Deny, Deny, Deny

By Benjamin Patch | Wednesday, February 4, 1998

It's quite possibly the best rapid response team in American political history. First assembled in Arkansas, honed to perfection in the early 90's, they are the Navy SEALS of political rescue. Whatever may happen, the Clinton White House has done a frighteningly effective job of saving their boss, no mean politico himself, over the last six years. The names have changed — from Betsey Jones to James Carville to Mike McCurry to Bob Bennett — but their exceptional calibre has remained constant.

After the Gennifer Flowers scandal broke in 1992, Clinton sidestepped the oncoming political freight train and strolled into office.

Amazingly, he's survived Filegate, Travelgate, Whitewater, and a sheer volume of other scandals not seen since the Harding or Grant administrations. Even today, his popularity remains higher than on Election Day 1996 and most pundits have placed him back into the political safety zone.

Unfortunately, there is a dark side to the sunny optimism of 'the Comeback Kid' that hasn't lurked at the Oval Office since Nixon's infamous Plumbers.

The pattern is now standard, extremely well-scripted. Starting with the 'bimbo eruptions' in Arkansas, the President has established a battleplan for dealing with the fallout from his various indiscretions.

First, there is the immediate and complete denial, meticulously couched in open-ended language. The President's deft legal mind has given us some of the most creative loopholes in recent history, some have even been grafted into pop-culture lexicon — indeed, 'I didn't inhale' has become a half-joking denial for middle-aged Bart Simpsons.

In a recent deposition, Clinton stood by his statement that he did not have a twelve-year affair with Gennifer Flowers. No, it was more precisely eleven, he now confesses. Now, in the wake of the Lewinski scandal, the nation must ponder the exact meaning of 'improper sexual conduct' and 'sexual relations.'

After his trademark denial, Clinton unleashes the headstrong support of his wife, a modern day Lady MacBeth, who seems to share her husband's o'erleaping ambition with equal zeal. Though it must be almost impossible to weather the accusations of adultery time and again, Hillary seems more than willing to play along.

But Clinton's last tactic is where the road becomes a bit muddy. He assails his accusers, dispatching teams of detectives and lawyers to discredit the bottomless ranks of women claiming an affair with him. They stop at little — indeed Clinton political guru James Carville once dubbed Paula Jones 'trailer trash.'

The parallels to Nixon seem a bit misplaced at first — Clinton's team appears to be a bit kinder and gentler, at least in public.

There are no flamboyantly abrasive Chiefs of Staff (Haldeman fondly described himself as 'the President's Son-of-a-Bitch') or hardened Gordon Liddy types, but the tactics remain much the same. A phalanx of private investigators is assingned to dig up dirt on the accuser, and the spin doctors hack away at credibility. This is the same White House, after all, which happened to have FBI files on prominent Republicans lying around for reasons no one seemed quite able to explain.

Until the Paula Jones story, Flowers was the most prominent women associated with the President's sexual misgivings. Her story was dismissed when she first went public. When The Review first ran our interview with Flowers two years ago, it was dismissed by many on campus as a partisan indulgence best suited for the rough stock of tabloids.

However, a second looks merits some very interesting comparisons. A pattern of denial clearly emerges throughout the interview. Much of what transpired between Flowers and Clinton is eerily similar to the situation unfolding today with Monica Lewinski.

Though Flowers is often discredited by Clinton supporters as a cabaret dancer out to make a profit, her observations on Clinton's crack response team are dead on. Her predictions — from Hillary's fervent denial to the claim of a nebulous Republican conspiracy — have all come to pass already. Her accusation that Clinton used the influence of his Governorship to secure her a state job, also establish an important precedent.

Clinton has been described by some as a serial adulterer, and many accounts from his days in Arkansas strongly support the description. He has already admitted to previous 'troubles' in his marriage. Dealing with the political fallout of extramarital trysts was certainly nothing new. Reading over Flowers's interview, it seems that the President has even developed a sort of 'pat speech' for such problems.

Everything I could write here seems true, but tired. Bill Clinton is morally deficient. He manages to squeeze through legal loopholes. He counts on his Arkansas and Washington buddies to clean up his mess. They invariable do.

President Clinton's trangressions are evident, his excuses transparent, and the American people don't seem to be particularly concerned about the whole matter. The right SEAL team can spin anything.

Deny, Deny, Deny

Article Tools

Related Articles