Hillary Goes House-Hopping

The Washington Times reports that the soon-to-be-former first lady, soon to be New York's new Democratic senator, is cruising for a move on up to one of the District of Columbia's most-costly, exclusive neighborhoods, Georgetown or Kalorama, on the opposite side of the nation's capital from its impoverished, black slums.

According to a Monday story in the Times:

Hillary should have little trouble qualifying for a mortgage.

First, if reports in some of the New York press are to be believed, she should be able to pocket something of a profit from the sale of the swanky, $7.5 million residence in Chappaqua, N.Y., that she and her spouse, President Clinton, have now put on the market.

The clincher, though, should be the $8 million advance she signed to sit down and write her memories for Simon & Schuster.

It's the second-largest advance ever for a book, almost equaling the $8.5 million Pope John Paul II is reported to have received for his "Crossing the Threshold of Hope."

Washington is abuzz, or at least the realty circles are, with rumors of not whether but where Hillary will light.

The only speculation seems to be over which tony neighborhood she will favor with her selection or whether she will buy or rent.

Susan Berger, a District of Columbia realty agent who happens to be the wife of President Clinton's national security adviser, Samuel R. Berger, confided in the press that she's been showing rentals to the new senator in areas where the monthly rent runs around $5,000, not including lights, water and garbage.

That sort of conflicts with a rumor that the Clintons are buying the posh Auchincloss house on 29th Street, N.W., across from O Street, N.W., in Georgetown, near Christ Episcopal Church. It has a window sticker of $4.3 million.

The first lady's excursion into the world of megabucks books isn't going down too well with those on Capitol Hill who look upon her arrival in their midst with something less than joy.

• Senate Majority Whip Don Nickles, R-Okla., said, "We want to treat her with great respect, and, as long as she abides by the rules of the Senate, I don't think she'll have any problems.

"We do have restrictions [in Senate conflict-of-interest rules] on outside earned income. And I don't know that those rules were even contemplated with anything of this [$8 million] magnitude."

• Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott, R-Miss., said, "I thought the abuse of [former House Speaker] Newt Gingrich a few years ago" over a $4.5 million advance he was offered for his book was uncalled for, so "I'm a little bit hesitant to be critical here."

Gingrich gave back his advance under a barrage of denunciation from Democrats.

• Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., has suggested that the ethics committee might want to take a hard look at the new senator's book contract.

Two government watchdog groups, Common Cause and the Congressional Accountability Project, have called upon the first lady to take only royalties from sales of the book, not the advance.

She has said she plans to donate some of the money to charity.