One From The Heart

By John Greenwald

ATTORNEYS WHO CONTEND THAT DEMOCRATIC PATRIARCH CLARK CLIFFORD, 85, is too ill to stand trial for his alleged role in the B.C.C.I. scandal could well be right. When Clifford sought heart surgery at the Washington Hospital Center in July, doctors quietly determined that his heart was too weak to withstand an operation. "He has practically no heart muscle left," says a medical source. Clifford was later hospitalized briefly for internal bleeding. His lawyers now plan to ask a New York judge to dismiss the charges against him on the ground that the rigors of a trial could cause a fatal heart attack.