Buzz's Bedtime Stories

BUZZ’S BEDTIME STORIES: “DRUNK BILL CLINTON & GOLFER GREG” (A THREAD) 1) When I worked for President Clinton I would jog with him early in the morning. I was among a small cadre that included the doctor and the Secret Service jogging detail. I would run just behind the president as part of the Secret Service phalanx posted around him. We’d plod about three miles or so. Through many a jogging morning, the president and I became informal and comfortable with each other. These jogging sessions came to an abrupt end during the early morning of March 14, 1997. The President, senior staff, and I arrived at golfer Greg Norman’s compound at Hobe Sound, just outside of West Palm Beach, Florida, at about midnight. The President had developed a friendship with Norman and was visiting to play in a three-day charity golf tournament. Once we helicoptered in, the President dismissed the doctor and myself to our bungalow and some sleep after what had been a very long day. Clinton was ending the day with the Norman’s over a nightcap and would prepare for an early start in the golf tournament the next morning. Just after one in the morning, I was startled awake by a Secret Service agent banging on my door shouting, “Get up, get up, the president’s down!” The doctor and I looked at each other in shock, fearing the absolute worst. We jumped to our feet, and I threw on the closest clothing I could find-jogging shorts and shoes, a University of North Carolina T-shirt, and a blue blazer. We ran out into Norman’s front yard and found the president sitting on the walkway, pants leg pulled above his knee, in obvious pain. “Buzz,” he said, “I think I hurt myself.” Major Bill Lang, the White House on-duty doctor and an officer in the US Army, looked him over. “Sir,” Bill said, “you’ve torn a tendon in your knee and we need to get you to the hospital fairly quickly.” (CONTINUED)