Let The Games Begin!

By Richard Lacayo

Robert Bennett, the President's implacable lawyer, has started admitting it in public. The Paula Jones suit against Bill Clinton is really going to trial. When it gets to federal court in Little Rock--the scheduled starting date is May 27--it may finally get down to facts. Or at least fact finding. But in the meantime it remains a battle of images. Jones has a new one, with softer makeup and less agitated hair. And the White House spent a few days last week making the most of a politically convenient controversy over news pictures of the Clintons waltzing on a beach in the Virgin Islands. Whatever questions those pictures raised about First Family privacy, what better photo op for a man accused of sexual harassment than to have him caught romancing--ohmigosh!--his wife?

All the same, the image advantage went to Jones when the Washington Times reported that Clinton's long-anticipated deposition in the suit would be heard on Jan. 17 in the White House and that Jones would be there to look him in the eye. Because the time and place are supposed to be secret, they both may change. But Bennett also says he will make no move to challenge Jones' right to attend. Plaintiffs in civil cases often do, though they can't ask questions themselves. The mere thought of her sitting across from Clinton with a fixed expression was enough to gain her side some headlines that did nothing for Chief Executive dignity.

All of which means that the maneuvering is getting serious. In response to a September letter signed by 21 Republican members of Congress, the Treasury Department has begun looking into the IRS decision to audit Jones and her husband Stephen, an inquiry begun just a few days after they reportedly turned down a $700,000 settlement offer from Clinton's lawyers. At first blush, revenge by audit would seem so heavy-handed and visible a tactic that no one would try it. That was what White House press secretary Mike McCurry meant in September when he said, "We do dumb things from time to time, but we are not certifiably crazy." Jones, however, would not be the first Clinton antagonist to be audited. So was Billy Dale, a chief figure in the scandal involving the White House travel office. According to the letter from the 21 Republicans, that audit looked fishy enough to begin with. According to the Washington Post, "Either lightning really did strike twice," they wrote, "or individuals within this government have grossly misused their authority."

Though he denies that the IRS is being used against Jones, Bennett wouldn't mind a review of the tax-exempt status of the Rutherford Institute, the conservative religious-liberty group paying part of her legal expenses. In an attempt to prove that Rutherford is pursuing nothing more than a political attack against the President, last month Bennett subpoenaed its financial records. He's also charging that donations to the separate Paula Jones Legal Fund are being diverted to pay for her hair care, jewelry and clothing. Institute leaders call the subpoena an attempt to harass them for defending Jones, and have asked a federal judge to quash it.

Bennett says he believes no effort to settle the case will satisfy the Jones side because a trial is more valuable for book deals. Susan Carpenter-McMillan, Jones' adviser, who has taken to comparing her client to Joan of Arc, says it's going to trial because justice needs to be done. In either case, it's going forward. Maybe Clinton's distinguishing characteristics, maybe some bits from Jones' past--the next set of dueling "images" is coming up fast.

--By Richard Lacayo. Reported by Jay Branegan/Washington

With reporting by Jay Branegan/Washington