Eight years ago today, March 21, 1998, the first poll came out after Kathleen Willey appeared on “60 Minutes” and alleged that President Clinton had made unwanted advances to her in the White House. Notice how quaint this sounds today:

Americans polled by Newsweek appear to be sharply divided on whether Clinton should remain president if Kathleen Willey’s allegation of a sexual encounter with him is true.

In a survey of 750 adults released today, 49 percent said that even if the president lied, he should stay in office — with or without issuing an apology to the American people.

Yet 43 percent said Clinton should leave office if the allegation is true and Clinton lied about it.

A week after Willey’s appearance on “60 Minutes,” the president’s approval rating dropped to 62 percent, a two-point dip from last month’s Newsweek poll.

In that television interview, Willey said Clinton placed his hands on her breasts, kissed her on the mouth and placed her hand on his genitals during a conversation about her financial troubles. The encounter allegedly took place at the White House in 1993.

Only 37 percent of Newsweek’s survey respondents believe Willey’s allegation — but just 35 percent accept the president’s denial.

The survey also showed 39 percent said Clinton gets away with more than other political office holders, while 58 percent said he gets away with less or about the same as others.

And, 49 percent — 53 percent of them men — said that if Clinton held a job other than the presidency, the sexual behavior allegations against him would have forced him out of his job.

Ah, the good old days.

Hat tip to KO and Countown

North Korea Touts First-Strike Capability
SEOUL, South Korea – North Korea suggested Tuesday it had the ability to launch a pre-emptive attack on the United States, according to the North’s official news agency. A Foreign Ministry spokesman said the North had built atomic weapons to counter the U.S. nuclear threat. President George Bush said in an official statement,” “Bring it on, Kimchee boy!”

Iran Leader OKs Talks With U.S. on Iraq
TEHRAN, Iran – Supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said Tuesday that he approves of talks between U.S. and Iranian officials on Iraq, but warned that the United States must not try to “bully” Iran. Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice agreed to the extraordinary conditions, but observers said she had her fingers crossed when she said it.

‘We’re Not Disposable,’ French Youths Say
PARIS – When student demonstrators in France wear trash bags to protests, their message is: “We’re not disposable.” They’re angry about a new government job plan that will allow employers to fire them more easily. Shouting “Au contraire!” gendarmes grabbed the protesters and, in a largely symbolic gesture, tossed them into large bins labeled “Le Dumpster.”

Documents Show Saddam’s WMD Frustrations
BAGHDAD, Iraq – Exasperated, besieged by global pressure, Saddam Hussein and top aides searched for ways in the 1990s to prove to the world they’d given up banned weapons. “We don’t have anything hidden!” the frustrated Iraqi president interjected at one meeting, transcripts show. We wonder where these transcripts were three years ago ….

At his news conference today, President Bush took a question from Helen Thomas for the first time in four years. Helen, who is in her 80s, has been a critic of President Bush, so naturally he is terrified of her.

Helen has made it well-known what question she intended to ask Mr. Bush: Why did we go to war in Iraq?

His answer: You wanna know about Iraq? Let me tell you about Afghanistan. The president launched into the reasons we went to war against the Taliban, which gave him an excuse to connect the dots to Al Qaeda, and September 11 — and then he went a dot too far and connected September 11 to Saddam.

There you have it: We went into Iraq because of 9/11. The remedy for 9/11 was to get rid of Saddam. Yesterday, the president said he had always been “very careful never to say that Saddam Hussein ordered the attacks on America.”

When you read the president’s verbatim answer below, you’ll see that his statement makes no sense. This is intentional. It is a prima facie example of “mirroring,” a term I learned today which describes the linguistic hat trick that Mr. Bush and his team use to create their patented brand of truthiness.

According to BuzzFlash, mirroring is a way of obliquely phrasing an untrue statement so that a) listeners draw the intended false conclusion and b) the phrasing cannot be deconstructed to show that the statement was untrue.

Here is the master mirror man at work:

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Smells like low tide: As the idiot-fest that is the Bish presidency continues to blunder along (see yesterday’s abysmal face-to-face with citizens and today’s abysmal performance before the WH yes corps), some observers are beginning to see parallels with the situation in 1994, when the GOP junta took over.

National Journal’s Charlie Cook has done an analysis of poll results 12 years ago versus today, and finds the Republicans in much the same boat as the Dems were back then when they got swamped by the tidal wave of change the nation thought it wanted.

Cook says the “micro” approach to analysis, which looks at race by race, favors the Repugs, but the “macro” approoach to forcasting, which looks at all races in light of the national political environment, “suggests that the GOP could get swamped by a tidal wave. By almost every relevant measurement, national polls indicate that Republicans are at least as bad off as Democrats were at this point in 1994, before suffering devastating mid-term losses,” writes Cook.

Here is some of his evidence, edited for brevity:

Heading into the spring of 1994, an NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll found that 33 percent of Americans thought the country was headed in the right direction and 47 percent said it was on the wrong track, a 14-point advantage for pessimism. A new NBC/Journal poll, taken March 10-13, shows 26 percent “right direction” to 62 percent “wrong track,” a 36-point edge for pessimism.

At this stage of 1994, President Clinton’s job rating was 55 percent approval, 36 percent disapproval. In contrast, President Bush enjoyed only 37 percent approval — and 58 percent disapproval — in the latest NBC/ Journal poll. The March 10-12 CNN/USA Today/Gallup poll pegged Bush’s approval at 36 percent, with 60 percent disapproval.

In mid-March 1994, Clinton’s approval was at 50 percent and disapproval at 41 percent. In the final poll before the ’94 election, Clinton’s approval and disapproval scores were tied at 46 percent — 10 points more positive than Bush’s current standing.

Twelve years ago, Congress’s approval rating was just 31 percent, compared with 58 percent disapproval. The most recent survey found 33 percent approval and 53 percent disapproval.

Incumbents are slightly more popular as a group than they were a dozen years ago. Then, 35 percent of voters were inclined to re-elect their House member; 47 percent preferred someone new. Now, re-election is the choice of 41 percent, while 48 percent want a new face.
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