The former White House chief of staff, Leon Panetta, is coming to Dublin at the end of the month for the opening of the new offices of the public relations company FleishmanHillard Saunders at Fitzwilliam Quay in Ringsend. The public affairs professor, who has joined the company's advisory board, served eight terms in the House of Representatives and was a popular chief of staff to Bill Clinton during his first term. His return to California, with a view to getting involved in active Democratic politics and running for state governor later this year, was a big loss. It doesn't seem to have worked out, however, and his political career is on hold.
Panetta is credited with pulling things together in the White House when he took over from Mack McLarty, an inexperienced Clinton buddy from Arkansas. He had excellent relations with Congress where he had been an influential figure and helped in the revival of Clinton's fortunes after the Republican rout of 1994 when the Democrats lost majority in both House and Senate. He is seen as lucky to have got out before the Monica Lewinsky affair blew up, but there has been resentment in the Clinton camp that he has not been ardent enough in taking Clinton's side on TV chat shows. He gave evidence to the Kenneth Starr inquiry and still supports Clinton but a suggestion lingers that he had doubts about his leader's profession of innocence.