by John M. Curtis
(310) 204-8700

Copyright December 15, 1999
All Rights Reserved.

nducing reverse peristalsis, Linda Tripp proclaimed on the steps of the U.S. District Courthouse in Washington in 1998, "I am you . . . There’s one thing even they [Clinton’s supporters] cannot do. They cannot bastardize the constitution. The framers ensured the rights of each and every citizen. When I am feeling helpless, I find myself clinging to the truth." Please! Who’s she kidding? Flanked by her literary agent and friend Lucienne Goldberg, Linda Tripp’s motives for betraying her 'dear' friend and violating Maryland’s wiretapping laws should be clear by now to almost everyone. Bluntly put—money, publicity, book deals, and you know the rest. Blowing smoke about her allegiance to the constitution or truth can’t dismiss her motives in trying to bring down an incumbent president. Whether she was encouraged by Starr’s office or any other shadowy group is anyone’s guess. Accepting Tripp’s 'poor me' spin flies in the face of logic and common sense—and, of course, the facts.

       Though the Office of Independent Council [OIC] extended Tripp immunity in 1998, they were not in control of Tripp’s prior unlawful, furtive tape recordings of Monica Lewinsky. Tripp has never claimed that she wired herself originally under instructions from Starr’s office. Quite the contrary, once she had illegally procured the incriminating recordings, she contacted the OIC and offered them as proof of Monica Lewinsky’s and Clinton’s intent to lie under oath to the grand jury in the Paula Corbin Jones escapade. Proving this point, "She would have never turned over the Lewinsky tapes to Starr’s office unless she was protected from prosecution," said Tripp in a signed affidavit delivered by her defense attorney, Joseph Murtha. When Starr’s right arm, Jackie Bennett, went personally to Tripp’s home to secure the tapes, he assured her that she would be protected by an immunity agreement. What he failed to tell Tripp was that her illegal recordings were made prior to receiving her grant of immunity.

       "The state is not bound by the OIC’s promise," said Deputy Atty. Gen. Carmen Shephard, apparently agreeing with Howard County Circuit Court Judge Diane Leasure’s ruling that Tripp’s immunity came at least a month after the original recordings were made. Whether a technicality delayed Tripp’s immunity agreement for a month after she handed over the tapes, the truth is the unlawful tape recordings were done before she solicited Ken Starr’s office. Showing where politics and the law part company, many people aren’t too interested—other than pehaps Monica and the White House—in seeing Linda Tripp do time in state prison. With only 13 months left in office, recent developments don’t bode well for president Clinton. How can you prosecute Tripp for illegal wire tapping and not president Clinton for lying under oath to a grand jury?

       When Arkansas Judge Susan Weber Wright fined president Clinton for deliberately giving 'evasive, false and misleading' testimony before the grand jury, the president’s attorneys still insisted that he didn’t perjure himself in any way, shape or form. "The president’s behavior was maddening, misleading and evasive . . . but he didn’t lie," said White House counsel Charles Ruff, arguing before the House judiciary committee during impeachment hearings. Leaving that door open just a crack, senior lead White House counsel David Kendall quickly slammed shut any inferences of guilt or contrition. How could one forget the impassioned plea of president Clinton’s good friend retired Sen. Dale Bumpers (D-Ark.), "The president is subject to the same laws once he leaves office," pleading for leniency during Clinton’s impeachment trial. Why was Sen. Bumpers suggesting that the best remedy lies in the courts, once the president leaves office?

       With president Clinton facing an impeachment trial, Sen. Bumpers was all but conceding the perjury charge, arguing only that—whatever the president’s misdeeds—they didn’t warrant removal from office. Even vociferous House judiciary member Robert Wexler (D-Fl.) acknowledged Clinton’s alleged misconduct by asserting, "He did it, but so what?" Yes, Linda Tripp’s expected trial on two counts of felony wiretapping suggests that prosecutors aren’t through with president Clinton once he leaves office. When House member Lindsey Graham (R-SC) asked "Is my president a criminal?," sparking a lively debate that ‘criminal behavior’ doesn’t—in and of itself—constitute the prerequisite to 'high crimes and misdemeanors,' meeting the constitutional threshold for impeachment. As Sen. Bumpers argued, "the president is subject to the same laws once he leaves office."

       Coughing, hacking and wheezing from the smoke, president Clinton’s personal attorney Bob Bennett summed it all up that fateful day in January 1998 when Clinton waved his finger before the cameras and issued his categorical denial: "I smell a rat." Really. Following that signal, Hillary made the rounds on the Sunday news shows advancing her "vast right wing conspiracy" theory. Nearly a year later, with the Congress locked in ugly partisanship, Tomahawk cruise missiles pelting Saddam Hussein, and the peoples’ work placed on hold, Linda Tripp asserts that she recorded Monica Lewinsky out of heroic patriotism. How much more spin can the American public stomach? With her literary agent Lucienne Goldberg waiting in the wings, Linda Tripp is following carefully the Clintonian magic of feeding the public endless streams of cotton candy. Unlike Dick Morris, Marv Albert and countless other sex scandals, at least she’s consistent.

       Like her friend Monica, Linda Tripp’s patriotism revolves around her pathological selfishness and grandiose sense of entitlement. After all, Linda Tripp expects to be immortalized for setting up her friend and recording historic conversations implicating president Clinton in his shortsighted mission into personal disgrace. From Tripp’s perspective, Monica got all the marbles, why shouldn’t she get a few? Unlike Nathan Zapruder, whose 8mm film of JFK’s assassination won his estate millions of dollars, Linda Tripp’s flight from suburban banality into the limelight hasn’t yet panned out. No, for now she’s finally paying a draconian price for violating a basic karmic law: What goes around comes around. Today it’s a 'patriotic' housewife, tomorrow it might be a former Rhodes scholar?

About the Author

John M. Curtis is editor of OnlineColumnist.com. He’s also the director of a West Los Angeles think tank specializing in human behavior, health care and political research and media consultation. He’s a seminar trainer, columnist and author of Dodging The Bullet and Operation Charisma.

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