DEAR BILL: GET WELL

By KAREN TUMULTY

TOP DEMOCRATS have a message for Bill Clinton: Get well soon--really soon. Before the former President was sidelined for quadruple-bypass surgery, Democrats had been planning a full fall schedule for him, stumping the country on behalf of John Kerry and other Democrats. "There's no better surrogate for energizing Democrats in this country than Bill Clinton," says Kerry strategist Joe Lockhart, who was Clinton's White House press secretary.

So when Democratic Party chairman Terry McAuliffe paid a call on the former President in Chappaqua, N.Y., last week--one of the first visitors Clinton has seen since his surgery--there was more than their friendship at work. "I was very respectful of his health situation," McAuliffe says. "However, I did not miss the opportunity to tell him how important it is to get him back on the trail." He said they spent about three hours together at the kitchen table, playing Oh Hell!, one of Clinton's favorite card games. "He beat me both games," McAuliffe says, "and he talked politics the whole time."

Bypass patients can usually return to work within one to two months after their surgery, according to doctors. It has been four weeks since Clinton's surgery, and his recovery seems on schedule. He was seen shopping last week in Chappaqua for low-fat frozen yogurt and getting prescriptions filled at the pharmacy. Sources say the recovering former President has also been devouring news on the presidential race and talking to Kerry by phone at least once a week--and gave him advice before last week's debate. Democrats are hopeful Clinton might be well enough to appear at several fund raisers still scheduled for the end of October, and that, at a minimum, he could record radio ads and automated get-out-the-vote telephone messages. But one obstacle could be Senator Hillary Clinton, who has cautioned allies not to underestimate the physical challenge that still faces her husband in his recovery from serious surgery. --By Karen Tumulty