A L S O__T O D A Y Loyal to the end By Jessica Seigel Susan McDougal, on trial in California on non-Whitewater offenses, feels vindicated (09/18/98) THE HENRY HYDE AFFAIR Editorial Salon's declaration of independence Political firestorm erupts against Salon By Harry Jaffe Republicans charge that White House was behind story and call for FBI investigation "This hypocrite broke up my family" By David Talbot The secret affair of Henry Hyde, the man who will sit in judgment on President Clinton Editorial Why we ran the Henry Hyde story - - - - - - - The full text of The Starr Report and The White House Rebuttal T A B L E+T A L K Was Jimmy Carter the best president since WW II? Pine for simpler times in the Politics area of Table Talk R E C E N T L Y Lives of the Republicans, Part Two By David Neiwert The strange case of Helen Chenoweth shows that playing the sex card against the Democrats as a political strategy can be, in Idaho parlance, as "dumb as a mud fence" (09/16/98) White House adjusts its game plan By Jonathan Broder White House switches tactics (09/14/98) Where's Whitewater? By Jonathan Broder The independent counsel seems to have forgotten something on his way to the impeachment party (09/11/98) The voyeur general's report to Congress By Gary Kamiya Once its Peeping-Tom shock wears off, the Starr report is nothing more than an extreme close-up of what we already knew (09/11/98) Commentary: The other woman By Murray Waas The one woman Clinton really hurt (09/10/98) - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Browse the Newsreal Archives - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
		Hyde lied, says former lover "Long-term relationship" ended at least two and a half years after Hyde claimed it did, charges Cherie Soskin. Left: Cherie Soskin and Henry Hyde at a Chicago hotel in December 1966. The inscription reads: "I love you Cherie!!!!" and is signed "Hank." - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - BY DAVID TALBOT House Judiciary Committee chairman Henry Hyde's former lover charged that he lied in his public statement about his affair with her. On Wednesday Hyde told Salon that the extramarital relationship ended when the woman's husband, Fred Snodgrass, confronted Hyde's wife, five years after the affair began. But Thursday Hyde's former lover, Cherie Soskin, now 62 and a resident of San Antonio, Texas, challenged Hyde's account. According to her grown daughter, Soskin said the affair continued for at least two and a half years after Hyde's wife, Jeanne, was told of the relationship. "My mother is very mad about Henry Hyde's statement -- she thinks it belittles the importance of their relationship," said her daughter, who asked that her name not be published because of the media firestorm surrounding the story. "Hyde called it a 'youthful indiscretion,' like it was just a fling or something. What a laugh. My mother said it was a long-term relationship." Hyde was 41 years old when his affair with Soskin began in 1965, and by her account was nearly 50 when the sexual relationship finally ended. Hyde's committee will decide whether President Clinton's sexual misbehavior and his efforts to keep it secret should be grounds for possible impeachment. Soskin was trying to keep a low profile on Thursday as reporters throughout the country began hunting for her. She did not return a phone call from Salon. But in an interview with her hometown newspaper, the San Antonio Express-News, Soskin said Hyde also lied to her about his marital status during their affair. "I did not know he was married," she told the newspaper. "He portrayed himself as a single person, and I didn't bother to check or anything like that." Soskin told her daughter that she knew Hyde was involved in at least one other adulterous relationship besides the one he had with her. Soskin told the Express-News that her marriage with Fred Snodgrass was falling apart when she met Hyde, whom she called Hank. Snodgrass, whose account of the affair in Wednesday's Salon set off a political furor in Washington, again blasted Hyde on Thursday. "He had an affair with a young woman with three children," said Snodgrass. "At least the president didn't do that." SALON | Sept. 18, 1998