Hi, Duncan!!!
Wow, the Clintonistas are floating all sorts of potential defensive strategies, and I think all of them are going to please only a certain small faction of the American public, but disturb the rest of us. Certainly, feminists and Bubba types and persecuted Jews might fall for a little of one explanation or another, for awhile, but I don't think anything will stick either, because it is not the truth, and I think the more different versions they try to float, the more obvious the lying strategies will become.
I guess the best strategy at the moment is to obfuscate and delay, hoping that the upcoming war in Iraq will capture the national attention. I said several weeks ago, over at Feelings I think, that the sexual addiction strategy might actually be clever and effective. I am not condoning it as a strategy, because I have had enough of this mess and am personally offended at being lied to, but I do believe Clinton is a sex addict, and if he came clean with the American people, apologized profusely to them and to his wife and child, who have been hurt deeply, and promised to seek treatment for his problems, most people would forgive him. He still has a lot of charisma, and Americans are a forgiving people. The truth is usually the fastest way out of a disaster. The original strategy, that no one would come forward to support Lewinsky's story, is obviously not working, because Starr is corroborating the information on the tapes.
I am sure you noticed that Newsweek noted that the president's support is a mile wide but an inch deep. It could all fall apart very quickly. I have heard rumors in the media these last twenty-four hours that McCurry may resign. It would only take a few episodes like this to start a slippage in Clinton's popularity that might end in an avalanche. I am still not sure whether he was just musing aloud, or floating a trial strategy, but I do think he is one of Clinton's more ethical aides, and it would only take a couple of them leaving to change public opinion drastically.
Of note, and as an aside, since you brought it up, I have been reading Time since I was ten years old. It seemed to be by far the most well respected weekly newsmagazine, but I noticed several years ago that its stories were not as interesting or well written as Newsweek's, and certainly in this crisis, Time is not even in the running. What do you think happened?
I found this article very interesting, because is is a reminder that Starr is not focused simply on the sex scandal, but is moving broadly in his investigation:
Starr Asks High Court Not to Tie Up
Foster Lawyer's Notes
By Richard Carelli
Associated Press
Wednesday, February 18, 1998; Page A07
Whitewater prosecutor Kenneth W. Starr urged the Supreme Court
yesterday not to slow his effort to get notes from a meeting White House
aide Vincent W. Foster Jr. had with his lawyer nine days before Foster's
1993 suicide.
Starr is trying to determine whether presidential aides lied about first lady
Hillary Rodham Clinton's role in a White House purge of its travel office
staff. She has said she had no role.
Foster's 1993 conversation with lawyer Jim Hamilton focused on those
firings, but Hamilton is claiming an attorney-client privilege against
disclosure. Last month, he asked the Supreme Court to help him keep his
three pages of notes out of Starr's hands.
In a response filed Tuesday, Starr argued that no such privilege of
confidentiality exists once a client dies. And he told the justices that
granting Hamilton's appeal will only "delay an important grand jury
investigation which touches on vital matters of public concern."
"Delay of this magnitude seriously impedes a grand jury investigation,"
Starr wrote. "This court's review . . . would cause further lengthy delays."
A federal appeals court ruled that Hamilton's notes are not necessarily
protected by the attorney-client privilege. The appeals court, by a 2 to 1
vote, ordered that a federal trial judge study the notes and determine
whether they should be surrendered to the Whitewater grand jury that
subpoenaed them 26 months ago.
Starr noted that the appeals court ruling is the first federal appellate ruling
on whether the attorney-client privilege extends beyond the grave.
Starr's attempt to shoot down Hamilton's Supreme Court case was
opposed in two friend-of-the-court briefs submitted Tuesday in behalf of
the American Bar Association, National Association of Criminal Defense
Lawyers, American Corporate Counsel Association and National
Hospice Organization.
Documents unsealed by the appeals court last month offered a glimpse
into Foster's talk with Hamilton about the impending travel office
investigations.
In their conversation on July 11, 1993, "Vince was troubled about this and
about the effect on his reputation and others," Hamilton recalled last June.
Foster was found dead on July 20, 1993, of what authorities determined
was a self-inflicted gunshot wound.
Although Hillary Clinton has denied any part in the travel office firings, a
draft memo by a former White House aide belatedly given to Whitewater
investigators in 1996 says the first lady was behind the dismissals.
c Copyright 1998 The Washington Post Company
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