Battening the Hatches in Arkansas

By JANICE CASTRO/

Bill Clinton likes to say his critics simply do not know him well enough. Now he's taking pains to make sure those who know him best take a kindly view. BETSEY WRIGHT, his former chief of staff, has left a fellowship at Harvard's Kennedy School for a new assignment as Clinton's spin doctor -- in Arkansas. Clinton has been battered by critical stories in the national press, and some have been echoed in local papers. Wright has been barraging local reporters with faxes and phone calls, claiming the national papers are Arkansas bashers that often get their facts wrong. The strategy seems to be working. Some longtime home-state critics are starting to pull their punches.

With reporting by Wendy Cole