Respond

March 1999 - Volume 31 Issue 3

Roman Genn

Did you know that Monica Lewinsky and her pals used code names? She and Betty Currie used the name "Kay" when leaving pager messages for each other. Linda Tripp's code name for Lewinsky was "Mary." Michael Isikoff was "Harvey" to Linda Tripp and "Spikey" to her literary agent Lucianne Goldberg, according to Alicia Shepard's profile of Isikoff in last December's issue of American Journalism Review.

What's George Stephanopoulos going to reveal in his forthcoming book? We got a hint in Little, Brown's spring '99 catalogue: "George clung to the vision of what a Clinton presidency could be, even as he began to see the hidden, dark compartments in the man." And guess "whose combative instincts were, sadly, behind many of her husband's missteps"?

Alexander Butterfield, who Watergate aficionados will recall as the man who blew the whistle on Richard Nixon's taping system, recently revealed another White House secret. The 50,000 telegrams and 30,000 letters that seemed to represent overwhelming public support of Nixon's "silent majority" speech in 1969 were in fact the product of a campaign Butterfield, then a White House staffer, had helped arrange. He solicited what the Associated Press describes as "accolades to be sent after the speech by members of labor unions, the Veterans of Foreign Wars and the American Legion, and by Air Force retirees, governors, and state Republican chairmen."

Sen. John Breaux, the president of the Alfalfa Club, a once-a-year Washington gathering of really big biggies, told this story to the group's most recent conclave in January: "The pope asked Clinton to help him out and say something positive about religion. So Clinton went out, had a press conference, and endorsed the Nine Commandments."

Sen. John McCain is back again this year with his bill to add more flights to Washington's overcrowded Reagan National Airport including - cynics suspect this is the legislation's main purpose - twenty-four that could go beyond the 1,250 mile limit that now prevents the senator from catching a non-stop flight to Arizona from National, which is only 15 minutes from his Senate office. We can't help wondering if this means that the senator is not entirely confident that he will be flying home on Air Force One which is housed at Andrews Air Force Base, only five minutes by helicopter from the White House lawn. If conservatives control the Republican nomination, McCain is wise not to count on having Air Force One at his disposal. His name does not even appear in a news report about the potential presidential candidates who attracted votes in a straw poll taken at the 26th annual Conservative Political Action Conference. According to The Washington Times, Gary Bauer led with 28 percent, followed by George W. Bush with 24 percent, and Steve Forbes with 10 percent.

It turns out that Tom DeLay, who may well be Bill Clinton's-tormentor-in-chief, is not above giving a little misleading testimony himself. In July 1994, he testified under oath that he had not been the chairman of the board of the Albo Pest Control company. But House documents filed by DeLay show he was chairman in 1991, 1992, and 1993. In a similar vein, a "60 Minutes" broadcast on Feb. 7th embarrassed Ken Starr by showing he had justified perjury and obstruction of justice when they were committed by his client, General Motors.

If you're a mite surprised that Bauer beat Bush, Reuters has an explanation: Bauer's organization offered to pay the $90 registration fee of the social conservative activists who were likely to support him.

If you want a glimpse into the minds of the social conservatives who hate Bill Clinton, consider this remark Congressman Chris Cannon recently made to the Salt Lake Tribune : "The administration has had as a policy goal the public discussion of weird sex. He didn't fire Jocelyn Elders until after she said some really weird things and said them many times. She talked about self-abuse. Sex when you're alone."

Students of the Independent Counsel's tactics have wondered why Ken Starr backed out of the immunity agreement his staff had negotiated with Monica Lewinsky last February, since the testimony she offered then was almost identical to what she later gave in August. According to The Washington Post's Susan Schmidt, the reason Starr reneged is that Lewinsky had made one last minute change in her testimony about the time Bill Clinton told her that if she was asked about why she had been coming to his office she "should say she was bringing him lettersŠ or visiting Betty Currie." The change Lewinsky made was to make clear that Clinton said this before she received a subpoena to testify in the Paula Jones case. Why did the changes upset Starr? Because, a lawyer friend tells us, there would have been nothing criminal about an attempt to conceal the affair before the subpoena had been issued. Afterwards, it would have been obstruction of justice. Starr, it appears, did not want to hear exculpatory evidence. Doesn't this remind you of the how the Starr report tried to conceal Lewinsky's "No one asked me to lie" statement?

Those who were sure that Jesse "The Body" Ventura would fall on his face the minute he entered the governor's mansion turned out to be wrong. He survived his first month in the job with an approval rating of 72 percent, according to a poll conducted by the Minneapolis-St. Paul Star Tribune and KMSP-TV. No governor in the polls' 50 year history has received a higher rating.

"With power comes perks," writes Stephen Green of Copley News Service, who proceeds to enumerate the goodies coming to Dennis Hastert as new Speaker of the House. For starters he gets a $38,700 raise plus a $25,000 entertainment allowance, a limousine and driver, 32 employees of his own, plus the power to name officials with authority over 800 other House staffers. The new leader also acquires "two luxurious suites" in the Capitol Building in addition to his regular congressional offices in the Rayburn Building.

Over the Clinton years, we've read a number of stories about the President's engaging friend from his high school days, Carolyn Staley. She has remained loyal to Clinton throughout his many troubles - with just one exception. After the August 17 speech, she told The Wall Street Journal's Jeanne Cummings, she was shaken and even wondered about the president's critics: "Maybe they're rightŠ That was pretty much the bottom." But then what Cumming describes as "the zeal exhibited by Mr. Clinton's opponents" rallied her again to the president's support. We suspect that this was true of many people. The irony of Monicagate may turn out to be that Bill Clinton was saved by his enemies.

~Susan Threadgill