T H E C L I N T O N C R I S I S The unholy alliance between Starr and the media By Joe Conason (2/12/98) T A B L E+T A L K Should a 35-year-old teacher who had a child with a 13-year-old boy be sent to jail? Join the Free Mary Kay Letourneau debate in Headlines D A I L Y+Q U O T E Mormon lib - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Browse the Newsreal Archives - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
		b l o w B a c k PUNDITS WHO HAVE BEEN PONTIFICATING ABOUT PRESIDENT CLINTON'S ALLEGED ADULTERY MAY SOON FIND THEIR OWN MORALS COMING UNDER SCRUTINY. BY JONATHAN BRODER WASHINGTON -- The next tasty treat in the media's feeding frenzy over President Clinton and Monica Lewinsky may be the media themselves. But it may make some of them, especially those who have taken to flights of moral outrage, gag on their own punditry. Maureen Dowd, moralizer-in-chief at the New York Times, is already having very bad dreams about the possibility. Warning of a "sexual Armageddon," she told readers in her column on Wednesday to be prepared for the spotlight to be turned on the illicit behavior of some of her colleagues. The White House, she avers, echoing rumors floated by former Clinton strategist George Stephanopoulos, "is considering the 'explosive' strategy of opening up every sexual closet in the city -- congressmen, reporters, pundits." If that were to happen, who might be among the first to feel some heat on the matter? How about Newsweek columnist and ABC-TV commentator George Will? In a recent column on the Clinton-Lewinsky affair, Will wrote: "Having vulgarians like the Clintons conspicuous in government must further coarsen American life. This is already apparent in the emergence of a significant portion of the public that almost preens about supporting the Clintons because of the vulgarity beneath their pantomime of domesticity." Will adds: "He [Clinton] has caused a pain he does not feel: The sense millions of Americans have that something precious has been vandalized. The question is, Who should come next to scrub from a revered institution the stain of the vulgarians?" If Dowd's fears are correct, then the "oppo research" department at the White House has probably already unearthed the January 1987 issue of Washingtonian magazine that described Will's "off again, on again" relationship with his then-wife, Madeleine. At the time, there was considerable gossip in media circles about the matter. A subsequent issue of Washingtonian reported that a pile of Will's belongings appeared one day in front of his Chevy Chase, Md., home with a sign on top that read, "Take it somewhere else, buster." Salon attempted to contact Will about the story, leaving a message with his secretary, but Will did not return the call. However, Amnon Dankner, a former Washington correspondent for the Israeli daily Haaretz, who lived near the Wills, told Salon that he saw both the pile of belongings and the sign. Soon after the alleged incident, Will and his wife separated, then later divorced. N E X T+P A G E+| Silence is hardly golden