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A close-knit band of friends and colleagues around Bill Clinton at the time of the Monica Lewinsky affair will speak publicly for the first time of their disbelief and sense of betrayal this month in a much-anticipated four-hour documentary about the former U.S. president.
The two-part biography, which premieres in Britain and America on Feb. 20, chronicles Clinton's struggle with his unruly libido from the beginning of a political career he was determined would take him to the White House. His loyal adviser, the pollster Dick Morris, will tell of the moment Clinton rang him just before evidence of his affair with Lewinsky was about to be made public.
"Bill said to me: 'Ever since I got to the White House I have had to shut down my body,'" says Morris, adding that Clinton told him he had been weak in the case of the 23-year-old intern and had done enough with her to be in serious trouble. He then asked Morris to conduct polls on how he should handle the crisis. Ken Gormley, a legal expert working in the White House, also recalls the sexual tension between the president and Lewinsky. "There were almost these sparks flying between them from the first moment when they saw each other," he says.
Those who worked with Clinton on his initial bid for governorship in his home state of Arkansas, campaigning alongside his wife Hillary, refer to his involvement with a long queue of women. One campaign chief remembers dealing with "25 women a day" who came into the office looking for Clinton, while Betsey Wright, the politician's trusted political aide, recounts how she eventually presented him with a list of girlfriends he had to deal with before he could stand as governor. "It became clear it was not the time to do it," she says.
As a result, Clinton pulled out of the race at the last minute. Marla Crider, who worked with Clinton in Arkansas and had an affair with him, describes women as being "literally mesmerized". "It was like flies to honey. I don't think there is any question Hillary was hurt," she says.
The decision to abort that early gubernatorial campaign was the first in a series of reversals and recoveries that have marked Clinton's career. David Maraniss, a Pulitzer prizewinning journalist and contributor to the documentary, believes it succeeds in revealing how Clinton's flawed nature both helped and hindered him. "People always try to separate the good from the bad in Clinton and say that, if he had not done certain things, he would have been a great president. But you can't do that. Those were his major characteristics," Maraniss told the Observer.
Clinton apparently deployed charisma of rock-star proportions, but with this came a sexual appetite that finally threatened his presidency when he faced impeachment for perjury over the Lewinsky affair in 1998. Wright tells the program-makers she felt betrayed because the president had lied to her and "to a lot of people" about the affair. Barak Goodman, the award-winning producer who made the Clinton film for America's Public Broadcasting Service, points out that until now Wright has been extremely loth to speak about the incident. "She has been underground for many years because she was so close and so important to Clinton and felt very bad," he said.
Robert Reich, Clinton's labor secretary, also expresses his sense of shock about the Lewinsky affair. "He would not be so stupid as to jeopardize his whole presidency, I felt. That was not the man I knew."
Reich also reveals the rocky start to Clinton's presidency in 1993. "The atmosphere in the White House in that first year was chaos," he says. "Clinton wanted to be a part of everything."
The documentary, which was partly funded by US government grant and partly by donation, details early difficulties such as the scandal surrounding Clinton's affair with Gennifer Flowers, the sexual harassment suit brought by Arkansas state employee Paula Jones, and the devastating suicide of the Clintons' close friend, Vince Foster, at the time that the suspected Whitewater land fraud first case came to light.
During the period that the Republicans under Newt Gingrich blocked the national budget, Lewinsky began her internship at the White House.
"Monica Lewinsky gave him something that he needed at that time: to be adored," says Crider. When the affair became public, however, it fuelled the inquiry into Clinton's presidency being run by Kenneth Starr and led to the impeachment of a president for only the second time in US history. (AP)
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"빌 클린턴, 르윈스키 첫만남부터 불꽃 튀어"
'여성 편력' 다룬 다큐멘터리 美·英서 방영 예정
빌 클린턴 전 미국 대통령의 '여성 편력'을 다룬 다큐멘터리가 오는 20일 미국과 영국에서 방송된다.
11일(현지시간) 영국 일간 가디언 등에 따르면 2부작, 4시간짜리 분량의 이 다큐멘터리는 클린턴이 정치에 입문했을 때부터 백악관에 입성한 뒤까지 보여준 '못 말리는' 여성 편력을 그 측근들의 입을 통해 집중적으로 다룬다.
측근들은 이 프로그램에서 1997년 클린턴과 백악관 인턴 모니카 르윈스키와 성추문이 터졌을 때 받았던 충격과 클린턴에 대한 배신감을 공개적으로 토로했다.
클린턴의 핵심 선거참모였던 딕 모리스는 르윈스키와의 성추문에 관한 증거가 공개되기 직전, 클린턴이 자신에게 전화한 순간을 떠올렸다.
모리스는 "클린턴이 백악관에 들어온 이후 몸가짐을 조심했어야 했었는데, 23살의 인턴의 경우에는 그가 나약해져서 심각한 상황까지 왔다고 말했다"고 회상했다.
클린턴은 그때 그 위기를 어떻게 대처해야 하는지 여론조사를 할 것을 부탁했다고 모리스는 전했다.
그 당시 백악관 법률전문가로 일했던 켄 곰리 교수는 대통령과 르윈스키 간에 성적 긴장감이 감돌았다고 증언했다. 곰리 교수는 "두 사람이 처음 만난 순간 불꽃이 튀었다"라고 회고했다.
클린턴에 대한 증언은 그가 아칸소주 주지사 선거에 출마했을 때까지 거슬러 올라간다.
클린턴과 선거 운동을 함께했던 캠프 관계자는 "하루에 25명 정도의 여성이 클린턴을 만나러 사무실에 왔다"고 기억했다.
클린턴의 보좌관이었던 베시 라이트는 클린턴이 주지사 선거에 출마하기 전에 반드시 처리해야 할 '여자친구 목록'을 만들어 제출했을 정도다.
그녀는 훗날 클린턴이 르윈스키와 스캔들에 관해 자신과 너무나 많은 사람에게 거짓말을 한 데 대해 배신감을 느꼈다고 토로하기도 했다.
클린턴 행정부 시절 노동부 장관을 지냈던 로버트 라이시도 르윈스키와 스캔들이 터졌을 때 받았던 충격을 언급하면서 "클린턴은 대통령직을 위태롭게 할 정도로 어리석었다"면서 "그는 그때 내가 알던 사람이 아니었다"고 회상했다.
클린턴에게는 여성을 끄는 남다른 매력이 있었던 것으로 보인다. 아칸소주에서 그와 함께 일하며 혼외 관계를 맺었던 마리아 크라이더는 여자들이 클린턴에게 "매료됐다"면서 "말 그대로 꿀로 날아드는 나비 같았다"고 묘사했다.
미 정부의 보조금과 기부금 등을 바탕으로 제작된 이 다큐멘터리는 클린턴과 제니퍼 플라워즈와의 불륜, 폴라 존스가 클린턴을 상대로 제기한 성희롱 소송, 클린턴의 '절친'이었던 빈스 포스터의 자살 등에 관해서도 다룬다.
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연세대 총장, “아태 최고대학 리그 G10 창설”
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