NEW YORK - Celebrity lawyer Robert S. Bennett characterizes the politically charged atmosphere of Whitewater as 'mean' and contends the press is guilty of 'McCarthyism' in its coverage of his client, the president of the United States.
'Let me ask you a question,' demands the grumpy Mr. Bennett of James B. Stewart, celebrity journalist and author of a book about the Clinton White House.
'You wrote that President Clinton was at one point preparing to personally apologize regarding the Paula Jones affair,' he says about the former Arkansas state worker who is suing Mr. Clinton for sexual misconduct. 'Now that's false. Did you make it up? No, but didn't you have time to call me and ask if it was true?'
'To the best of my recollection, my research assistant did call you,' replies the journalist, his color rising.
'No. Nobody called me,' snorts Mr. Bennett. 'I'm telling you that when there are only two people who know and nobody called me . . . well, what else in your book is equally wrong?'
The challenge was one of many caustic exchanges Wednesday in a wide-ranging discussion hosted by the Association of the Bar of the City in New York on how the press covers probes of major public figures. The journalists, including Mr. Stewart and Dean Baquet, national editor of the New York Times, took a drubbing from Mr. Bennett and Richard Ben-Veniste, minority counsel to the special Senate committee investigating Whitewater.
The Jones affair was ripe for debate, especially since Mr. Bennett has in legal briefs invoked the Soldiers' and Sailors' Civil Relief Act to avoid an immediate showdown on the case. He asserted that, as commander in chief, Mr. Clinton is on active duty and that the lawsuit should be postponed until he is again a private citizen.
Republicans have had a field day with the claim. But Mr. Bennett defended his stance. 'The issue is: Do you want the president tied up in litigation?' he told the audience of about 100 in Manhattan.
Mr. Bennett has since qualified the appeal petition filed with the U.S. Supreme Court to say: 'The president does not rely on, or claim any relief under, the . . . act.'
During the debate, Mr. Ben-Veniste accused journalists of furthering the agenda of the 'right-wing machine.' When Mr. Baquet suggested that defense lawyers also 'spin' information, Mr. Ben-Veniste replied, 'I'd hate to think someone would say, `Ben-Veniste told me it was raining outside when he was really pissing on my leg.' '
Shaking his finger at the Times' national editor, Mr. Bennett said the best spin is the truth.
Michael Chertoff, the Whitewater committee's majority counsel, emphasized the need for a vigorous press to alert the public to corruption, but he cautioned, 'Everyone is playing the expectations game, waiting for the smoking gun, but there is rarely a smoking gun in white-collar crime.'
Mr. Ben-Veniste reminded him of Watergate, to which Mr. Chertoff responded: 'Everyone learned in 1972 that you don't keep the tapes around. The reality is that people now are not likely to repeat Watergate, so let's get the facts out.'
Echoing the words of Tolstoy, who wrote in 'Anna Karenina' that every family is unhappy in its own way, he said, 'Each scandal occurs in its own way.'
Mr. Ben-Veniste characterized the Whitewater affair as 'the O.J. Simpsonizing of America: the conclusion first, evidence later.' He referred to the matter variously as 'this conglomeration of tidbits,' 'these crumbs out of which someone wants to make a cake' and 'this game of gotcha.'
Referring to the suicides of White House Deputy Counsel Vincent W. Foster Jr. and Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Jeremy Michael Boorda, he implied their deaths were linked to press coverage.
'Some people don't have the Teflon it takes. Some like Foster and Boorda have a Velcro mentality, and it has terrible consequences, unintended, but devastating,' Mr. Ben-Veniste said.
Mr. Baquet called the implication 'outrageous.' He said Mrs. Foster and Mrs. Boorda do not think the press killed their husbands.
'Did you read the note?' asked Mr. Ben-Veniste, apparently referring to Mr. Foster's suicide note.
'Here, ruining people is considered sport,' Mr. Foster wrote about Washington.
Mr. Chertoff decried the emphasis on the legal aspects of Whitewater and other scandals to the detriment of moral considerations.
