He's had a celebrated political and legal career, but former Clinton scandal lawyer and Al Gore campaign spokesman Chris Lehane said it wasn't always spotlights and champagne.

On a book-tour stop at the Clinton School of Public Service in Little Rock, Ark., to talk up his "Master of Disaster: The Ten Commandments of Damage Control," Lehane revealed that he got his start in politics when Bill Clinton first entered the New Hampshire primary and he was attending college there.

A call came to Lehane's dorm room one night in 1991, asking if he was ready to make good on a promise to work for the Arkansas governor. Lehane said yes, and found himself at the bottom of the staff ladder.

"My first job for the campaign in New Hampshire was showing folks from Arkansas about how to put lawn signs in the ground after the first frost," said Lehane, who wrote the media report that led Hillary Clinton to proclaim a "vast right-wing conspiracy" was out to get her husband. He's now a crisis management adviser to businesses and sports and entertainment stars.