By: Mary Mostert, Analyst, Original Sources (www.originalsources.com)
September 10, 1998
John Harris in the Washington Post today said "The emerging strategy of frequent mea culpas (by Bill Clinton)– which included the blunt statement by the president in Florida that ‘I have no one but myself to blame’ for his current problems and a pledge that he is ‘determined to redeem the trust of people’ – is in stark contrast to Clinton's initial plea to the nation on Aug. 17 that his relationship with Lewinsky was a private matter and that the nation needed to ‘move on.’"
President Clinton made a private apology to House Democrats yesterday morning in the rarefied confines of the White House residence. Six hours later he made a public apology in the everyday surroundings of a downtown Orlando hotel.
"I've done my best to be your friend," Clinton told Florida Democrats gathered for an afternoon fund-raiser. "But I also let you down, and I let my family down, and I let this country down. But I'm trying to make it right. And I'm determined never to let anything like that happen again."
"I’m determined never to let anything like that happen again?" Did something merely "happen?" Or is there now a major constitutional crisis in this country because someone, Bill Clinton for example, has made decisions and acted on them in such a way as to destroy people’s lives?
Even at this point, contrary to what many seem to think, Bill Clinton is not really taking any responsibility for his actions. Somehow he merely will make sure he would "never to let anything like that happen again." He is somehow inferring that someone trapped him, and that he was somehow a passive, not an active participant in any episode.
In fact, his denial of any "sexual relations" with Monica Lewinsky is based on the bizarre notion that the form of sex involved did not require his participation.
"Who do you think he’s blaming for the predicament’s he’s in?" I asked my son Gavin. Without hesitation he said, "He’s blaming her."
Of course, I thought. But which "her?" Monica Lewinsky? Others found other culprits. Columnist David Keene title his column yesterday "The Lawyer who Destroyed a Presidency." He writes that the real culprit of the piece is Bob Bennett, the President’ attorney, and "deserves to be held in utter contempt by the court of public opinion."
Others blame Linda Tripp and her confounded tapes as the culprit the President might be thinking of in promising to "never let anything like that happen again".
While the President himself is evasive on the subject of apology, his lawyer David E. Kendall seems perfectly willing to talk about an apology that was never extended - at least not before the talk of impeachment became really serious. Kendall said, "The President apologized and asked for forgiveness." He went on to say that although "we have not seen" Kenneth Starr’s report delivered to Congress yesterday, that "There is no basis for impeachment." He sounded just like Bill Clinton. "I did not have sex with that woman."
Linda Tripp, Monica Lewinsky, Kathleen Willey and others mentioned in recent months had a role in bringing attention to the President of the United States. However, the woman who deserves the most credit or blame for the public discussion of the sexual forays of Bill Clinton is none of these. It is Paula Jones.
Remember Paula? Perhaps it is a good time to remember Paula and the incredibly cruel and cutting things that were said about her by various ones of Clinton’s paid legal staff, especially now that it is that very same staff of White House spin-doctors seem ready to move full steam ahead into a "poor Bill" defense of Clinton.
Harris wrote: "On the day that independent counsel Kenneth W. Starr delivered his report on the Monica S. Lewinsky controversy to Congress, a variety of Clinton advisers inside and outside the White House say their efforts are focused on these members, with the president grudgingly trying to strike a balance between appropriate humility for his wrongdoing and groveling that some aides fear would send a message that personal scandal has overtaken the policy agenda."
"Grudgingly trying to strike a balance?" So the "apologies" are just as orchestrated as were the attacks on Paula Jones? Has anyone thought an apology might be in order for James Carville’s "Drag a hundred dollars through a trailer part and there’s no telling what you’ll find?"
All Paula Jones wanted to not start her lawsuit - which was what eventually led to Linda Tripp, Kathleen Willey, charges of a "right wing conspiracy," Monica Lewinsky and, finally, to yesterday’s delivery of 36 boxes of documents to the Congress of the United States was Paula Jones’ plaintive request for a simple apology for a story that painted her as a loose woman willing to have sex-on-request with then Governor Bill Clinton.
To start with, before the legal fees skyrocketed, all Paula was asking for was a simple apology she could one day show her children which would prove that she was not the kind of person the media, the President’s lawyer and the White House spin-doctors said she was. She had told a few girlfriends, but had made no public complain because she thought she would lose her job.
Then a conservative American Spectator magazine published a story in December 1993 in which "several Arkansas state troopers claimed that they had provided Governor Clinton with women on numerous occasions. "One of the meetings was with a ‘Paula’ at the Excelsior Hotel in downtown Little Rock in 1991. As she left the governor’s hotel room, ‘Paula’ allegedly told the state trooper that she was willing to be Clinton’s regular girlfriend if he wanted."
Paula Jones strongly suspected that she was the Spectator’s ‘Paula.’ "Paula Jones strongly suspected that the Spectator’s ‘Paula’ was she." She felt humiliated and angry." And that is when she took it to court.
At one point a settlement seemed near, according to Time Magazine January 13, 1997 issue, "The good will was soon shattered. At the White House, someone leaked the story to CNN that Jones had delayed the suit (She had not filed at that point) because she knew she had no case and because her family was opposed." While yesterday David Keene placed all the blame for the teetering presidency on Paula Jones, at the time, TIME Magazine said, "The negotiations were effectively over. Davis faxed a handwritten note to the White House blaming the leaks for the breakdown. Jones’s lawyers thought they had come within an inch of a settlement. Bennett, who refused to comment for this story, believed that a settlement was close, though not a sure bet. The president had never signed off on a final statement and he was likely to balk at any explicit admission of his own wrongdoing. Still, Bennett felt that real progress was being made until the White House spin stopped the talks."
Some things never really change. In spite of all the talk, Bill Clinton is still balking at any explicit admission of his own wrongdoing. What he is doing is telling us with a woebegone look that he would "never to let anything like that happen again." That’s not at all the same as saying "I will never DO anything like that again." Compare that with Paula’s unrecognized, unsung quiet courage and determination to defend her name.
To comment: mmostert@originalsources.com