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 It Reads Like a Clare Boothe Luce Play
* The Women: Juanita Broaddrick (AKA Jane Doe #5).
Hillary Rodham Clinton. Monica Lewinsky. Lisa Meyers.
Barbara Walters. Dorothy Rabinowitz.
* The Stages: NBC. The Wall Street Journal. ABC. The Washington Post. The Drudge Report.
* The unseen anti-hero: Bill Clinton.
* First, the Juanita Broaddrick thing: The buzz in Washington is not so much about what Bill
Clinton did or did not do, to or with Juanita Broaddrick. The buzz is all about who at NBC was on
which side of the “to air or not to air” question with regard to Lisa Meyer’s interview of Ms.
Broaddrick.
* To review the bidding, NBC’s Lisa Meyers did an interview with Ms. Broaddrick which was
(according to Broaddrick) scheduled to air on January 29 as a Dateline segment. The outcome of
the Senate trial was not in much doubt on January 29, but neither was it over. Remember what
happened in the House when the Moderate Republicans viewed the “Jane Doe #5” materials. The
piece didn’t air on January 29 and still hasn’t aired.
* Matt Drudge, true to his calling (and gaining admiration for it, however reluctantly), jumped on
the alleged internal bickering at NBC and got the internet whipped up into a frenzy about it.
* At some point the Wall Street Journal editorial page editors decided to send one of their own,
Dorothy Rabinowitz, to interview Ms. Broaddrick the results of which ended up on the op-ed pages
– not the news pages the editors of which were not even informed of the piece – of the Journal last
Friday (an oddity which was pointed out in that day’s Mullings).
* On Saturday, the Washington Post ran a article on its front page – albeit below the fold – about
the entire event as remembered by Broaddrick. Howard Kurtz, the Post’s remarkable media writer,
wrote a piece nearly as long as the news article, about how the media is dealing with themselves
and each other.
* Hillary Rodham Clinton is on the covers of both Time and Newsweek magazines regarding her
possible run for Senate from New York. Rudy Giuliani, the Mayor of New York, has cleverly used
the possible match-up as a step ladder to national prominence. This whole thing feels like sports
radio hosts holding a “mock NFL draft” in which experts are brought in to debate with the host and
callers as to which team should draft which kid so someone can end up in the Superbowl next
year.
* Someone will end up in the race for New York Senator next year.
* Monica, meanwhile, is now “GO” for her televised interview with Barbara Walters. So much so,
that ABC has scheduled a press conference for later today to discuss it. Ms. Walters and ABC
have, reportedly, been in heavy negotiations with Ken Starr’s office to draw the lines around what
Monica can and cannot discuss. Which has led to speculation over what he is still investigating.
* Here’s MY choice for the New York Senate race in 2000: Bill Clinton versus Donald Trump. Bill
Clinton doesn’t live in New York. Donald Trump does, but many New Yorkers wish he didn’t.
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