Just when it looked as if Bill Clinton was beginning to get the hang of the presidency, four Arkansas state troopers stepped forward to ruin his Christmas holiday.
In carefully documented stories in the Los Angeles Times and the American Spectator, the troopers tell of seeing Bill Clinton in compromising situations with dozens of women while he was governor of Arkansas.Even after his election as president in November of 1992, we are told of a female visiting the governor's mansion at least three times "in the pre-dawn hours, usually about 5:15 a.m." A state trooper escorted the woman past the Secret Service agents and then "stood guard inside the mansion at the door to the basement while Clinton and the woman were downstairs" and Hillary was "asleep upstairs."
We are told of an episode on the grounds of the Governor's Mansion. A state trooper asserts that "Clinton and a clerk from a local department store were in the woman's car, which was parked beneath a security camera." On a video screen the trooper claims to have observed Clinton and the woman in a sex act.
We are told of one instance where Clinton is alleged to have eyed a woman at a reception at the Excelsior Hotel in Little Rock and then asked a state trooper "to approach the woman . . . tell her how attractive the governor thought she was, and take her to a room in the hotel where Clinton would be waiting."
When asked directly whether there was any truth to the charges, the president denied them, saying, "they're not so. We have not done anything wrong."
The women whom the troopers chauffeured Clinton to meet were probably not all as tough and sophisticated as Gennifer Flowers. How many of these women - probably young, perhaps innocent, maybe married - felt, instead of salacious delight, a shiver of cold fear when the governor came calling?
Remember, the governor of Arkansas is the "commander-in-chief" of the state police. He is in charge of the courts. He can audit tax returns. He may even employ your spouse.
Sound farfetched? How many telephone calls have you received from your governor? How many times has he propositioned you?
If it is true that Clinton abused his authority, if he coerced just one Arkansas woman to have sex with him, then he is guilty, at best, of sexual harassment, at worst, of "authority rape."
Hillary may be willing to forgive him, but I'm not sure the rest of us can afford to. For if a man has a character flaw this deep, he is not fit to be president of the United States.
Let the investigations begin.