He’s There to Soothe, Not Irritate : A new flap isn’t needed--Clinton aide is right to have quickly quit discriminatory club

David Gergen, the newly appointed White House counselor, is resigning from all boards, commissions and organizations--including the exclusive, men-only Bohemian Club near San Francisco. His resignation is appropriate.

Public officials have no business in clubs that discriminate on the basis of gender, race, religion, national origin or ethnicity.

Those in the business of making public policy--and as counselor to President Clinton no one could argue that Gergen will not have a strong say in doing just that--should not be members in those sorts of restricted clubs.

Clinton found out the continuing intensity of Americans’ feelings about such organizations after he played golf in December at the then racially segregated Country Club of Little Rock. The President later apologized for his lack of sensitivity.

Last month, Clinton’s nominee for the No. 3 job in the Justice Department, Webb Hubbell, resigned his membership in the same club after a similar outcry. Hubbell argued that he had encouraged the club to integrate. However, the first black member, accepted in January, has now moved to Washington to work in the Clinton Administration. Such token integration did not end the perception that the country club remains off-limits to blacks.

It is within that context that Gergen’s resignation from the Bohemian Club is appropriate. He was brought in to help the President get out of a mess, not to heap more problems on Clinton. The President doesn’t need another controversy while he tries to put behind him the mishandling of his nomination of Lani Guinier for the top civil rights job at the Justice Department.

The President and his staff must represent all Americans. That means not participating in clubs that exclude whole groups or sexes.