Boxer Finds a Family Tie That Binds
By William Booth
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, August 27, 1998; Page A10
LOS ANGELES, Aug. 26-The two
candidates vying for a California Senate
seat met for their first debate today -- and
from the moment it began, Sen. Barbara
Boxer (D) was pressed by her opponent
to condemn President Clinton's affair with a former White House intern.
After months of cautious comments on the subject, state Treasurer Matt
Fong (R) called Clinton's behavior "disgusting," and suggested that Boxer
was a hypocrite because she forcefully attacked then-Supreme Court
nominee Clarence Thomas and then-Sen. Bob Packwood (R-Ore.) over
allegations that they were sexual harassers.
"Barbara, your silence on this is deafening," Fong said. He suggested the
issue was not simply an extramarital affair in the White House, but a
powerful boss hitting on a young aide. "When it comes to Democrats,"
Fong said, "you have a different set of standards."
Boxer, whose daughter married Hillary Rodham Clinton's brother, Tony
Rodham, repeated her earlier judgment that "the president was wrong."
But she did not go as far as her fellow Californian, Sen. Dianne Feinstein
(D), who reacted to the recent revelations by the president "with a deep
sense of sadness in that my trust in his credibility has been badly
shattered."
Instead, Boxer countered that she believed the voters in the largest state in
the nation wanted "to move on" to the pressing problems of the day, such
as improving the state's lackluster public schools, protecting the coast
from further oil drilling and crafting "a patients' bill of rights" to tighten
HMO regulations.
The one-hour encounter, aired locally in Los Angeles at noon today
(following a "Jerry Springer" episode on intrafamily sex) was the first of
two scheduled debates between Boxer and Fong. They are in a statistical
dead heat, according to the most recent polls, including a Field Institute
survey released today giving them each 43 percent of the vote.
The race is closely watched, as Boxer is considered potentially vulnerable
and Republicans are attempting to capture enough seats to give them a
filibuster-proof Senate majority of 60.
The debate offered an early look at how the ongoing investigation of
Clinton may rub off on other races around the nation. Boxer believes that
while journalists and politicians are seemingly obsessed with Clinton's
troubles, the voters themselves are turned off and will rally to a candidate
who keeps her distance from the scandal and focuses on solving
problems.
But Boxer was clearly put on the defensive today, repeatedly queried by
the panelists about the scandal. At one point she was asked if she would
fire a top aide who was caught having sex with an intern in her Senate
chambers.
For his part, Fong seemed to be stressing not the president's behavior, but
issues of fairness. He sought to tap into possible voter distaste not only
with the president but his defenders -- particularly feminists -- who have
largely failed to condemn Clinton because he has supported their
positions.
On other matters, Boxer highlighted what she said were the differences
between herself and Fong, asserting that she was the candidate who
would protect abortion rights, the environment and children. She also
pointed out her role in bringing $11 billion in disaster relief to the state
following floods and earthquakes, getting another 9,000 police officers on
California streets and pushing gun control measures such as mandatory
safety locks.
One of the strategies of her campaign is to characterize Fong as a member
of the right wing of the GOP, saying today, "I think his views will take us
back, back to the old days."
Fong, who is often characterized as a somewhat stiff campaigner and who
stumbled today over some of his lines, responded with some confessional
politics of his own.
On the issue of abortion, Fong said that as an adopted child himself, he
opposed abortion, but said he would protect a woman's right to the
procedure during the first trimester of her pregnancy -- though he opposes
government support of abortions and seeks parental consent for minors.
Asked about measures such as the one approved recently in San
Francisco to ensure civil rights and other protections of gay unions, Fong
again made a confession, saying that while he believes the traditional family
is "the core" of American life, "one of my own members of our family is
gay."
In their closing remarks, both candidates offered details of their own lives,
in empathetic appeals to California's racial and ethnic diversity. Boxer
related how she is a first-generation American on her mother's side and
how her father was the only one of nine children born in the United States.
Fong said that as a Chinese American, he understood discrimination,
relating that his grandfather came to this country to be a gold miner, but
was relegated to a job as a day laborer, "a coolie." He said his own
parents were denied housing because of their Chinese ancestry.
>>>Jerry Springer is on the cutting edge. In the above article,
>>>he refers to incest as "intrafamily sex" the new PC term. |
