Update:
Monica Lewinsky is what the CIA and the KGB used to refer to as a "honey trap" -a temptress that is used to blackmail the enemy. The only mystery surrounding Lewinsky is to what extent did she cooperate and to what extent was she manipulated by Tripp and Goldberg? Not surprisingly, the only "insider" who has gone public to talk about Lewinsky and Tripp is Goldberg, the old pro who has evidently survived a dirty trick or two under the tutelage of Richard Nixon. Like the Lewinsky affair, the consistent element of the Willey incident is the dirty tricks that produced it. One can rest assured that if the Willey incident was at all credible, Starr would have indicted Julie Hiatt Steel for perjury and then, he would have had a clear, unadulterated case of perjury against the President of the United States, who denied the Willey allegations under oath, without qualification. But Starr's office obviously knows that these charges are not credible or they would have been pursued even more aggressively than the relatively minor Lewinsky allegations. Indeed, simple logic betrays the frivolity of the Willey allegations, not to mention the secret dirty tricks of the Lewinsky matter. Is it not safe to assume that when Lewinsky is discouraged from speaking to the media, there is an ulterior motive at play or does anybody seriously believe that Starr's office is simply trying to spare the President the embarrassment? The truth ultimately surfaces and while cunning lawyers and liars can explain it all away, it invariably survives. The simple fact of the matter is that if the Willey allegations were serious, Isikoff would have promoted them so passionately, that he would have delivered the media fantasy to produce the Bob Woodward of the 90's. The public relations blitz to criminalize the President of the United States doesn't even pass the laugh test, and it cannot possibly be confused with a legitimate investigation which has no agenda beyond the determination to expose the truth. If we and most of the media were not in a position to judge the credibility of reports about the semen-stained dress, it is because most people had nothing to do with the scheming to produce a "honey trap". But let's not get carried away here and claim that the Willey allegations are any more credible simply because we are not privy to every single detail regarding the plot to destroy the Clinton Presidency. We may not know everything, but we stand firm on what is exceedingly obvious.[posted November 16, 1998]
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