Still More Tawdry Tales

JUST WHEN IT SEEMED IMPOSSIBLE, THE CLINTON SEX wars got even more lurid last week. In a paid interview with the tabloid Star, a former flight attendant on Clinton's 1992 campaign plane claimed he had groped her against her will and stroked her breast ""on-and-off'' for 40 minutes while Mrs. Clinton slept nearby. Cristy Zercher, now 34, said she felt ""humiliated'' by Clinton's unwanted advances, which she said included inviting her into the plane's bathroom with his pants unzipped. One problem: in a 1994 interview with NEWSWEEK'S Michael Isikoff, then a Washington Post reporter, Zercher told a somewhat different story. ""There was nothing [Clinton] did that I didn't welcome,'' she said. She said that on one occasion Clinton unexpectedly ""grabbed me like a bear hug'' and startled her with suggestive comments. But she said, ""I never really saw it as offensive.'' A Star editor told NEWSWEEK Zercher held back the full story in '94. Zercher's lawyer did not return phone calls.

Even court papers read like the tabloids. Filings released by lawyers for Paula Jones included the allegation that Clinton had sexually assaulted a woman in a Little Rock hotel room 20 years ago. The uncorroborated charge, previously circulated by longtime adversaries of the president, including Arkansas private eye Larry Case, have been denied under oath by the purported victim, Juanita Broaddrick, now a nursing-home administrator in Van Buren, Ark. Last week Broaddrick, her lawyer and her husband declined to comment. A White House spokesman called the charge ""outrageous.''

Ironically, the Broaddrick allegation may overshadow a stronger piece of evidence offered in the Jones filing: an allegation of obstruction of justice by the White House. Last December Jones's lawyers subpoenaed any ""correspondence'' relating to Kathleen Willey. On Jan. 15, 1998, Clinton's lawyers responded that the president ""has no such documents.'' But earlier this month, to undercut Willey's story of Clinton's unwanted sexual advances on ""60 Minutes,'' the White House quickly produced 15 notes and letters from Willey.

Uncommon Knowledge

Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.

Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.

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