Posted on 06/12/2003 4:57:39 AM PDT by arj
Among the many not-so-fond memories that come flooding back in the midst of the Hillary Clinton book mania, one is the most unsettling. Juanita Broaddrick, a businesswoman living in comfortable retirement, is again challenging the nation’s conscience with her detailed allegation being raped by then Arkansas Attorney General Bill Clinton in 1978.
Even as Hillary Clinton was on Larry King Live Tuesday night repeating her well-worn refrain against "the politics of personal destruction," Mrs. Broaddrick was on Fox-News, recounting her accusation of a brutal rape for the second time ever on TV.
The former nursing home executive had first broken her silence in 1999 in an NBC interview. At the time, she also revealed that she had five corroborating witnesses in whom she confided within hours or days of the incident.
Her case, part of the secret evidence collected by Independent Counsel Ken Starr, is reported to be a chief reason some members of the House voted to impeach President Clinton.
Yet ever since Mrs. Broaddrick reluctantly spoke out four years ago, her troubling allegation has never been fully examined.
"I don’t think it’s something anybody wants to hear," she told interviewer Sean Hannity Tuesday night.
Certainly not Bill Clinton, who skillfully shut off the discussion by declining to engage on the issue. Accused of not only the heinous assault but of coolly instructing the victim to "put some ice" on her bloodied lip chose a minimal response, Mr. Clinton referred reporters to his lawyer, who issued a curt statement of denial.
Journalists, after a couple of attempts to draw out a more complete answer, stopped asking. Many said that they were uncomfortable with the subject.
Feminists, especially those who run rape clinics might have come to the defense of the accuser as a potential case of victimization by a man in power. But rape crisis centers, their treasuries filled with grants from the Clinton administration, said nothing.
Onetime Clinton campaign aide Susan Estrich, a rape victim herself, said on Fox-News Tuesday night that the charges had come too late. After two decades, she said, it’s too hard for the accused to defend himself.
All of these rationales are familiar to Mrs. Broaddrick, a soft-spoken, one-time Clinton campaign volunteer who kept quiet as Bill Clinton rose to the highest office.
Now that Hillary has soared into the media spotlight, Mrs. Broaddrick said she wants to do what she can to halt a return to the White House by the Clintons.
Democrats sloughed off her Fox interview as bias toward the Republicans, even as the rest of the networks air gushing interviews with Hillary Clinton.
But Mrs. Broaddrick, who comes across as a warm and neighborly, represents the deep troubles that continue to overshadow the Clintons.
You might call this the politics of the personal instruction.
© Copyright 2003 by Capitol Hill Blue
Well none of the Clintonistas or sycophantic media do anyway, but apparently this interview got higher ratings than did Larry King's interview with Hillary! in the same time slot.
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