manufacturers and bring about economic growth.
Need to move forward: Political dissatisfaction, as well as economic problems, can also tear at the fabric of a community, she said. Part of her message to the local audience focused on the need to move forward when the political leadership in place isn't the leadership you would have chosen.
It wasn't rooted, though, in last year's contentious presidential election, she said.
"It happens all the time, all over the country," she said. "You can't focus on it. You just have to get behind your leaders and move on."
She has not met President Bush and said she's willing to give his administration a chance to prove itself, though she is concerned about his proposed tax cut. She said it will create a wider chasm between the classes in America.
"You don't want to widen the gap between the haves and the have-nots," Williams said. "I do worry about that gap. I think it threatens our peace in this country."
Hired in September 2000 as president of Fenton Communications in Washington, D.C., Williams said she's happy working in the private sector and has no desire to become a political figure.
"I think politics is a little more vicious than it needs to be," she said, chalking up the nasty nature of the game to politicians forgetting that they are public servants.
"It's become more of a business. They are not putting the people first," she said.