NBC finally
aired Juanita Broaddrick's accusation that Bill Clinton forced himself
on her 21 years ago. The segment examined problems in her story: 1) She said
"no" at first but later stopped resisting; 2) she didn't report the crime; 3)
she can't remember when it happened; and 4) she filed an affidavit in the Paula
Jones case denying she had been assaulted. Her explanations: 1) she was
"panicky"; 2) she was "in denial"; 3) she thought "it was my fault"; and 4) "I
didn't think anyone would believe me." Clinton's lawyer denies the allegation,
but the White House refuses to say where Clinton was on the day in question.
The spins: 1) Broaddrick has no motive to lie. 2) But she ruined her
credibility by changing her story twice. 3) Her credibility can't be as bad as
Clinton's. 4) What's scary is that the allegation is plausible. 5) Democrats
are cowards for ignoring it. 6) Republicans are cowards for secretly using it
as a basis for their impeachment votes. (For more on the Broaddrick spins, see
Michael Kinsley's ".") (2/26/99)
John
William
King received the death penalty for chaining James Byrd
Jr. to a pickup truck and dragging him to his death. King would be the first
white executed in Texas for killing a black since the 1850s. The jury of 11
whites and one black rejected the defense's argument that poor conditions in
the Texas prisons in which King had served time had caused his racism.
Optimists and pessimists debated whether the case showed 1) the persistence of
racial violence or 2) a growing resolve to prosecute it. Liberals debated
whether the sentence was 1) bad because the death penalty is always wrong or 2)
good because the death penalty has been applied in a racially discriminatory
manner. (2/26/99)
Washington,
D.C.'s top DJ, Doug Tracht (a k a "The Greaseman") was fired for joking
about the Texas racial murder . Shock jock Tracht played a song by a black
hip-hop artist and then joked, "No wonder people drag them behind trucks."
Listeners and black radio stations protested and Tracht apologized, but his
station fired him, saying it "cannot be associated with the trivialization of
an unspeakable act of violence." The spins: 1) He's a good DJ who made a "slip
of the tongue." 2) He's a racist who joked on the air in 1986 about Martin
Luther King Jr.'s birthday, "Kill four more and we can take a whole week off."
3) The scandal is that only a comment this offensive can get a shock jock
fired. (2/26/99)
Radical
feminist scholar Mary Daly refused to let two male students enroll in
her Boston College introductory course on feminist ethics. She says 1) she has
offered to teach male students separately, but having them in a class with
women would dampen debate among the women; and 2) one of the male students was
a conservative who was just trying to score a political point. The college
administration, citing gender equality law, told Daly to admit the male
students or stop teaching. Daly is taking a leave of absence in the hope that
the dispute will blow over. She accuses the college of "caving in to right-wing
pressure and depriving me of my right to teach freely and depriving [female
students] of the opportunity to study with me." (2/26/99)
Attorney General
Janet Reno and Independent Counsel Kenneth Starr agreed to work together in
Reno's investigation of Starr's investigation of President Clinton. To
recap: Reno decided to launch an inquiry into Starr's conduct in the Monica
Lewinsky case. Then a conservative legal group asked the three judges who had
appointed Starr to intervene. The judges ordered Reno and Starr to file briefs
on whether Reno had authority to launch the inquiry. The conservative spin:
Reno is conspiring with Clinton to get Starr. The liberal spin: Starr is
conspiring with the three judges and the conservative legal group to hide their
conspiracy to get Clinton. The cynical spin: Let's get rid of the independent
counsel law so we don't have to listen to any more of this garbage.
(2/26/99)
The Kosovo
peace talks made progress . The ethnic Albanian delegation, which is seeking
independence from ethnically Serbian Yugoslavia, agreed to the peace deal in
principle but asked for two weeks to convince its armed allies to abandon their
rebellion against the Serbs in exchange for limited self-rule. The talks
recessed until March 15. The scenarios, in order of ascending cynicism: 1) The
ethnic Albanians will approve the deal, enabling NATO to threaten Yugoslav
President Slobodan Milosevic with bombing unless he goes along. 2) The Serbs
will use the recess to attack the ethnic Albanians. 3) Ethnic Albanian
hard-liners will use the recess to attack the Serbs in the hope of persuading
the ethnic Albanian population to back the war instead of the peace talks. 4)
The Serbs will attack the ethnic Albanians in the hope of persuading them to
back the war, which the Serbs would win, instead of the peace talks, which the
Serbs would lose. 5) The ethnic Albanians will approve the deal, NATO will
threaten Milosevic, Milosevic will ignore the threat, and NATO will once again
do nothing. (2/24/99)
Twelve
Republican governors threw their support behind Gov. George W. Bush ,
R-Texas, in the 2000 presidential race. Bush's supporters expect at least three
more governors to add their support soon. Meanwhile, GOP Chairman Jim Nicholson
announced that he would publicly castigate any Republican presidential
candidate who "sowed division" in the party by attacking other candidates
personally. Nicholson's allies translate this as a warning against further
attacks on Bush. This comes amid news that Pat Buchanan is taking another leave
from CNN's Crossfire to explore a third presidential bid. The pro-Bush
spin: It's amazing how early Republicans are uniting behind tomorrow's leader.
The anti-Bush spin: It's not surprising that the governors are backing one of
their own. The Democratic spin: Republicans are in deep trouble and are
desperately hoping Bush can save them. (2/24/99)
Election news:
1) Chicago Mayor Richard Daley won re-election with more than 70 percent
of the vote. Several black politicians backed Daley despite assertions by his
opponent, Rep. Bobby Rush, D-Ill., a former Black Panther, that Daley had
neglected poor people. The rosy spin: It's a victory for racial unity. The
cynical spin: The Daley machine lives on. 2) Johnny Isakson, a former
Republican state legislator, won the special election for Newt Gingrich's
House seat . The media had a field day contrasting the "moderate" Isakson
with the "combative" Gingrich, noting that Democrats "see Isakson as a pleasant
change" and that Isakson thrashed second-place finisher Christina Jeffrey, the
historian whom Gingrich had fired in 1995 over her comments on the Holocaust.
(2/24/99)
Johnnie
Cochran said he will assemble a dream
team of lawyers to hold the New York police "accountable" for the death of
an African street peddler . The victim, Amadou Diallo, died after
plainclothes policemen fired 41 bullets at him in the vestibule of his
apartment building, hitting him 19 times. The racial controversy has consumed
New York. The officers have been placed on administrative duty while a grand
jury examines the case. At the same rally at which Cochran spoke, the Rev. Al
Sharpton said, "The U.S. itself is on trial before the world."
(2/22/99)
Movie critic
Gene Siskel died at 53 . He had been recuperating from surgery to remove
a brain tumor. Obituaries fondly recalled his on-air debates and "two thumbs
up" salutes with fellow reviewer Roger Ebert on their eponymous syndicated TV
show. Siskel was the skinny one. The pessimistic spin: There's only one thumb
left. The optimistic spin: There's still one thumb left. (2/22/99)
The prime
ministers of India and Pakistan signed agreements to reduce their tensions.
They pledged to alert each other to nuclear weapons tests or accidents. They
also promised to try to solve their border dispute over Kashmir. This comes
nine months after both countries showed off their nuclear arsenals by
detonating bombs underground. The spins: 1) They've agreed to give peace a
chance. 2) What agreement? They've only agreed to keep talking. 3) Coming from
India and Pakistan, that's nothing to sneeze at. 4) It's amazing that they've
relaxed their enmity after showing each other their nuclear weapons. 5) They've
relaxed their enmity precisely because they've shown each other their nuclear
weapons. (For more on the meeting, see ".") (2/22/99)
