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Politics : Did Slick Boink Monica? -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Lady Lurksalot who wrote (6897)	2/15/1998 2:03:00 AM
From: Zoltan!	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 20981

Electronic Telegraph Sunday 15 February 1998 Issue 996 Clinton to unleash 'sexual deterrent' against accusers By Ivo Dawnay External Links George Stephanopoulos biography - ABC News A Guide to the Monica Lewinsky Story - The Coffee Shop Times Crisis in the White House - ABC News Drudge Report Watergate 25th Anniversary - The Washington Post PRESIDENT Clinton is planning to launch an "explosive" counter-strike against his enemies by disclosing their sexual peccadillos if the Monica Lewinsky scandal threatens to unseat him, according to a former aide. At the same time, speculation is mounting in Washington legal circles that Mr Clinton may simply sack Kenneth Starr if the White House-inspired campaign against the Independent Counsel gains sufficient momentum. Meanwhile, within the White House, Hillary Clinton has largely wrestled policy making from her husband, according to another former aide. "The bargain is clear to both the President and the First Lady," wrote the former Clinton image-maker Dick Morris. "She'll bail him out of the mess, but now she calls the shots." These three fevered scenarios were the talk of political circles in Washington last week. In the current tense atmosphere, all are possible. The most drastic - the exposure by the White House of the sexual misbehaviour of Congressmen and pressmen - came from George Stephanopoulos, a key architect of Mr Clinton's 1992 presidential campaign. He said the proposal was being discussed seriously by Clinton advisers. Mr Stephanopoulos, now a commentator on the ABC television network, unveiled the drastic "endgame" while discussing the White House's orchestrated attacks on Mr Starr. He described the ploy, which he called the Ellen Rometsch strategy, as an explosive "deterrent". His astonished interviewer, the veteran White House reporter Sam Donaldson, pressed him for details. "Are you suggesting that what they are beginning to say is that: 'If you investigate this too much, we will put all your dirty linen right on the table?' " asked Mr Donaldson. "Every member of the Senate? Every member of the press corps?" "Absolutely," replied Mr Stephanopoulos, who has close contacts inside the White House and lunched with senior Clinton advisers last week. "The President said he would never resign and I think some around him are willing to take everybody down with him." Ellen Rometsch, he told viewers, was a girlfriend of John F Kennedy who was suspected of being an East German spy. When their relationship was in danger of being investigated, it is claimed that J Edgar Hoover, the FBI director, was dispatched to Capitol Hill to warn that an inquiry would unleash any number of scantily clad spectres from Congressional closets. The story conjures up the possibility that the White House could draw on information from the 900-odd FBI files on its political opponents that it illegally obtained at the beginning of the first Clinton term. As the Lewinsky affair moves into its fifth week with no sign of abating, a growing consensus among analysts is that Mr Starr may now have almost enough evidence to trigger a Congressional inquiry. Terry Eastland, the best known authority on the powers of the Independent Counsel, is now suggesting that the White House's attacks on Mr Starr's integrity may herald an imminent move to oust him from the post. There is no question that the President has such powers. In 1973, Richard Nixon sacked Archibald Cox, the Watergate special prosecutor - but it failed to save his presidency. Should it happen, an acting prosecutor - almost certainly one of Mr Starr's deputies - would be appointed by a three-judge panel. By Friday, the Internet web site The Drudge Report, which has broken several exclusive stories, was claiming that Mr Starr's team has obtained files on five hitherto unnamed women associated with the President. The documents were reported to have come from lawyers working for Paula Jones, the former Arkansa state employee suing him for sexual harassment. Tomorrow, Marcia Lewis, Miss Lewinsky's mother, is due to resume her emotional testimony before a Washington grand jury investigating allegations that Mr Clinton had an affair with her daughter. At least two secret service agents are also standing by to give evidence as the Justice Department contemplates whether they should be entitled to maintain their silence. One has already contradicted Mr Clinton's reported claims that he was never alone with the 24-year-old former intern. Miss Lewinsky herself is expected to be called soon, having successfully blocked a subpoena to appear before the court last Thursday. If she takes the stand, legal opinion is that she will be granted a form of limited immunity from prosecution in return for testifying. If Mr Starr does submit a report to Congress's Judiciary Committee, he may meet legal hurdles on the way. Mr Clinton's personal lawyers, now in almost permanent conference in the White House, are expected to throw up complex arguments to block any inquiry. They will charge that at least some of the evidence likely to be submitted will be taken from the grand jury hearings. That process, they will argue, does not allow the President a right of reply and thus is in conflict with the constitutional right to "due process" of law. According to the Associated Press news agency, Mr Clinton's lawyers have also discussed the possibility of the President admitting he had an "inappropriate, but not sexual relationship" with Miss Lewinsky. However, the report added that Mr Clinton had not yet been brought into the strategy talks. If that is true, Mr Morris's theory that it is Mrs Clinton who is now running the show, may not be as far-fetched as it sounds. telegraph.co.uk:80/