On Feb. 4, the deputy assistant to the president for ooze, Gregory Craig, begged the Senate not to include videotaped deposition testimony in the formal record of the Clinton impeachment trial. Why? Well, he was concerned about the nation's children, of course. Should "hour after hour" of Monica Lewinsky, Vernon Jordan, and -- gasp! -- Sidney Blumenthal be inserted "irreversibly" into "the living rooms and family rooms of the nation," he wondered?
True to form, the Senate, which is controlled by Republicans, and therefore cares nothing for children, went ahead and authorized partial release of these videotapes, anyway. And somehow the nation and its children survived.
But how much more fun the nation would have had if the entire depositions had been broadcast, instead of the snippets chosen sequentially by the House managers and Clinton's lawyers.
According to the fuller transcripts printed in the Congressional Record, for example, during her Feb. 1 deposition, Monica Lewinsky refused to say flat-out that the president is lying when he claims never to have touched her in ways that fall within the definition of "sexual relations" at issue in the Paula Jones civil suit. Why did she do that? "Because there is a portion of that definition that says, you know, 'with intent,' and I don't feel comfortable characterizing what someone's intent was."
Lewinsky was referring here to the "intent to gratify." It appears the young woman is no longer sure Bill Clinton had any interest in her pleasure whatsoever. THE SCRAPBOOK can't say it blames her.
Shortly after this darkly comic exchange, the House managers proposed a break for lunch, and Lewinsky jumped at the chance: "I never object to food." And when the deposition reconvened, she finally said something genuinely important -- which has somehow escaped the notice of America's superprofessional journalism school graduates. On Dec. 31, 1997, Lewinsky met Vernon Jordan for a breakfast he first denied ever attending -- but now claims to remember in some detail. When they were done eating, Jordan gave her a ride in his limousine.
While she was in the car with Jordan, Rep. Ed Bryant asked Lewinsky at her deposition, "Did you tell him that you had had an affair with the president?"
"Yes," Lewinsky answered.
She hadn't ever testified to that before. It means that Vernon Jordan continued to pursue an out-of-town job for Lewinsky -- after he knew for sure she was under subpoena, after he knew for sure she was Bill Clinton's mistress, and after he knew for sure that the president had lied to him about that.
And now the president has been acquitted. Mission accomplished.