Accuracy In Media
Accuracy in Media
Weekly Column
Clinton's Character Counts
By Reed Irvine
August 20, 1998
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On the morning of August 17, 1998, the day that President Clinton was questioned in the White House by prosecutors from the Office of the Independent Counsel concerning allegations that he had lied in sworn testimony he had given last January, The New York Daily News ran a remarkable column by Lars Erik Nelson.
Nelson said that if Clinton could again deny under oath that he had a sexual relationship with Monica Lewinsky "his wounded, diminished presidency would continue and his critics would owe him an apology." But he went on to say this:
But if he now admits he had sex with her, as some of his aides have begun to hint, he is unfit to lead the nation and ought to have the decency to resign. If he lied to us about Lewinsky-staring so earnestly into the camera as he denied any improper relationship-who can ever believe him again? If he allowed so many of his most-trusted officials to defend him falsely for seven months, who can ever believe any of them again?
And if he had sex-no matter how you define it-with an intern, a low-level subordinate, he has betrayed not only his wife, but his daughter, the American people who look to him for leadership, the integrity of the government he professes to love, all of the loyal staff who followed him into government to carry out a progressive agenda, every parent who proudly and nervously watches a daughter go off to work and every aspiring intern who thinks the route to success is hard work.
What made this column remarkable was that its author is a liberal curmudgeon who has appeared frequently on TV talk shows defending President Clinton and attacking his critics. His column represented a significant crack in the ice on which Bill Clinton has been skating. The column is interesting for another reason. While most of Clinton's...
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