Clinton lawyer Bob Bennett, defending the President in the Paula Jones affair, maintains that he “represent[s] a client who has done more for women than any President in the history of this country.” . . . But feminists no longer buy it so readily. Patricia Ireland takes Clinton to task for Bennett’s threat to drudge up Jones’s sexual history: “He is the President. He should be showing leadership. Whether it’s legally allowed still or not, this kind of attack on Paula Jones should not proceed.” Anita Hill writes in Newsweek that if Jones’s claims are proven right “then we must face the fact that we helped to elect someone-Bill Clinton-who has betrayed us on this vital issue [of sexual harassment].”… Newt Gingrich says that in House Government Reform & Oversight Committee fundraising investigation headed by Dan Burton (R., Ind.) “all the names come back to two people in the end,” Clinton and Gore. . . . James Carville begins campaign against Burton, reportedly compiling a file of all his contacts in federal agencies since 1982 and vowing to release it when Burton holds hearings. . . . A top White House official tells New York Daily News that much-maligned Burton “really hasn’t been that unfair.” . . . According to USA Today, the DNC sends out a fundraising letter signed by Carville warning that the party is in a “dire” money situation and could be “crippled for years.” The letter notes that financial support has dropped in recent months and “our financial resources are drying up fast.”
Running for chairman of the House Republican conference, Deborah Pryce (R., Ohio) says: “I think we just need to have a conference reflective of the country. We don’t need a conference full of male members who are conservative ideologues.” …. Rep. Jennifer Dunn (R., Wash.) is favored to win the conference job vacated by Susan Molinari, who is leaving to host a CBS morning show. . . . Sen. Ted Stevens (R., Alaska) and Rep. Bob Livingston (R. La.), chairmen of the Senate and House Appropriations Committees respectively, say they support a congressional pay raise. . Livingston, representing traditionally big-spending appropriators, has increasingly contentious relations with the House GOP leadership. . . . A signature-gathering effort by Wisconsin pro-lifers to force recall elections for Democratic Sens. Russ Feingold and Herb Kohl after their votes against partial-birth abortion ban falls just short. … According to Boston Herald poll, 48 per cent of Democrats think Rep. Joe Kennedy (D., Mass) has not been truthful in his account of what he knew of his brother’s affair with a baby-sitter; only 19 per cent believe Kennedy… . The Utah State Republican party adopts a resolution rejecting Sen. Orrin Hatch’s joint health-care initiative with Sen. Ted Kennedy (D., Mass.).
Comments