Reprinted from The Washington Times , 5am -- March 23, 1998
Willey decries attacks
by White House
By Joyce Howard Price
THE WASHINGTON TIMESKathleen E. Willey says the White House is "trying to make me look like a wacko" by disclosing that she visited President Clinton nine days after an encounter she described on national television as a crude and unwelcome sexual advance.
In her first interview since her dramatic appearance last Sunday on CBS "60 Minutes," Mrs. Willey, a longtime Democratic activist, told Newsweek that her follow-up visit and the friendly letters she subsequently sent Mr. Clinton were motivated by her need to get a job.
"I never hid those letters. They were my way of saying, 'Hello, I'm still out here. I need a job,'" said Mrs. Willey, who considered Mr. Clinton a friend and was reluctant to testify against him.
On her return visit to the Oval Office on Dec. 8, 1993, Mrs. Willey said she told the president: "I need to put what happened here behind us." She said Mr. Clinton's reaction was "zero. A blank stare."
When she poured out her plight to him, he seemed to only half-listen as he rummaged through a box of gifts, including neckties, she said.
Newsweek said the Richmond woman now is in seclusion in South Florida.
On "60 Minutes" and in sworn testimony, Mrs. Willey said Mr. Clinton kissed her, fondled her breasts and placed her hand on his genitals when she went to his office to see him about getting a full-time job.
Some leading feminists yesterday sharply disagreed as to the seriousness of Mrs. Willey's accusations against the president.
On NBC's "Meet the Press," Patricia Ireland, president of the National Organization for Women, repeated her assertion that the incident could constitute "sexual assault," rather than sexual harassment, by the president.
Eleanor Smeal of the Feminist Majority did not use that term in comments she made on CBS' "Face the Nation." Nevertheless, she said that if Mrs. Willey's claims are true, that constitutes "touching, and that is a form of misconduct."
But Ms. magazine founder Gloria Steinem, who weighed in on the matter in a column yesterday in the New York Times, held that at most Mr. Clinton might be guilty of a "clumsy sexual pass." She said her assessment was based on the fact that Mrs. Willey has said the president stopped his sexual advances after she pulled away.
As for former White House intern Monica Lewinsky, who was secretly taped telling a friend she had an 18-month sexual relationship with Mr. Clinton, Miss Steinem said there is no evidence that this was not consensual.
"Perhaps we have a responsibility to make it OK for politicians to tell the truth -- providing they are respectful of 'no means no; yes means yes' -- and still be able to enter high office, including the presidency," Miss Steinem, a founder of the National Women's Political Caucus, wrote.
But Mrs. Smeal told CBS she doesn't buy Miss Steinem's arguments on the Willey case. "I think it's definitely more serious" than she has portrayed it, she said.
Sen. Olympia Snowe, Maine Republican, said Miss Steinem's opinions in this case can only hurt the cause of American women. "The women's movement ought to be writing columns ... urging the president to come out and speak out, because I think we're taking a step backwards," Mrs. Snowe said on CBS.
On "Meet the Press," Anita Hill, who accused Supreme Court nominee Clarence Thomas of sexual harassment in 1991, said she doesn't believe Americans have "enough information to make a decision" as to the veracity of Mrs. Willey's story. And even if what she says is true, Miss Hill added, "I don't really think it was sexual harassment."
As for Miss Steinem's position, Miss Hill said the feminist leader seems to be saying "we have to look at the totality of the presidency and how has he been on women's issues generally. Is he our best bet, notwithstanding some behavior that we might dislike?"
Miss Hill added: "I don't think that most women have come to the point where we've said, 'Well, this is so bad that even if he is better on the bigger issues, we can't have him as president.'"
"There is a sort of selective outrage here," Rep. Anne Northup, Kentucky Republican, said on "Fox News Sunday." "I'm worried that women's support groups are really Democratic support groups."
In a related development, Donovan Campbell Jr., lead attorney for Paula Jones, conceded yesterday it was his camp that released to the press a letter Mr. Clinton's attorney, Robert S. Bennett, sent to a judge Thursday in which he threatened to use information about Mrs. Jones' sexual history in her case.Copyright 1998 News World Communications, Inc.
Reprinted with permission of
The Washington Times.
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