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

To: John Hensley who wrote (13121)	4/8/1998 1:41:00 PM
From: Zoltan!	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 20981

.... The Clintonites have been beating their bongos in smug relief over the dismissal of the Paula Jones suit, and mongering guilt among reporters about allegedly falling news standards. But it is a pathetic illustration of how their own standards have slipped that they saw Judge Susan Webber Wright's decision as cause for celebration. Just because Mr. Clinton's failed seduction of Ms. Jones isn't actionable doesn't make it any less gross. The tipping point was the news story about Elizabeth Ward Gracen, the actress and former Miss America who admitted last week that she and the President had had sex when he was Governor of Arkansas -- a liaison she had previously denied. "I had sex with Bill Clinton," she said, "but the important part to me is that I was never pressured." White House aides were unfazed, simply because Ms. Gracen said the sex was consensual. Not that Hillary consented to it. But it's a good news day when Mr. Clinton's adulterous behavior is gentlemanly. "With any other President, at any other time, that news would have been Defcon 4," said one Clintonite. "But this White House viewed it as a pretty good story. That just shows how far we've come." If you believe the fashionable theory that America likes the President's lusty side -- "Clinton's Large Appetites May Be at Core of Appeal," said a Wall Street Journal headline -- scoring with a former Miss America might even be a positive. Hugh Hefner, who is running a spread on Ms. Gracen in the May issue of Playboy, calls Mr. Clinton's critics the "enemies of sex," adding: "The sexually charged atmosphere of the White House has lit a thousand points of lust -- around water coolers, on the Internet, in bedrooms, on telephones -- and a thousand points of tolerance." Having liberated America sexually, the President can now return to important issues of state. Of course, it is a myth that this case has distracted Bill Clinton from the crisis in Kosovo and the like. The truth about this President is that he only focuses in a political emergency. Before he made Monica famous, he was playing golf, fund-raising and zoning out. Mr. Clinton may be energized by the chaos and the danger. But everyone else in this fight seems increasingly dispirited and exhausted. A sour taste is everywhere. nytimes.com