While President Clinton denies having ``sexual relations with that woman'' or telling ``anybody to lie. Not a single time. Never,'' and Hillary Rodham Clinton calls Independent Counsel Kenneth Starr ``a politically motivated prosecutor who is allied with the right-wing opponents of my husband,'' other Democrats are not so sure. Sen. Bob Kerrey (D., Neb.): ``You can't call the Washington Post a right-wing organization. It doesn't work.'' . . . Former Policy Advisor to the President George Stephanopoulos: ``Has he told the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth? If he has, then he will go forward and be a good President. . . . If he hasn't, he will not.'' White House staffers, Washington Post reports, call Stephanopoulos ``an ABC common traitor.'' . . . Former press secretary Dee Dee Myers: ``I want to believe the President.'' . . . Former chief of staff Leon Panetta, possible candidate for California governor, raises possibility of Clinton's leaving office if charges are true. . . . Sen. Harry Reid (D., Nev.): ``If Clinton is found to have done something wrong, it's a personal wrong. It's not something the [Democratic] Party was behind.'' . . . Ex-Rep. Tim Penny (D., Minn.) calls Clinton ``a womanizer'' but says it's nobody's business. . . . Rep. Joe Kennedy (D., Mass.): ``Don't react to allegations. Allegations are only that -- allegations.'' (Something Kennedys know more about than most.) . . . Sen. Pat Leahy (D., Vt.) takes First Lady's line: ``This is the most partisan, end-justifies-the-means investigation that I can remember in my life'' -- drawing rebuke from Sen. Arlen Specter (R., Pa.): ``A serious accusation about a sting operation ought to have some authentication and verification before it is made on the floor of the United States Senate.'' . . . Leading contenders for Veep if Al Gore becomes President: Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D., Calif.), Rep. Dick Gephardt (D., Mo.). Conservative Rep. John Shimkus (R., Ill.) calls Clinton a ``lovable rogue,'' adds, ``I have some moral indignation at the President's lifestyle. But that is not enough to move ahead with impeachment.'' . . . Moderate Rep. Chris Shays (R., Conn.): ``I have to tell you that I do not believe him. But that ultimately is not the issue. That's going to be resolved in the judicial system.'' . . . Consultant Frank Luntz: ``I think it is time we get some answers. The President has had enough time to respond and he hasn't.'' . . . Bill Bennett: ``I do not believe this President. . . . This is the reaction of a man who I believe has something to hide.'' . . . Sen. John Ashcroft (R., Mo.): ``Mr. President, if these allegations are true, you have disgraced yourself, you have disgraced the country, you have disgraced your office, and you should leave.'' . . . Pete du Pont: ``Mr. President, you have become an embarrassment to us all. In the name of God, go.'' New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman writes that ``those who identified'' with Clinton agenda ``made a Faustian bargain. We overlooked Mr. Clinton's past indiscretions.'' . . . Feminist columnist Katha Pollitt: ``I don't even care that he may have fibbed in his deposition to [Paula] Jones's lawyers, or asked [Monica] Lewinsky to back him up, because they had no right to ask about consensual sex in the first place. . . . If I thought I'd get away with it, I'd lie too.'' . . . The New Republic editorializes that the scandal suggests need to reconsider independent-counsel and sexual-harassment laws. . . . Michael Kelly in National Journal: ``[T]here isn't another shoe to drop in the discussion of the President's sex life. There's a whole closet full of pumps, slingbacks, spikes, flats, wedgies, sandals, and boots.'' . . . Baton Rouge Advocate: ``The public shrugged off Watergate, too. In that case, the system, not the populace, ran a President out of office.'' Before State of the Union address, Sen. Phil Gramm (R., Tex.) considered not attending -- but not because of scandal: ``. . . the Democrats jump up and applaud the most absurd statements. And then you sort of feel like you have to applaud something you are not for, or you got to look like a sort of sourpuss, poor sport.'' He went. . . . National Journal's Thomas Galvin quotes Rep. Gary Ackerman (D., N.Y.), in reply to question whether GOPers would boycott State of the Union: ``The three Republicans who won't be there are the ones who never got any [oral sex] their whole life.'' Adds Galvin, ``Yup, he really said it.'' . . . Stephanopoulos's review of speech: ``What struck me most was the President didn't seem to be enjoying himself.'' . . . Chris Matthews on Rivera Live chooses words infelicitously: ``He went after women like gang-busters. . . . He hit women every single way tonight.'' Foreign press reaction falls into several categories. Amusement: ``Naughtygate!'' (UK's Daily Star), ``President Jekyll and Mr. Hyde'' (Germany's Die Tageszeitung), ``A Loose Presidential Zipper'' (UK's Guardian). . . . Ridicule: ``The most powerful man in the world will have to discuss his sex life while Saddam Hussein is mobilizing Iraq'' (Holland's NRC Handelsblad). . . . Scorn: ``An inexplicable weakness of character'' (Italy's Corriere della Sera), ``not compatible with a well-functioning democracy'' (Denmark's Politiken). . . . Weird sympathy: ``Impeachment for Love'' (Russia's Segodnya). . . . Puzzlement: ``a lot of noise for a few illicit frolics.'' (France's Libération). . . . Paranoid: ``A Zionist Plot'' (Sheik Ahmed Yassin of Hamas, quoted by numerous Arab dailies). Media Research Council president Brent Bozell identifies leader of vast right-wing conspiracy against Clinton: Jay Leno. Among Leno's attacks: ``Mike McCurry . . . said today the President denies ever having an affair with this woman and he is going about his normal daily routine. Denying having an affair with a woman pretty much is Clinton's normal daily routine.''
