PRESIDENT'S TOP STRATEGIST QUITS OVER TIES TO CALL GIRL.

Byline: Richard L. Berke The New York Times

Dick Morris, President Clinton's chief campaign adviser and the central force behind the emphasis on family values that had its apex at this week's Democratic convention, announced his resignation Thursday after a tabloid reported that he had a relationship with a call girl.

More than a strategist, Morris had come to be known as a confidant and alter ego of Clinton, and his departure marred Clinton's appearance Thursday night, the big moment of a convention scripted to be his star vehicle.

Beyond his role in helping shape Clinton's address, Morris is widely credited for orchestrating the president's move to the political center. Morris liked to say that he was going to have Clinton run more as ``pope than president,'' by acting as a moral guide for the nation, especially its teen-agers.

The culmination of that effort was to be unveiled here at what until Thursday was a jubilant convention that had gone largely as scripted.

In a statement he issued after he and his wife, Eileen McGann, left Chicago on Thursday morning for their home in Connecticut, Morris did not rebut the accusations or address them specifically.

``While I served I sought to avoid the limelight because I did not want to become the message,'' he said. ``Now, I resign so I will not become the issue. I will not subject my wife, family or friends to the sadistic vitriol of yellow journalism. I will not dignify such journalism with a reply or an answer. I never will.''

Morris already had created unease and jealousy in the White House by a self-promotional campaign that gave him the cover of Time magazine this week with an article suggesting he was the puppeteer of a presidential makeover. His final statement as a campaign strategist reflected the degree to which he saw himself as Clinton's Pygmalion.

``I was deeply honored to help this president come back from being buried in a landslide and to make it possible for him to have a second chance at a second term,'' Morris said.

But Thursday morning, Morris found a far less flattering article about him splashed on the front page of the New York Post. It was based on an upcoming story in Star magazine, the same publication that staggered Clinton's campaign in 1992 with its disclosure of Gennifer Flowers' claims of a longtime affair with the then-governor of Arkansas.

Star said that for a year, Morris met a prostitute each week at the Jefferson Hotel, several blocks from the White House. The article also said Morris allowed the woman, Sherry Rowlands, to eavesdrop on telephone conversations he had with the president and shared confidential campaign information with her.

Star also published a photograph of Morris in an embrace with Rowlands on the balcony of his suite at the hotel, which serves as a Washington residence not only for Morris but for Treasury Secretary Robert Rubin and has been the site for intimate fund-raising events for Clinton.

The 48-year-old Morris, the latest in a series of Clinton aides and friends to fall spectacularly from grace, has known Clinton since he worked on the president's first campaign as governor of Arkansas in 1978. He had the choice spot, sitting next to Clinton at the important weekly political meetings in the White House residence.

His fingerprints can be found all over Clinton's move to the center and support for ``family friendly'' measures in the past year or two. He had pressed successfully for the president to sign the welfare bill last week, for his backing of a balanced budget, for his proposals for school uniforms to instill discipline in classrooms and for V-chips that allow parents to block out violent or sexual content on television programs.

The often-elusive Morris had begun to raise his public profile. A magazine article this week showed him next to a cutout of Clinton's face, with the cover line, ``The Man Who has Clinton's Ear.''

As his White House went into a frenzy of damage control, Clinton, who had been closeted in his hotel suite putting final touches on the speech, issued a statement praising Morris: ``Dick Morris is my friend,'' he said. ``And he is a superb political strategist. I am and always will be grateful for the great contributions he has made to my campaigns and for the invaluable work he has done for me over the last two years.''

White House officials said they were now bracing for Morris' spending of Clinton campaign funds to become an issue. Officials said he drew a monthly fee from the campaign, which also paid for bills at the Jefferson Hotel, where the standard corporate rate is $220 per night.

Earlier this year, White House officials had accused Morris of billing unnecessary expenses at the hotel, including renting videos; he denied the allegations at the time.

Peter Knight, the Clinton campaign manager, said Morris' expenses would be ``looked at very closely by our attorneys.'' He emphasized that Morris ``has now terminated his relationship with the campaign and will be looking at a way to transition out.''

White House officials also tried to cast doubt on the story by pointing out that the publications carrying the article are tabloids. But they refused to comment on details in the article.

Officials who had battled with Morris internally - and were suspicious of him for his work for Republicans including Sen. Jesse Helms of North Carolina - suddenly found themselves in the unaccustomed position of defending him publicly, while playing down his role.

``On a human level, we're all sorry for Dick and his family,'' said George Stephanopoulos, the president's senior adviser. ``At the same time, we have work to do and and we're going to move on. It's a speed bump and not a pothole.''

But privately, some Democratic officials joked about Morris, and expressed concern about how the episode would reflect on the president. Asked Thursday morning how this happened, a senior presidential aide, referring to the extreme ups and downs that have marked Clinton, replied: ``Because it's Bill Clinton.''

Other Democrats sounded relieved that Morris, who before advising Clinton had advised Republican candidates how he could be defeated in 1996, has resigned. ``I wish he had left four or five weeks ago before the welfare bill was signed,'' said Sen. Paul Simon of Illinois. ``He was the one pushing the president to sign the bill.''

Phil Bunton, the editor of Star, insisted in a telephone interview that the story was not timed to coincide with the end of the Democratic convention. He said the article will appear in editions of the weekly magazine that will hit newsstands beginning Friday.

Bunton said that once the magazine contacted Morris about the article Tuesday, they were afraid to hold it any longer. ``It was pure journalistic greed,'' he said, adding, ``We don't really have a view of Clinton and the Democrats - we're really a celebrity magazine.''

Ken Chandler, editor of the New York Post, also denied that his paper timed publishing its article so it would have maximum political impact. ``Any suggestion that the New York Post was aware of the Dick Morris story and delayed reporting it is absolutely false, as is his claim that this was yellow journalism,'' he said in a statement. ``The Post learned of the story Wednesday morning. Post editors were provided with convincing evidence.''

Republicans seized on the controversy, citing Morris' resignation as evidence that the president was never truly committed to family values or the other moves to the center championed by his strategist. Bob Dole, the Republican presidential nominee, vacationing in California, said that without Morris, Clinton would likely ``revert to the liberal Democrat he really is.''

Alex Castellanos, a Republican political consultant who worked with Morris on the Helms campaign six years ago, said: ``Morris had a reputation for being without ethics, that right and wrong did not matter, only whether it worked. He's known for instant political gratification, and that is exactly the Bill Clinton the White House has worked to avoid in the last couple of years.''

CAPTION(S):

2 Photos

PHOTO (1 -- color) ) Dick Morris

Calls story ``yellow jo urnalism''

2) White House press secretary Mike McCurry briefs the press after campaign adviser Dick Morris' resignation.

Associated Press