Paula Jones

BOSTON -- It's been a week since Judge Susan Webber Wright saved us from finding out whether or not the president of the United States has distinguishing characteristics on his genitals.For this rescue operation, and for spoiling all the fun, the Arkansas judge has been vilified as a traitor to her gender. She has been accused of making the workplace safe for sexual harassers everywhere and bringing glee to the hearts of bosses who will soon be fearlessly dropping trousers -- at least once per employee -- in the corner office.

Paula Jones finds herself in the middle of another proposition - this one involving the Maryland Republican Party. Daniel "The Wig Man" Vovak, a Republican who ran for U.S. Senate in 2006 wearing a Colonial-style periwig, is offering to have Jones appear at a fundraiser for the cash-strapped state GOP. Vovak has some pull with Jones, the former Arkansas state employee who in 1991 claimed then-Gov. Bill Clinton propositioned her. Jones has agreed to play herself in a movie Vovak is making, "The Blue Dress, A Comedy About Bill & Monica."

WASHINGTON -- On the occasion of President Clinton's decision to shell out $850,000 to make the Paula Jones case go away, the president's private lawyer, Bob Bennett, explained it by saying Mr. Clinton "is not prepared to spend one more hour on this matter."Small wonder. "This matter" opened a sleazy can of worms for the president that ultimately exposed his scandalous behavior with Monica Lewinsky in the Oval Office and resulted in his repeated public and grand jury lies about it.Had Mr. Clinton agreed to settle when he had the chance much earlier, the Lewinsky matter might never have come to light.

CHICAGO - The California recall campaign was a noisy, raucous and often vitriolic affair. But the most striking feature of the final days was the silence. That was what you heard from conservatives on the subject of Arnold Schwarzenegger's sexual escapades. Here was a guy who, voters learned, told a skin magazine in 1977 that he had a stripper girlfriend, hung out with prostitutes and engaged in group sex. Then last week, the Los Angeles Times reported that six women said he had forced himself on them, grabbing breasts and bottoms and trying to pull off clothing.

WASHINGTON -- The only thing more perilous than refusing to give the press what it wants is to give the press exactly what it wants.Which Paula Jones found out yesterday.Paula Jones is the woman who says Bill Clinton lured her to a hotel room in 1991, dropped his pants, and demanded oral sex. She is now suing him.Clinton denies everything. His lawyer, Bob Bennett, claims presidential immunity and wants the courts to delay any action on the suit until Clinton has left office.In recent months, Jones has avoided the press.

BOSTON -- The morning paper comes carrying the tales of two presidencies.The first is set in the White House where the president of the United States finally awards a Medal of Honor to a black World War II veteran. "History," says the commander-in-chief "is made whole today."The second takes place on the Supreme Court steps where Paula Corbin Jones' lawyers argue for the right to sue Bill Clinton for sexual harassment. "She wants her good name and reputation back from Bill Clinton," says Joseph Cammarata.

Paula Jones finds herself in the middle of another proposition - this one involving the Maryland Republican Party. Daniel "The Wig Man" Vovak, a Republican who ran for U.S. Senate in 2006 wearing a Colonial-style periwig, is offering to have Jones appear at a fundraiser for the cash-strapped state GOP. Vovak has some pull with Jones, the former Arkansas state employee who in 1991 claimed then-Gov. Bill Clinton propositioned her. Jones has agreed to play herself in a movie Vovak is making, "The Blue Dress, A Comedy About Bill & Monica."

NOW THAT Paula Jones has filed her lawsuit accusing Bill Clinton of sexual harassment, America once again is tossing around the word "bimbo," using it to describe Ms. Jones in a pejorative way, usually in defense of the president.I can't imagine anyone hasn't heard about the case. Ms. Jones contends that when Mr. Clinton was Arkansas governor and she was on the state payroll, she was brought to meet him in a hotel room, where he dropped his pants and propositioned her. Ms. Jones said she refused and left, but that hasn't kept people from referring to her as a bimbo, though some people who say they knew her as a "party girl" might think the term is apt.So the word bimbo is back, just as it was used to describe Tonya Harding, Gennifer Flowers, or Donna Rice (remember Gary Hart and the good ship "Monkey Business"?

WASHINGTON -- The so-called mainstream press -- meaning conventional newspapers and the major television networks -- have been avoiding the Paula Jones story for the past three months.But the decision by Jones to bring a lawsuit against President Clinton and the response of the president in hiring Washington defense lawyer Robert S. Bennett have made that policy impossible. The issue is now very much in the public domain.So the operative question is what, if anything, do the charges of sexual harassment raised by Jones mean in terms of the president's political position.

WASHINGTON -- Amid the latest twist in the Paula Jones sexual-harassment case against President Clinton -- the pullout of her two top lawyers because of ''fundamental differences'' with her -- one intriguing factor continues to float in the ether, undenied by the White House or the president's lawyers.That is the report that a settlement of $700,000 to Mr. Clinton's accuser was under consideration in talks between her lawyers and his. Robert S. Bennett, Mr. Clinton's top lawyer, has commented only that ''there is no settlement offer on the table,'' which dodges the question of whether there ever was.A spokeswoman for Gilbert Davis, one of the two Jones lawyers who quit her case, says the attorney-client relationship prohibits him from either confirming or denying that the offer was made.

A HOBBY AS enduring as stone and mortar took up residence in the heart of Evelyn Jones one Christmas Day nearly 30 years ago. That was the day her husband, the late Army Maj. Nelson Jones, presented her with a two-story colonial dollhouse. The foundation for a lifetime hobby was laid. Jones' collection has grown to nearly 20 pieces, and in time for October's National Dollhouse and Miniature Month, it is on display in the Pascal Center for the Performing Arts Gallery at Anne Arundel Community College.

MARINA DEL RAY, Calif. - Just when Democrats thought they could put the scandals of the Clinton years behind them, guess who is staying in the same hotel as a bunch of the party's movers and shakers, including the entire Maryland delegation to the national convention? None other than Paula Jones, who made more than a few headlines in her day after a certain Arkansas Democrat noticed her in another hotel lobby and summoned her to his room. This time, though, Jones, dressed in a tight red, white and blue sweater, says she's staying out of politics.

THIS IS HOW Bill Clinton's apparent misconduct in the Paula Jones case should have been handled all along. In Arkansas. With nothing more at stake than his ability to practice law. Finally, we have an appropriate response to Mr. Clinton's inappropriate behavior. Of course, to get to this reasoned conclusion, the citizenry had to suffer through an agonizing federally funded investigation and impeachment trial two years ago. That whole process was a sham, because Mr. Clinton's behavior didn't rise to the level of "high crimes and misdemeanors" required by the Constitution to remove a president.

THE ISSUE of proportionality looms large in Judge Susan Webber Wright's citation of President Clinton for civil contempt of court. It was missing in the impeachment of the president.Mr. Clinton's testimony in Paula Jones' lawsuit about whether he had ever been alone with Monica Lewinsky was intentionally false and misleading, regardless of the definition of "sexual relations." The judge agreed that his aggravation with what he considered a politically inspired lawsuit may have been justified, but deception was not his proper recourse.

WASHINGTON -- A federal judge in Arkansas found President Clinton in contempt of court yesterday for giving "intentionally false" testimony last year when he told Paula Corbin Jones' lawyers that he did not have "sexual relations" with Monica Lewinsky -- and could not even recall being alone with her.The ruling -- the first time a president has been found in contempt of court -- branded the only elected president ever to be impeached with yet another blemish...

WASHINGTON -- She was a guarded witness who let it be known that her "mixed feelings" for the president had no business in a Senate impeachment trial. She was an indignant young woman who asked her questioner not to describe her encounters with President Clinton as "salacious." She was a flip observer who teased a room full of suits about how she wouldn't mind quitting early for the day and how she would never object to lunch.But for everything Monica Lewinsky was in her videotaped deposition to House prosecutors, what was most striking is what she was not. Instead of the giggly musings about world leaders and dress sizes that Linda Tripp recorded, Lewinsky yielded cautious observations almost lawyerly in tone.

THIS IS HOW Bill Clinton's apparent misconduct in the Paula Jones case should have been handled all along. In Arkansas. With nothing more at stake than his ability to practice law. Finally, we have an appropriate response to Mr. Clinton's inappropriate behavior. Of course, to get to this reasoned conclusion, the citizenry had to suffer through an agonizing federally funded investigation and impeachment trial two years ago. That whole process was a sham, because Mr. Clinton's behavior didn't rise to the level of "high crimes and misdemeanors" required by the Constitution to remove a president.

THE PRESIDENT who smoked pot but didn't inhale is the same president who cited but now says he was not relying on his military status as commander-in-chief to delay a civil suit brought by a woman who charges he propositioned her.Embarrassing? You bet. Politically damaging? You better believe it. Nonetheless, is Bill Clinton correct in seeking constitutional immunity from being bandied "from pillar to post" (Thomas Jefferson's words) by suits that distract him from his duties? Absolutely.

WASHINGTON -- Suggesting a crack in a united Republican front, Sen. James M. Jeffords of Vermont hinted yesterday that he might vote to dismiss impeachment charges against President Clinton."

WASHINGTON -- On the occasion of President Clinton's decision to shell out $850,000 to make the Paula Jones case go away, the president's private lawyer, Bob Bennett, explained it by saying Mr. Clinton "is not prepared to spend one more hour on this matter."Small wonder. "This matter" opened a sleazy can of worms for the president that ultimately exposed his scandalous behavior with Monica Lewinsky in the Oval Office and resulted in his repeated public and grand jury lies about it.Had Mr. Clinton agreed to settle when he had the chance much earlier, the Lewinsky matter might never have come to light.