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Politics : Bill Clinton Scandal - SANITY CHECK -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Dwight E. Karlsen who wrote (36103)	2/27/1999 2:52:00 AM
From: JBL	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 67261

The President's Missing Voice New York Times Feb. 27, 1999 Editorial In certain contexts, silence may be golden. But that is seldom the case with Presidential silences. No one will ever know the complete truth about Juanita Broaddrick's allegation that Bill Clinton raped her in 1978. What we do know is that this is another instance in which the nation's most vital civic conversation - the one between the chief executive and the people who elected him - is being conducted through the President's lawyer. The result is that the public and the press are in a muddle as to what to think of a President who seems increasingly a stranger. In his past confessions, Mr. Clinton has presented a hazy sketch of himself as a recreational philanderer. But there is now a set of allegations stretching across two decades that depict him as a serial masher or worse. There is no legal or constitutional remedy for the situation. But surely there is a limit to how long Mr. Clinton can speak through his lawyer on these matters and more broadly restrict his exchanges with the press to brief, carefully choreographed events and joint appearances with foreign visitors instead of open-ended Presidential news conferences. Unless Mr. Clinton wants to serve out the remaining two years of his Presidency oddly isolated from the people he leads, he must find a way to resume a normal dialogue with the American people and the press. It may be that he can add little to David Kendall's terse denial about the Broaddrick allegation, but it would be nice to hear Mr. Clinton himself address the matter and provide his version of what transpired, if in fact the two did meet in a Little Rock hotel room in 1978. But beyond the particulars of this case there is the larger need for Mr. Clinton to re-establish communication with the nation after a traumatic year. David Gergen, a former Clinton adviser, put it aptly this week in an appearance on "Larry King Live." Mr. Gergen said, "The President should have a reflective conversation with someone on television and really talk about where he is in life, what his aspirations are, talk about his past, try to help us sort this out." By all accounts, the White House is banking on the Broaddrick story's lacking legs, and it hopes to be able to squeak by on Mr. Kendall's unelaborated denials. But if the President remains in his customary defensive crouch, perhaps he will at least accept the advice of Patricia Ireland, president of the National Organization for Women. Mindful of the base attacks on previous accusers by Presidential agents such as James Carville and Robert Bennett, she urged Mr. Clinton to prevent such tactics being used against Ms. Broaddrick. That is a good idea on the merits. Moreover, at a time when the President has lost his voice, Ms. Ireland's statement suggests that the feminist establishment may be recovering its ability to speak to the question of Bill Clinton's conduct.