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Where's Whitewater?
By Jonathan Broder
The independent counsel seems to have forgotten something on his way to the impeachment party

The voyeur general's report to Congress
By Gary Kamiya
Once its Peeping-Tom shock wears off, the Starr report is nothing more than an extreme close-up of what we already knew

The full text of The Starr Report and The White House Rebuttal

Secret lives of the Republicans, Part One
By Jason Vest
How Dan Burton outed himself in a preemptive strike against an upcoming Vanity Fair expos�

Lucianne Goldberg dishes on the Starr Report
By Jeff Stein
The woman behind the Lewinsky affair says Clinton will be tagged with 30 impeachable offenses

A call for moral renewal
FEATURE
By Mark Hertsgaard
Let's not stop at President Clinton. All of official Washington must be cleansed!


T A B L E+T A L K

Should Starr's report be made public? Sound off on his $40 million investigation in the Politics area of Table Talk



 

D A I L Y+Q U O T E

Government by whim?

  















R E C E N T L Y

Protected witness
By Murray Waas
How Starr tried to suppress charges against Hale
(09/10/98)

The Salon Report on Kenneth Starr
By David Talbot
We now know more than we ever wanted to about the president's private life. Here's what the public should know about the prosecutor who may drive him from office
(09/10/98)

"Everyone will be punished"
Jonathan Broder
The embattled White House tries out a new strategy to fend off impeachment -- but if it doesn't work, stand by for total war
(09/10/98)

Now he belongs to the ages
By Steve Kettmann
The swing heard 'round the world: The meaning of Mark McGwire's feat
(09/10/98)

True romance
By Jack Hitt
Why did President Clinton risk everything for a perky intern? Because he was in love
(09/09/98)

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-------------------The other woman

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Of all the women swirling around President Clinton, perhaps only one was a true victim.
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Correction: Former Spy editor Kurt Andersen did not know of Sidney Blumenthal's alleged involvement in the Bush affair story, as was erroneously stated in the version of this article originally posted by Salon News. The inaccuracy was introduced by Salon editors, who apologize to Mr. Andersen and the reporter for the error. The text has been corrected.

BY MURRAY WAAS
WASHINGTON -- Late on the same evening that President Clinton testified before Kenneth Starr's grand jury from the Map Room of the White House that he had had an "inappropriate" relationship with Monica Lewinsky, he defiantly went on national television to ask the American people "to turn away from the spectacle of the past seven months."

The entire affair should now become a private matter between him, his family and God, he argued: "Even presidents have private lives ... It's time to stop the pursuit of personal destruction and the prying into private lives and get on with our national life."

A longtime Arkansas state employee named Charlotte Perry might be excused for believing otherwise. An African-American woman with three young children at home, Perry is the type of person who comes to mind when, as he is wont to do, the president talks about those who work hard and play by the rules. It was such folks whom Clinton said he wanted to serve when he asked us to elect him as president in the first place.

In February 1990, Charlotte Perry hoped that her hard work, integrity and many years of service to the state government were finally going to pay off. She applied for a better paying job as an administrative assistant at a state agency called the Arkansas Board of Review. The position paid slightly more than $17,500 a year.

But Perry didn't receive the promotion she clearly deserved. Instead, it went to another woman with less experience and fewer qualifications -- Gennifer Flowers, whom everyone around Little Rock knew to be the governor's girlfriend. An investigation of the matter by a state agency later determined that the hiring procedure that led to Flowers being hired over Perry was "improper" and the result of favoritism.

Flowers, seeking work, had approached Clinton about finding her a position with the state. There were, after all, surely perks to be had for being the governor's mistress, Flowers reasoned. Clinton turned over the dirty work of finding the appropriate position for Flowers to an assistant named Judy Gaddy. Gaddy tried hard to find something for Flowers, even landing her an interview with the Arkansas Historical Preservation Program as a multimedia specialist. But Flowers was found to be unqualified for that job.

On Feb. 23, 1990, even more desperate for work than before, Flowers wrote Clinton: "Bill, I've tried to explain my situation to you and how badly I need a job ... Unfortunately it looks like I have to pursue the lawsuit to hopefully get some money to live on, until I get employment."

The lawsuit Flowers was referring to had been filed by a former Arkansas state employee named Larry Nichols. He alleged that Clinton had had sexual relationships with five women, including Flowers. Nichols had sued the governor after Clinton had fired him for stealing state funds. When a local radio station named Flowers based on papers filed in the lawsuit, Flowers told Clinton she would have to sue the radio station for slander so that she would have some money to live on.

In fact, Flowers was only bringing up Nichols' charges as a means to try to intimidate Clinton to find her a job. No one in Little Rock believed much of anything Nichols had to say, because he was known as the local loony. The four other women he named in the lawsuit simply laughed off his charges. And except for the one radio station, no reputable news organization in the state of Arkansas gave credence to Nichols' charges. Nevertheless, Flowers' ploy to intimidate Clinton had the intended effect.

N E X T+P A G E+| A sudden change






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