Salon Newsreal | Clinton's sexual scorched-earth plan

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A new kind of strike
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The strange case of Kenneth S.
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A Washington psychoanalyst analyzes "Kenneth S." and his odd fixation on the president's sex life
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Starr's final act?
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Clinton's sexual scorched-earth plan
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If GOP pushes impeachment, White House loyalists warn, their own dirty secrets will be exposed.

BY JONATHAN BRODER AND HARRY JAFFE | Just before the 1988 elections, Republican operative Lee Atwater began spreading a rumor that Democratic House Speaker Thomas Foley was gay. When the rumor reached Rep. Barney Frank, at the time the only openly homosexual member of Congress, Frank acted quickly and decisively. He informed Atwater that unless the rumors about Foley ceased immediately, he would personally out six gay Republicans on the floor of the House.
The GOP whisper campaign halted dead in its tracks.
A decade later, as Kenneth Starr moves to wrap up his investigation of the Monica Lewinsky scandal and submit his final report to Congress on his four-year-long criminal probe of the president, the lessons of that confrontation have not been lost on some Clinton allies. While Republican and Democratic lawmakers, pundits and supporters urge the president to apologize for a sexual relation with Lewinsky to avoid impeachment, these die-hard Clinton loyalists are spreading the word that a long-ignored but fearsome tactic has now resurfaced as an element in the president's survival strategy: The threat of exposing the sexual improprieties of Republican critics, both in Congress and beyond, should they demand impeachment hearings in the House.
"We're talking about the Doomsday Machine here," one close ally of the president told Salon, alluding to the unstoppable chain of retaliatory nuclear strikes in the movie, "Dr. Strangelove." "Once the Doomsday Machine is set in motion, there will be no stopping it. The Republicans with skeletons in their closets must assume everything is known and will come out. So the question is: Do they really want to go there?"
The threat to out the president's critics is not new. It first surfaced on Feb. 8, when former White House advisor George Stephanopoulos, analyzing the then-2-week-old Lewinsky scandal for ABC's "This Week," said White House allies were "starting to whisper about what I'll call the 'Ellen Rometsch' strategy." Stephanopoulos then went on to explain that Rometsch was an East German spy who had slept with President John Kennedy as well as many other congressmen and senators.
"Robert Kennedy was charged with getting her out of the country and also getting [FBI Director] John Edgar Hoover to go to the Congress and say, 'Don't you investigate this, because if you do, we're going to open up everybody's closets," Stephanopoulos said. Returning to the Lewinsky scandal, he added: "I think that in the long run, they have a deterrent strategy" (of gathering embarrassing details about the private lives of Clinton's congressional critics and threatening to leak them to the media).
As part of his defense in the Paula Jones sexual misconduct lawsuit, Clinton's lawyers retained private investigator Terry Lenzner, whose company, Investigative Group International, conducted interviews and public record searches to gather information on Jones' sexual history. Clinton's critics now believe IGI, which employs lawyers, former FBI, CIA and DEA agents, ex-cops and former reporters, was also hired to dig up dirt on the president's accusers in the Lewinsky scandal as well. Lenzner could not be reached for comment.
N E X T+P A G E+| It's character, stupid

T A B L E+T A L K Breast Cancer: Why do so many women get it? Join the discussion in the Science and Health area of Table Talk D A I L Y+Q U O T E New and improved synonyms for genitalia! R E C E N T L Y New JFK death film By Scott McLemee New Zapruder film doesn't solve JFK case (08/04/98) Author asks: When did Jones and Clinton meet? By Lori Leibovich Mystery at the Excelsior Hotel (08/03/98) A new kind of strike By David Bacon The first auto strike over GM's global investment strategy (07/31/98) The strange case of Kenneth S. By Dr. Justin Frank A Washington psychoanalyst analyzes "Kenneth S." and his odd fixation on the president's sex life (07/30/98) Starr's final act? By David Corn Kenneth Starr has sprung into action, but where is he headed? (07/29/98) - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Browse the Newsreal Archives - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
		Clinton's sexual scorched-earth plan - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - If GOP pushes impeachment, White House loyalists warn, their own dirty secrets will be exposed. BY JONATHAN BRODER AND HARRY JAFFE \| Just before the 1988 elections, Republican operative Lee Atwater began spreading a rumor that Democratic House Speaker Thomas Foley was gay. When the rumor reached Rep. Barney Frank, at the time the only openly homosexual member of Congress, Frank acted quickly and decisively. He informed Atwater that unless the rumors about Foley ceased immediately, he would personally out six gay Republicans on the floor of the House. The GOP whisper campaign halted dead in its tracks. A decade later, as Kenneth Starr moves to wrap up his investigation of the Monica Lewinsky scandal and submit his final report to Congress on his four-year-long criminal probe of the president, the lessons of that confrontation have not been lost on some Clinton allies. While Republican and Democratic lawmakers, pundits and supporters urge the president to apologize for a sexual relation with Lewinsky to avoid impeachment, these die-hard Clinton loyalists are spreading the word that a long-ignored but fearsome tactic has now resurfaced as an element in the president's survival strategy: The threat of exposing the sexual improprieties of Republican critics, both in Congress and beyond, should they demand impeachment hearings in the House. "We're talking about the Doomsday Machine here," one close ally of the president told Salon, alluding to the unstoppable chain of retaliatory nuclear strikes in the movie, "Dr. Strangelove." "Once the Doomsday Machine is set in motion, there will be no stopping it. The Republicans with skeletons in their closets must assume everything is known and will come out. So the question is: Do they really want to go there?" The threat to out the president's critics is not new. It first surfaced on Feb. 8, when former White House advisor George Stephanopoulos, analyzing the then-2-week-old Lewinsky scandal for ABC's "This Week," said White House allies were "starting to whisper about what I'll call the 'Ellen Rometsch' strategy." Stephanopoulos then went on to explain that Rometsch was an East German spy who had slept with President John Kennedy as well as many other congressmen and senators. "Robert Kennedy was charged with getting her out of the country and also getting [FBI Director] John Edgar Hoover to go to the Congress and say, 'Don't you investigate this, because if you do, we're going to open up everybody's closets," Stephanopoulos said. Returning to the Lewinsky scandal, he added: "I think that in the long run, they have a deterrent strategy" (of gathering embarrassing details about the private lives of Clinton's congressional critics and threatening to leak them to the media). As part of his defense in the Paula Jones sexual misconduct lawsuit, Clinton's lawyers retained private investigator Terry Lenzner, whose company, Investigative Group International, conducted interviews and public record searches to gather information on Jones' sexual history. Clinton's critics now believe IGI, which employs lawyers, former FBI, CIA and DEA agents, ex-cops and former reporters, was also hired to dig up dirt on the president's accusers in the Lewinsky scandal as well. Lenzner could not be reached for comment. N E X T+P A G E+\| It's character, stupid