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Suborn Again?

Mickey Kaus
Posted Friday, Jan. 23, 1998, at 1:54 PM ET

"I would never ask anybody to do anything other than tell the truth," said President Clinton yesterday. Really? Clinton may or may not be guilty of trying to get Monica Lewinsky to lie under oath about a sexual relationship they may or may not have had. But the techniques required to suborn perjury would not exactly be unknown to Clinton, if Gennifer Flowers' tapes can be believed (and their credibility has surely been enhanced by Clinton's reported admission that he indeed had an affair with Flowers). Recall that on one tape, made in late 1991, Clinton and Flowers discussed the state government job that then-Governor Clinton obtained for Flowers. Flowers is fretting about what to say to inquiring reporters when the following interchange occurs:

FLOWERS: The only thing that concerns me, where I'm, where I'm concerned at this point is the State job.

CLINTON: Yeah, I've never thought about that. But as long as you say you've just been looking for one, you'da, check on it. If they ever ask if you've talked to me about it, you can say no.

Perhaps Chatterbox is missing something, but it would appear that Clinton, almost instinctively, is urging Flowers to do something "other than tell the truth."

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Mickey Kaus, a Slate contributor, is author of The End of Equality.
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