Paula Jones

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.

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 -- 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."

A good thing Bill Clinton gets only two terms. It means Ken Starr cannot have a third.Paula Jones is appealing, sort of.With Pol Pot gone, Saddam Hussein will have to suffice in the demon department.Mount Vernon will get central air conditioning so that tourists will no longer pass out in 100-degree rooms in August. Is nothing sacred?Pub Date: 4/20/98

"I want to say one thing to the American people. I'm going to say this again: I did not have sexual relations with that woman, Miss Lewinsky. I never told anybody to lie. Not a single time. Never. These allegations are false, and I need to go back to work for the American people."President Clinton"She very much sets an example for people here about getting about your work. She's out publicly and setting a very helpful tone."Ann Lewis, White House communications director on Hillary Clinton.

From its inception, Jones vs. Clinton was larger than anything alleged in it.The lawsuit's sole allegation was that then-Arkansas Gov. Bill Clinton made an obscene sexual overture to Paula Jones in a Little Rock hotel room in 1991. There were no witnesses and no corroborating evidence. Yet this case managed to stay in the news for more than three years, and it affected the way we view the presidency, politics, the media, the courts and the legal profession.Last week, U.S. District Judge Susan Webber Wright dismissed the lawsuit, and unless her decision is overturned on appeal, Jones will never have a chance to prove her allegation, and Clinton will never have a chance to disprove it. Meanwhile, only two people, Clinton and Jones, know what happened, and even a trial might not have uncovered the truth.

WASHINGTON -- Just a few weeks after being forced out of the vice presidency in a criminal prosecution, Spiro T. Agnew evoked applause when he appeared at a restaurant or theater.Almost from the moment he left, Agnew complained that he had been railroaded out of office. In fact, as a price he paid to be allowed to plead nolo contendere to felony charges, Agnew had signed a 40-page statement admitting criminal behavior such as taking $100 bills in plain brown envelopes.But some people are always willing to accept revisionist versions of the facts.

WASHINGTON -- Paula Corbin Jones' loss in a federal court yesterday is not likely to harm independent counsel Kenneth W. Starr's continuing probe for possible criminal acts by President Clinton, his associates and aides.Whatever additional political woe the ruling may create for Starr, already suffering in public opinion polls, the decision may actually facilitate his ability to carry on the grand jury investigation, legal experts suggest.In fact, analysts said, the end of the Jones case -- and it does appear to be over since there is only a long-shot chance of a revival on appeal -- could make Starr's task easier as he continues an investigation begun over the Whitewater land deal.

The Great American Demonization Game continues apace. It has replaced baseball as our national pastime. Everybody has his or her own bete noire. It seems that, in order to feel better about ourselves, we have to pick out people to demonize.And the demons come in all races, genders, ethnicities and political persuasions. President Clinton has been demonized, though admittedly he has probably done much to aid and abet his demonizers. Clinton has long proclaimed he is not the womanizer or sexual harasser several women - Paula Jones, Gennifer Flowers, Kathleen Willey, Monica Lewinsky - have claimed he is. The guess is that all these women can't be wrong.

DID MONICA Lewinsky agree to tell the grand jury that President Clinton encouraged her to lie about their relationship?Your answer depends on where you get your news. In essence, the New York Times said yes, the Washington Post and the Los Angeles Times said no, and virtually every other major news organization was somewhere in-between -- including the Wall Street Journal, which avoided characterizing her potential testimony altogether.Attributing their information to various sources familiar with the negotiations between Ms. Lewinsky and independent counsel Kenneth Starr, this is what various news organizations reported:Times versionThe New York Times: Under the headline, "Lewinsky, Given Immunity, Reportedly Agrees to Tell of Pact with Clinton to Lie," said she had "promised to testify that she and President Clinton had agreed to deny that they had a sexual relationship."

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."

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.

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 -- 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.

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.

WASHINGTON -- Ending one of America's most famous and damaging lawsuits, President Clinton agreed yesterday to pay Paula Corbin Jones $850,000 to withdraw her sexual misconduct case. The president made no apology and admitted nothing.By settling the case that had led to the Monica Lewinsky sex scandal, Clinton put a stop to a legal challenge that threatened to run on for months and might have gone to trial in a flood of more negative publicity.Jones stands to receive some money -- after her lawyers take an undetermined share -- from a lawsuit that had been dismissed and whose long-term prospects were doubtful, even if it had been revived on appeal and gone to trial.