President Isn’t Above The Law Justice Now Delays Only Hurt Women.

President Bill Clinton has tried everything possible to avoid Paula Jones’ lawsuit.

He’s denied knowing her. He’s hidden behind lawyers. As commander in chief, he’s tried to claim immunity from the sexual-misconduct lawsuit under a little-known statute designed to protect active military personnel. He’s used White House aides and media allies to sully his accuser’s reputation.

In other words, Clinton has reacted as he usually does when confronted with one of his many scandals.

If he’s innocent, Clinton should welcome an opportunity to put this persistent case to rest. If he’s not, he deserves to face the music now, not after he leaves office four years from now. As the 8th U.S. District Court of Appeals ruled a year ago, Clinton’s not above “the same laws that apply to all other members of society.”

The U.S. Supreme Court, which on Monday will begin deliberating how much immunity a sitting president deserves from lawsuits, will do American women a grave injustice if it sides with Clinton.

Strangely, in a current Newsweek cover story sympathetic to Jones, Evan Thomas writes that her version of events is stocked with “believable evidence.” The Washington bureau chief helped marginalize Jones two years ago by describing her as “some sleazy woman with big hair coming out of a trailer.”

Jones, a former Arkansas state employee, contends Clinton, as Arkansas governor in 1991, made crude sexual advances toward her after summoning her to a hotel room.

Writes Thomas: “Arguably, the main reason more people don’t take her story seriously is that the mainstream media have been skillfully spun by the White House and Clinton lawyers.”

Originally, liberal journalist Stuart Taylor Jr. thought Jones was lying, too. But after reviewing her case, he found her evidence “highly persuasive” and “far stronger than the evidence supporting Anita Hill’s allegations of far less serious conduct by Clarence Thomas.”

Writing in the American Lawyer magazine in November, Taylor accused feminists and liberals of “hypocrisy (or ignorance) and class bias” for ignoring Jones’ case after clamoring for Thomas’ head. As the lynch mob said often during the Thomas’ hearings, “Women don’t make these things up.”

If Hill deserved to be heard, so does Jones.

, DataTimes MEMO: For opposing view, see headline: Spewing poison is lawsuit’s aim

The following fields overflowed: SUPCAT = EDITORIAL, COLUMN - From both sides