Reproduced with permission of The Progressive Review, 1739 Connecticut Avenue NW, Washington, DC 20009, 202-232-5544, Fax: 202-234-6222. Editor: Sam Smith, ssmith@igc.org.

Ex-Clinton aide talks
December 19, 1996

David Watkins got fired for getting caught by a photographer while scouting for golf courses near Camp David in a helicopter. In a typical Clintonian CYA gesture, the president fired Watkins on live television announcing that "Mr. Watkins has resigned; the taxpayers will be reimbursed. The Treasury will not be out one red cent for what happened there."

Clinton may be having second thoughts about making Watkins walk the plank. The ex-White House aide has become the first of his ilk to start spilling the beans. And we're not talking about some unreliable mere state trooper or FBI agent here, we're talking trusted Clinton aide.

Watkins's story is a bit on the tawdry side, reporting heavy action by both Bill and Hillary while in the White House -- Hillary with Vince Foster and Clinton with . . . well, we're above such sleaze so you'll just have to read it yourself in the January American Spectator.

The late gospel singer Mahalia Jackson used to sing, "I can't say one thing and then do another; be a saint in the church and a devil under cover." The Clintons, on the other hand, persist in pretending that they are moral and religious people, conscientious parents and a warm and loving couple. While they have the right to sleep with whomever they want, they do not have the right to have it both ways. Watkins's tale, if true, is ultimately not about sex but about chronic deceit.

It is also about timing. At 7:10 or 7:15 of a summer night, Watkins and his wife were watching "In the Line of Fire" at a movie theater in Washington when he was beeped with news of Vince Foster's death. This was shortly after the body was found. The White House, however, continues to insist that it did not hear about the death until 8:30 pm.