It was exactly a decade ago in February that the impeachment trial of President Clinton ended and I left the White House Counsel’s office, and with the arrival of a new President and staff, I thought this might be a good time to give my words of wisdom for any incoming Chief Executive. I am going to do this over a series of postings, and talk about the problems I faced as I was trying to protect and defend the reputation of the President in face of a wide variety of political and legal controversies. A few caveats. First, because everything I did at the time was subject to subpoena by both the offices of the Independent Counsels and by the Republican-controlled Congressional investigating committees, I did not take notes or create any sort of diary at the time. Thus, this is my best recollection, and I welcome any comments and complaints if I get anything a little wrong. Second, this is not intended to settle any old scores. I am not in the business of trashing colleagues or political adversaries. Finally, political scandals are inevitable in Washington. No matter how conscientious President Obama and his team try to be in implementing ethics rules, political adversaries will attempt to exploit any opening by any of the thousands... 

Urged on by the handful of loyal readers of DamageContro101, one of my New Year’s resolutions is to do a better job of updating this blog. Please feel free to hound me whenever possible. So here goes. I have been wracking my brain trying to figure out this whole Bernie Madoff thing. Not the part about how could his investors have been so greedy, not recognized the warning signs, allowed themselves to be ruined, etc. (full disclosure—my parents invested a small sum of money with Madoff several decades ago, and their accountant, upon seeing the sparse annual statement, told them it was highly suspicious and to get out, which they did). I will leave it to the armchair psychologists for that analysis. As a damage control specialist, what I don’t understand is why Madoff didn’t have an exit strategy. When asked what the person should have done in cases where guilt with criminal consequences is inescapable (think Spitzer, as another example, or read MSNBC Legal Analyst Dan Abram’s assessment of the Illinois Governor’s predicament on the DailyBeast.com), my advice tends toward the “leave the country” variety. In other words, when it is clear that you can’t talk your way out of this one,...