Chatterbox

Man Bites Dog

Now that the Wall Street Journal’s editorial page has proclaimed its allegiance to Juanita Broaddrick, the National Enquirer is siding with … Bill Clinton! The Enquirer says it hired a Palm Beach investigator named Jack Harwood to verify Broaddrick’s responses to Lisa Myers’ interview questions on NBC’s Dateline broadcast. With the aid of something called a “Verimetrics Instrument, a high-tech truth machine that measures stress in a person’s voice,” Harwood concludes that Broaddrick is telling the truth when she says she had sex with Clinton, but “she’s lying when she couches it as an unwanted assault or attack by Clinton.”

Chatterbox’s mind is reeling. Does this mean Clinton is innocent? Or is it the first sign of a change in editorial policy under the supermarket tabloid’s new ownership team, which includes former Clinton Deputy Treasury Secretary Roger Altman?

–Timothy Noah