EX-WHITE HOUSE INTERN REMEMBERS BACK-STABBING

The White House was home to back-stabbing, young staff members a year ago, a former White House intern from Cape Girardeau says.

Christopher Robertson worked as an intern to President Clinton's chief of staff, Erskine Bowles, from January to May of last year. He worked as an intern while a senior at Southeast Missouri State University.

Robertson graduated in May with a degree in philosophy. He currently works for Southeast, advising student organizations.

"I literally worked two doors down from the president in the chief of staff's office," he said. "He would notice me and say hi as he was walking by," Robertson said.

As a former White House intern, Robertson is following with interest the latest scandal involving the president. Clinton is accused of having an affair with former White House intern Monica Lewinsky, who worked as an intern for the chief of staff in 1995. Lewinsky went on to hold a job at the Pentagon.

Robertson said he doesn't know if there is any truth to the allegation. He never met Lewinsky, who preceded him as an intern by two years.

"At this point I can't say there is no way it could happen," said Robertson.

But he said the fact that she ended up with a Defense Department job isn't unusual; many interns end up getting government jobs.

Robertson, 22, said he worked with a number of White House staff members who were in their early 20s.

"They love the get-you, got-you type of stuff," he said.

Robertson said part of the problem is the young age of the staff, many of whom went straight from internships to White House jobs.

"I am fairly pessimistic about a lot of the younger people there," Robertson said. "It really isn't a place for an idealistic person."

Robertson was impressed by Bowles and other senior members of the staff. "They have quite a bit of integrity and character," he said.

He said Bowles did a good job of keeping the staff focused on doing "the people's business."

The White House had one staffer assigned basically to handle "scandal control," Robertson said.

He said he and others in the White House often learned of various scandals through the news media. Robertson said the scandals didn't take center stage in the White House office where he interned.

"It was just kind of a static noise in the background that we really didn't pay that much attention to," he said.

Robertson said there was a lot of turnover among the lower-level staff who worked long hours. The president and senior staff members worked long hours too, he said.

Clinton and Bowles regularly worked well into the evening, he said.

Robertson said some of the clerical staff worked for former President George Bush and then stayed on to work for Clinton.

Those staffers said Bush didn't burn the midnight oil like Clinton has.

"Bush was more a 9-to-5 guy," said Robertson. "When the day was done, he would go play golf."

Robertson helped prepare the daily briefing book for the chief of staff.

At the White House and in the Executive Office Building across the street, televisions were left on all day to catch breaking news. "The entire place would come to a stop for the nightly news shows," he said.

After the news broadcasts, staff members at times would try to find out who the source was for a particular story.

A lot of times the White House purposely leaked stories, Robertson said. Reporters often would quote unnamed sources, but staff members knew who those sources were, Robertson said.