THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, January 14, 1996 TAG: 9601140047
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: ELIZABETH SIMPSON
LENGTH: Medium: 67 lines
Can we go back to Hillary Clinton's hairstyle controversy?
Or how about the brouhaha that erupted after she said, ``I'm not the type to stay at home and bake cookies.''
Heck, I'll even take a replay of the health-care reform fiasco if anyone is game.
But the latest controversy, over whether the first lady lied or not, is a tougher issue to lay to rest.
Working women like me want to love Hillary Clinton. We want to support her in the name of sisterhood, to proclaim her a trailblazer in a role steeped in tradition.
Corporate lawyer, defender of children, woman of a thousand 'dos. What's not to like?
Until recently, it was easy to dismiss the hubbub over Whitewater and the White House travel office. Her critics were just trying to discredit a first lady who dared to do more than order new china. At worst, what she had done at her former law firm was just plain old-fashioned politics being dredged up to bring down her husband's administration. Her involvement in Travelgate seemed remote.
But the latest documents to surface have been hard to ignore and impossible to defend:
The recently discovered billing records that raise questions as to whether Hillary misled investigators about how much legal work she did for the failed savings and loan at the center of Whitewater.
The memo by a former aide that said there would be ``hell to pay'' if Hillary's wishes for ``swift and decisive action'' were ignored. The newly released memo flies in the face of Hillary's assertions that she didn't order firings in the travel office.
Even if the Whitewater hearings never result in legal action, these recent developments smack of a coverup.
It's too bad, because Hillary was a pioneer of sorts. She didn't stick to the usual wifely duties of a first lady. Instead, she tackled health-care reform. Even if her proposals never got off the ground, they brought a critical issue to the forefront.
She didn't write a book from her dog's point of view like her predecessor did; she wrote one titled ``It Takes a Village'' that shows how children's lives can be improved by partnerships of government, churches and charities. The book even has a touch of the conservative Hillary when she says people should wait until they're 21 to have sex, and that divorce is too easy.
Hillary didn't just cut ribbons at ceremonies and have tea with ambassadors' wives, she rolled into the U.N. World Conference on Women in Beijing and blasted countries for their human rights violations.
She rejected the soft touch for a brassier approach, even though it resulted in ``Impeach Hillary'' bumper stickers.
And when she came under attack, Hillary often responded with a sense of humor: a cookie bake-off after the remark about stay-at-home moms. A spoof of the movie ``Forrest Gump'' when the media criticized her. ``My mama always told me the White House was like a box of chocolates,'' she said in a hokey Southern accent. ``Pretty on the outside but inside there's a lot of nuts.''
But the laughter died last week when New York Times columnist William Safire called Hillary ``a congenital liar.'' Even the president's hint that he'd like to punch Safire in the nose couldn't deflect legitimate questions about the first lady's integrity.
This time it's going to take more than a cookie bake-off to make Hillary look right again. by CNB