With A Roar And A Sting -- What Astrology Has To Say About Bill And Hillary, A Leo And A Scorpio

We already know more than we want to about President-elect Bill Clinton's draft status and Hillary Clinton's chocolate-chip cookies. But what about the important stuff - their zodiac signs?

Don't laugh - Nancy Reagan wouldn't let the dog out without checking her horoscope, and even President Reagan wouldn't make a major decision without consulting their presidential astrologer.

So what do the stars hold for the new First Couple? Here goes:

BILL CLINTON: AUG. 19, 1946

He's a Leo, the sign of the lion, and with his mane of hair, close-set eyes and proud bearing, he looks like the king of the jungle. And - no surprise - during the campaign he exhibited many of the traits associated with his sign.

Bill Clinton may be warm, gracious and attractive, but he also needs to please everybody and be loved (no Gennifer Flowers jokes, please). He's high-minded and competitive and likes to lead, and he has energy to burn. The Clinton campaign took the high road because Leos believe pettiness is beneath their dignity. That's something George Bush, a Gemini, didn't worry about.

Leo is the sign of the performer. Think of Madonna (Aug. 16, 1958) and Mick Jagger (July 26, 1944) and you get the idea. Bill wearing dark glasses and playing the saxophone on "Arsenio Hall" said it all. And his playful identification with Elvis during the convention and campaign was Clinton, the rock-'n'-roll wannabe.

After Jan. 20, 1993, expect to see rockers storming the White House - and country singers, jazz musicians and Hollywood actors, too, unless Hillary objects. Bill appreciates performers and loves a good show: The setting of his election-night victory speech at the Old State House in Little Rock was a cross between "Gone With the Wind" and "Bob Roberts." As a spectacle it would have made Leo movie czar Cecil B. DeMille blink.

Politically, being a Leo has its pluses and its minuses. Leo is what's known as a "fixed" sign of the zodiac - that's astrologese for stubborn. Once Bill made up his mind to be president, nothing was going to get in his way. Not Gennifer Flowers, not Paul Tsongas' pander bear attacks, not Jesse Jackson and Sister Souljah, not the relentless attacks on his draft status, judgment, loyalty and character.

So we know that Bill has the strength and stamina to win a grueling presidential race, but what kind of president will he be?

There have been many famous leaders in history who are Leos - and most have been overbearing and tyrannical. Napoleon, Mussolini and Castro come to mind. But our Leo president-elect has a heavy concentration of planets in Libra, the sign of "balance." So he knows that compromise and consensus-building is the way to rule, not chest-thumping and saber-rattling.

Bill has his work cut out for him, because in presidential politics his sign has had a dismal record. The U.S. has had only two Leo presidents: Herbert Hoover, who got blamed for the Depression, was booted out after one term and will always be considered a pariah; and Benjamin Harrison. All I can remember about him is that he looked like one of the Smith Brothers, but he wasn't smart enough to invent the cough drop.

More unsettling news for the president-elect is that the country has always gone ga-ga over Aquarius, Leo's opposite sign. Aquarius represents independence, that good, old-fashioned American idea, while Leo symbolizes royalty, that good, old-fashioned un-American idea.

Compare our Aquarius presidents - Lincoln, FDR, Reagan - to the Leos leaders listed above. No contest.

One more warning: Leos love to spend money, which is fine as long as Bill spends his own and not ours.

HILLARY CLINTON: OCT. 26, 1947

The First Lady-to-be is a Scorpio, the most feared and misunderstood sign of the zodiac. Hillary, thrashed and bashed at the Republican Convention, is already on the precipice of unpopularity - and she hasn't even begun to redecorate the White House.

Actually, Scorpios are not famous for spending money, so that's not likely to be an issue. What will be an issue is her sharp tongue: Scorpios usually don't have a lot to say, but when they do speak, someone is left bleeding (remember Spiro Agnew). Hillary has already shown a tendency to say the wrong thing, infuriating first the country music constituency - "I'm not sitting here - some little woman standing by her man like Tammy Wynette" - and then America's homemakers - "I suppose I could have stayed home and baked cookies and had teas."

So as First Lady, Hillary will have to watch her tongue. She has Mercury retrograde in her astrological chart, meaning she has a tendency to speak before she thinks. Indeed, she has a typically intense Scorpio way of making her point - with a sting - and this can be used against her. Even her writings are not safe: Look what the Republicans did with her scholarly tract defending children's rights. In their hands it wound up being a call to arms for every kid in the country to sue his parents.

By now you've probably gotten the impression that Scorpio is a complicated sign with a built-in PR problem. (Yes, we're talking about you, Mike Dukakis.) They can't help being intense. (Martin Scorsese, director of "Taxi Driver" and "Raging Bull," is one.) Often they have something to hide. (Take a bow, Gary Hart.) Or, worse, they look as if they have something to hide. (Hello, Tom Harkin.) They can act like pit bulls. (Raise your hand, Pat Buchanan.)

But it is possible for a Scorpio to win over the public. Katharine Hepburn has pulled it off, although it did take roughly 50 years. Unfortunately Hillary has only four - maybe eight - to turn it around.

For those Scorpios who are starting to get their dander up, let's move on to some positive stuff.

Scorpios are intelligent, committed, passionate and capable of great feats of concentration. They know how to handle money (many bankers are Scorpios). They can deal with life-and-death issues (many doctors are Scorpios). They have the power to turn a bad

situation into a good one.

This sounds more like the Hillary Clinton we'll see in the White House. She'll transform the role of First Lady into a powerful activist position. She'll be a lot like Eleanor Roosevelt and nothing like Nancy Reagan.

She'll have to do this without turning off the public, which likes First Ladies to be grandmotherly, like Barbara Bush; invisible, like Pat Nixon; or apolitical fashion stars, like Jackie Kennedy.

Here's some advice for Hillary: Act more like fellow Scorpio Theodore Roosevelt ("Speak softly and carry a big stick") and less like fellow Scorpio Marie Antoinette ("Let them eat chocolate-chip cookies").

Peter Accardi writes "Dr. Destiny," an astrological advice column that appears twice a month in Bay Windows, a Boston weekly. He is a member of the Boston Globe staff.