A reporter who once helped Paula C. Jones gain credibility for her sexual harassment charge against President Clinton is now casting doubt on her story.
In November, Stuart Taylor of Legal Times examined Jones's claims in American Lawyer and concluded in a detailed account that she could be telling the truth. Other media outlets quickly echoed his assessment in cover stories boosting Jones's side. But now, Taylor and Legal Times colleague Timothy Burger have sifted through the evidence again, talked to more witnesses and reached another conclusion likely to influence reporters.
Taylor and Burger wrote that new disclosures "could be used to impeach the credibility of the more lurid details in Jones's account," but "not her claim (originally denied by the White House) that the meeting occurred" between her and Clinton. They interviewed witnesses who say that Jones was far from upset after the alleged harassment incident and that she told others about what seemed to them a "totally innocent" encounter with then-Gov. Clinton. (Legal Times, 6/23)
Jones's original lawyer, Daniel Traylor, told the Legal Times duo that he plans to resign from the case. "This whole thing has spun out of control, and to the extent I'm responsible for that, I apologize," the Little Rock lawyer said.
NBC's Tim Russert asked Taylor on Meet the Press if he was "backing off" his original article. "Not really," Taylor replied. "I'm qualifying it, I'd say."
"My original article was the best analysis I could do based on the evidence that was available to me then, and was explicitly tentative," Taylor added. "This is the best evidence we have now. New evidence may change it." (6/22)
Newt's Nemesis
House Speaker Newt Gingrich, R-Ga., has many tormentors within his own party these days, but few as persistent and brutal as Arianna Huffington. In newspaper columns, television appearances and an upcoming book of satire, the wife of wealthy California politico-turned-movie-producer Michael Huffington has emerged as the Republican Party's ultra bad girl.
Huffington recently sent to Hotline her "Top-10" list of reasons to oust the GOP congressional leadership. It included this withering suggestion: "The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of middle-aged white males."
She champions the conservative cause in unlikely settings, recently reviving her 1996 Comedy Central tryst with liberal comedian Al Franken. (This time, she dons her yellow nightgown on the New York stage to talk politics under the sheets in a night of Strange Bedfellows.) Crown Books also gave her a six-figure advance for a satirical fantasy about sleeping in the White House, titled Greetings from the Lincoln Bedroom.
Huffington hounds Gingrich as she did Bob Dole during the 1996 presidential campaign. For months, her newspaper columns have chronicled the mutinous talk within the House GOP ranks. While The Washington Times, a regular customer, rejected her toughest anti-Gingrich columns, the New York Post and other newspapers ran them with banner headlines.
Nevertheless, House Majority Leader Richard K. Armey, R-Texas, need not think he'll fare any better with Huffington if he succeeds Gingrich. No. 2 on her list of reasons to overthrow current party leaders: "Dick Armey isn't going to get any more telegenic."
Another Year of the Woman
It's Women v. Women in 1998 for the World's Most Exclusive Club. Eleven women might run for the Senate, many of them Republicans considering challenges against incumbent women Democrats. And the White House is scrambling to the aid of the women Democrats needing cash.
In California, San Diego Mayor Susan Golding is among the early GOP favorites to face incumbent Democratic Sen. Barbara Boxer. Clinton helped Boxer raise about $1.5 million for party coffers, praising her as the "spirit of the Senate." Voicing Democratic concerns that Boxer could be portrayed as too liberal, Clinton said, "Don't let the people who trade on fear turn Barbara Boxer into a cardboard cutout of what she really is." (San Jose Mercury News, 6/24)
On the same day, Hillary Rodham Clinton was in Seattle at two fund-raising events that netted more than $225,000 for Democrats and Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash. Two Republican women may vie for the right to challenge her: Reps. Linda Smith and Jennifer Dunn. (Seattle Post-Intelligencer, 6/23)
Two days later, President Clinton helped raise nearly $1 million for Democratic Sen. Carol Moseley-Braun in Illinois, where Republicans hope to recruit comptroller Loleta Didrickson to challenge the Senate's only African-American. (Chicago Tribune, 6/25)
Jesse's 'No-Show" a Hoax
It turned out to be the work of an impostor, but for a while in Phoenix it looked as if Jesse Jackson was a no-show at a pizza party with homeless kids.
Initially, the Arizona Republic reported that Jackson had bagged a planned appearance at the Thomas J. Pappas Elementary School.
But the next day, the civil rights leader called the school to explain that he was not associated with the man who claimed to represent him in setting up the event. "I regret that someone pulled a hoax on the good people of Maricopa schools, and I look forward to coming this fall for the dedication of the new school," Jackson said during a teleconference. (Arizona Republic, 6/20)
This Is Boxing
CNN founder Ted Turner "wants to settle his feud with Rupert Murdoch in the boxing ring, challenging him to a $4.95 pay-per-view clash of media heavyweights," with proceeds going to charity, according to an Associated Press/Arizona Daily Star report. (6/20)
The feud between Turner and Murdoch "went public last year after Turner's Time Warner Inc. refused to carry Murdoch's Fox News channel on its important New York City cable system."
Turner declared of the matchup: "It would be like Rocky, kind of, only for old guys. If he wants, he can wear headgear. I won't."
Baptist Boycott of Disney: How's it Playing?
Politicians did not have to run for cover on the issue of the Southern Baptist Convention's boycott of Walt Disney Co. products. Most were not even asked.
President Clinton, a Southern Baptist himself, got away with one word--"No"--when queried on whether he supports the boycott, which is based on Baptist anger over Disney's alleged abandonment of family values. The Baptists are particularly upset over what they see as Disney's acceptance of homosexuality in its employment practices and entertainment productions.
A C-SPAN caller apparently surprised Rep. Jim Nussle, R-Iowa, by asking if he would boycott Disney. "As a Mickey Mouse fan, I want to read up on this," Nussle said. "My kids are obviously very interested in the Lion King." (C-SPAN's Washington Journal, 6/19)
Perhaps the most artful dodge was offered by Arkansas Republican Gov. Mike Huckabee, a past president of the Southern Baptist Convention. "I have enough trouble keeping up with my own relationship to Jesus Christ that I really don't have time to keep up with someone else's relationship to Mickey Mouse," Huckabee said. (Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, 6/19)
Conservative commentator Paul Weyrich observed: "The politicians are scared to death of this issue. They all fear crossing the big media, lest they be labeled as intolerant, which is now the only sin left in the theology of liberalism." (Direct Line, National Empowerment Television, 6/20)
Meanwhile, a sampling of newspaper editorials on the Disney boycott turned up few supporting the move, although many bemoaned a decline in family-oriented entertainment: Arizona Daily Star: "The boycott puts many [Baptists] in a quandary. Most would recognize that discrimination, where based on color or sexual preference, is morally wrong. Yet for them, remaining true to the church requires relinquishing honest values." (6/21)
Augusta (Ga.) Chronicle: "If a religious denomination isn't supposed to speak and act as a moral force in society, who else will? Today's Disney . . . is a far cry from the family values company founded by the late Walt Disney." (6/21)
Miami Herald: "For the Baptists, then, the boycott proves their commitment to their fundamental beliefs. So even if their fight is ineffectual, who'd fault the Baptists for making it?" (6/22)
Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel: "What happened in Dallas this week was, in large measure, a statement of the public's increasing unhappiness with what's being offered in movies and on television." (6/21)
San Francisco Chronicle: "Long-term relationships, trips to Disneyland, tame prime-time comedy. Is this the `gay lifestyle' that so threatens civilization? Looks to us like the Baptists have nothing to worry about, but we will appreciate the shorter lines for the `Indiana Jones' ride on our next trip to Disneyland." (6/21)
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