When Gennifer Flowers first came forward two weeks ago, it seemed that the Scandal Machine would claim another victim. But the press–embarrassed at following the lead of a supermarket tabloid, especially when Flowers’s credibility has been undermined-turned on itself last week in morning-after remorse. Editorial writers questioned the relevance of an affair on Clinton’s ability to govern. Gary Hart would have given anything for the support Clinton got last week. Truth is, the press is willing to cut Clinton some slack because they like him-and what he has to say. He is a policy wonk in tune with a younger generation of Democrats eager to take the party beyond the liberal stereotype.
So far, New Hampshire voters seemed forgiving of Clinton. In street interviews, Vicki Ogden, editor of the Portsmouth Herald, found many men so flip-remarks like “I’m envious” and “What a guy”-that she didn’t run the comments. Women she talked to saw Flowers as a home wrecker. Polls show most people don’t care if Clinton has been unfaithful, but they won’t forgive him if he has lied. “I think every crisis in life is a character test, I do,” Clinton told NEWSWEEK. “It’s not what happens to you in life, it’s how you handle it.”
Clinton may yet have to face larger questions about his character. The psychic probing will inevitably revive his old Arkansas moniker, “Slick Willie.” All politicians amend and reverse themselves. The rap on Clinton is that he is too clever by half-and too calculating. “Polities is the only area of human life where it’s bad form to be ambitious,” he says. “Nobody criticizes Michael Jordan for the hundreds of free throws he may have shot when he was just a kid on a dusty back road in North Carolina.” In a Democratic debate last weekend, Sen. Bob Kerrey zinged Clinton for trying to have it both ways on the congressional pay raise and for courting liberals, moderates and conservatives. “You’re saying ‘yes’ to a lot of people these days,” Kerrey sniped. Opponents are poised-with evidence from an Arkansas newspaper-to challenge Clinton’s claim of early support for the gulf war.
Clinton is not yet home free on the scandal front. Flowers’s purported “love tapes” have him taking a swipe at Gov. Mario Cuomo (“He’s a mean s.o.b.”). Clinton apologized to Cuomo, who later told NEWSWEEK, “It’s easy to say about a great big Italian with a loud voice and big hands-that he’s a mean s.o.b. It happens to not be true.” Even though a voice expert hired by CNN found a number of “anomalies”– suspicious editing patches-Clinton gave the tapes credibility with his apology.
Still, the tapes seemed to be losing their steam. The third installment of the Star had no big bombshells, and there were new questions about Flowers’s ties to the Arkansas GOP (she registered as a Republican in 1990 and also volunteered in the state Senate campaign of Clinton foe Ron Fuller). In Little Rock, the cash-for-trash patrol went wild, with some tabloid reporters offering up to half a million dollars to anyone with a story to tell. At Clinton’s campaign headquarters, aides taped calls from women demanding to speak to the governor. “The Star has offered me enough money to change my life,” declared one caller.
In Washington, insiders traded scenarios for a last-minute entry should Clinton’s candidacy collapse. “The epicenter of political stupidity is the Washington hot-air crowd,” raged James Carville, Clinton’s gonzo spin doctor. “They’re human beings, but they’re not people.” With filing deadlines for primaries rapidly passing-and the rest of the announced field considered weak-the hot-air crowd believes Clinton may be its only horse. Hillary Clinton, standing in for her husband at a “roast” for Democratic Chairman Ron Brown tried to make light of the crowd’s skittishness. “Bill Clinton is with the other woman in his life,” she said as Clinton squired daughter Chelsea to a father-daughter event in Little Rock.
It is still possible that Clinton will slowly bleed to death from rumors about his private life, especially if another “smoking bimbo” emerges. Republican operatives made no secret of their hope that Clinton will go on to win the Democratic nomination. In their view, even if 80 percent of the public overlooks his infidelity, he can’t win. Much of Clinton’s early strength has been his electability-his perceived ability to win back Reagan Democrats with an appeal to family values. To survive the lingering perceptions about his personal life, Clinton will have to demonstrate all the character he can.
Photos: Putting the brakes on the Sleaze Machine: Clinton in New Hampshire, Flowers in New York (IRA WYMAN FOR NEWSWEEK, ALLAN TANNENBAUM-SYGMA)
Deborah Mathis, 38, is editorial page editor of The Clarion-Ledger in Jackson, Miss. She was a TV and newspaper journalist in Little Rock for about 20 years. Mathis was one of the women named as “Bill Clinton’s lovers” by Arkansas ex-government employee Larry Nichols and the Star tabloid; she denied the allegations. Last week she discussed the episode with NEWSWEEK’s Ginny Carroll. ..MR0-
As far back as the late ’70s, when Bill Clinton was attorney general, people would tease me, “You and Bill Clinton sure are good friends.” We had had a succession of older, establishment governors, and then Clinton was elected. This also was a time when women were just breaking into reporting in any significant number. Every woman reporter who interviewed him was teased the same way.
The next time I heard anything about me and Bill Clinton was during the governor’s race of 1990. I got a call from Mike Gauldin, Clinton’s press secretary. He said Larry Nichols had read out a list of women he was claiming had slept with Bill Clinton and that mine was one of the names. I said, “You’re kidding me.” And I started laughing. He said, “I’m glad you think it’s funny because we don’t over here. We want you to know that we’re very sorry your name has been dragged into crap like this.” When we hung up, I ran through the department saying, “This guy can’t even spell my name (it was spelled Debra), but he claims to know about my sex life?” I called my husband, and we laughed some more. But after a while, it started making me angry. And that’s the cycle I’ve gone through every time it’s come up: alternating anger and laughter at the absurdity of it.
I never slept with Bill Clinton. I never had an affair with him. No love - affair. No lust affair. No affair. Period.
I’m fortunate; I have a very strong marriage. The toughest part has been my three kids [ages 15, 11 and 9). If it was just me–no family to be hurt–I might look at it differently. [But] I had to sit down and say, “A sleazy publication is about to print lies about your mama. Some idiot might come up to you and offer you money to tell lies. Some kids you know might taunt you about your mama.” I told them that if anybody did anything like that, they should just say, “Isn’t that amusing’?” and move on.
I’ve gotten calls from, I think, every tabloid publication and TV show in America as well as a lot of mainstream reporters. I was getting phone calls from people asking if I knew how to reach Gennifer Flowers-like we had some harem or something going on up there in Little Rock. How the hell would I know where she is? I’d get dressed in the morning and wonder if the outfit I’d chosen was too sexy, whether I should wear bright lipstick. I had to keep reminding myself: you’re innocent.
I had been moving through it, holding my head up. But last Wednesday was a turning point. My 19-year-old stepson got a call from some man claiming to be with a magazine and offering him money. The man wanted to know if one of my children was Bill Clinton’s. That tore me up. He had to be a devoted quack to go to the trouble to track down my stepson at an unlisted number and harass him like that. It made me realize for the first time that this is something evil. I had thought maybe it was sexism-somebody jealous of my professional success. My husband and I have an interracial marriage, and I wondered if it was racism. But I’m beginning to think it’s just pure, old-fashioned evil. I cried for the first time since this started. [Then] I got out my Bible. I know better than ever that there are bad people out there. But they aren’t getting in my soul.
