Tuesday, March 31, 1998

"Looking Glass" world coming to life

By Bonnie Erbe

In the words of Lewis Carroll, things just keep getting, "curiouser and curiouser."

Independent Counsel Kenneth Starr subpoenas the records of all books former White House intern Monica Lewinsky has purchased at one Washington book store since January (including one about a powerful man having phone sex with a younger woman).

The Republicans talk impeachment of one of the most popular president in recent times.

Finally, Paula Corbin Jones' side (possibly the Independent Counsel's office) leaks stories about then-state Attorney General Clinton allegedly raping a woman, and the woman's lawyer calls the allegations ridiculous. Hmmmmmm.

If I were the head of the Republican party, I'd fire my public relations chief. Or accuse him/her of being a double-agent for the Democrats. The more Starr digs into President Clinton's past and the private and totally irrelevant lives of Monica Lewinsky, Marcia Lewis, Sidney Blumenthal et. al., the more incensed the American public becomes.

Never before has an independent counsel badgered a small independent book store for three months worth of records on the buying habits of one young purchaser. Lawrence Walsh never resorted to such seemingly inane tactics in his Iran-Contra investigation.

The closest thing that's ever happened to Republicans came not from a professional prosecutor but a free-lance journalist. It was when former Supreme Court nominee and federal appeals court Judge Robert Bork's list of video rentals was made public by a reporter for a small, independent Washington newspaper. And Republicans howled incessantly at the "invasion of privacy."

But where are they now that a supposedly reputable prosecutor is using such base tactics? And what, precisely, does Kenneth Starr intend to prove through knowledge of Monica Lewinsky's pedantic proclivities and purchases? Does the fact that she purchased a book about a man and woman having phone sex mean she has lived through such an incident, or that she's lying about her relationship with the president?

If so, then I have chased after great white whales and danced with a man name Rhett at ante-bellum picnics, and concealed these truths from everyone I know.

The more Republicans attempt partisan gain out of Clinton's alleged sexual escapades, the more credence the public places in Hillary Rodham Clinton's overblown claim that a "vast right wing conspiracy" is out to get her husband. Talk of impeachment makes Republicans look foolish, when no crime has been ascribed to the President, and he seems on the verge of annihilating his opposition in Paula Jones' upcoming lawsuit for sexual harassment.

It's politically uncalled-for at a time when the economy is strong, the president's public support numbers hover near the 70 percent level, and every accusation against him draws a "wait and see if it's true" response from the public.

Even this weekend's news made the latest attempt to discredit Clinton look like a desperate measure on the part of his opponents. Paula Jones' lawyers latest unethical and illicit leak was of a story that while he was Attorney General of Arkansas, Bill Clinton raped a woman. But the woman's lawyer quickly called the story "vicious rumors and vicious allegations."

Will they stop at nothing to try to win a game they are clearly losing? Apparently not. And meanwhile, the White House intern/volunteer scandal looks more and like Lewis Carroll's Looking Glass world is coming to life.

Bonnie Erbe is host of the PBS program "To the Contrary." E-mail her at 102404,3317@CompuServe.com.

Scripps Howard News Service