THIS FAR AND NO FURTHER
A Timeline of Events Surrounding the Radical Right's Attempt to Subvert American Democracy
Written and Compiled by Black Max
1997:
March
- March 22: Ann Coulter says on MSNBC, "I have to say I'm all for public flogging. One type of criminal that a public humiliation might work particularly well with are the juvenile delinquents, a lot of whom consider it a badge of honor to be sent to juvenile detention. And it might not be such a cool thing in the 'hood to be flogged publicly." (Washington Monthly)
- March 24: Starr attempts to get David Hale's sentence reduced or dismissed in return for Hale's testimony against the Clintons. (CNN)
- March 24: Former White House staffer Linda Tripp, who has become one of Newsweek reporter Michael Isikoff's juiciest sources, hints at something potentially much larger than the Paula Jones and Kathleen Willey tales of sexual woe: "You're barking up the wrong tree," she coyly suggests. In April, she gives in to Isikoff and relates what she knows, what she thinks she knows, and what she fantasizes about the Clinton White House. According to Tripp, the president is consumed by sex, his staff is obsessed with cover-ups of one criminal scandal and activity after another, and a former White House intern is providing the president with sexual favors. The last part is actually true, though Tripp does not yet divulge Monica Lewinsky's name to the salivating Isikoff. Tripp tells of oral sex in a particular passageway near the Oval Office and of numerous late-night "phone sex" exchanges between Clinton and Lewinsky, stories that turn out to be true. Tripp also tells Isikoff a number of outlandishly false stories, either originating from Lewinsky or herself, of Clinton's confession that he has had hundreds of affairs (so many that he can circle on a calendar the days that he has actually been faithful to his wife) and of Clinton's hints that he will divorce his wife before his term is up and then marry Lewinsky. Isikoff is entranced by such brazenly sexual tales, but knows he will have to have more than Linda Tripp's word before publishing such allegations. (Marvin Kalb)
