FALLOUT FROM THE LEWINSKY AFFAIR
Editorial
Following the media feeding frenzy the week before last, the White House counteroffensive headed by Hillary Clinton and the subsequent media backlash were predictable. What is unusual about this scandal, however, is that most reporters, particularly of the male variety, do not believe Clinton's denials. They are now frustrated by the stonewalling of what they perceive as legitimate questions. This frustration is dangerous to the White House, because it has lost all benefit of the doubt, and may not regain it in the foreseeable future.
The usual benefit of the doubt has been completely absent in mainstream media reports of rumors, brought out by anonymous sources who presume to have knowledge about the Lewinsky affair. Now contrast this with the allegations brought by the Washington Weekly against the Clinton administration in the past three years. Based almost exclusively an first hand accounts by named individuals, they have been of quite a different caliber. There has been little room for any doubt in most of these allegations.
A remarkable rearrangement of the political landscape has resulted from the Lewinsky affair. While previously the landscape could be divided into liberal Clinton defenders and conservative Clinton bashers, it is now much more divided into male Clinton disbelievers and female Clinton approvers. Former liberal Clinton defenders, especially in the media, are more vehement in their criticism of Clinton than, for example, Republicans in Congress. But the stellar approval ratings that have resulted from Clinton's sexual escapades reflect in large measure the willingness of the female electorate to forgive and forget. Female reporters, as well as female voters expressing an opinion, in large numbers express the need to return to a focus on what Bill Clinton can do for the country. Nowhere was this gender schism more evident than in the questions asked at White House press briefing room late last week. Even the feminist organizations, who did not hold their fire in the Bob Packwood and Clarence Thomas scandals, are reserving judgement until "the facts are in."
More and more observers are now comparing the effect that Bill Clinton has on women to the effect that Adolf Hitler had on women. Hitler was a charismatic figure attracting blind admiration and sexual fantasies from female citizens. Hitler could not use television, but availed himself of frequent mass rallies to build his vast popular support.
Female voters elected Clinton twice (the male vote went for Bush and Dole), and while in office he has been able to expand even further on this base of support, now reaching its apex during the latest sex scandal. Susan McDougal and Susan Webber Wright are examples of women willing to do anything for William Jefferson Clinton. Of course there are informed, die-hard Clinton denouncers of the female variety, but they are in a distinct minority.
Needless to say, such blind admiration is dangerous. Germany followed Hitler into holocaust and a world war. America is following Clinton into a corruption of the judicial system and an abandoning of millennia-old principles of right and wrong. There are only two alternatives to the rule of law. Totalitarianism or anarchy.
Published in the Feb. 2, 1998 issue of The Washington Weekly
Copyright 1998 The Washington Weekly (http://www.federal.com)
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