The Washington Times

THE CRIME WHOSE NAME HE CANNOT SPEAK

When reporters asked about the Supreme Court's decision in the Paula Jonescase, presidential press secretary Mike McCurry answered: "The opinion appears to have distracted all of you. The president is conducting the nation's business."

Mr. McCurry was suggesting that Mrs. Jones's accusations against President Clinton are a purely private affair. Even if that is true, however, the broader problem of sexual harassment is definitely the nation's business. Unfortunately, the president has failed to exercise any leadership on this issue.

Consider the recent sexual harassment scandal in the Army. Although he should not prejudge suspects in individual cases, President Clinton could publicly reassure women in the armed forces that their commander-in-chief will not tolerate such abuses.

But to date, his only public comment on the issue came during an April 18 press conference, when he said: "Well, as you know, there's now an inquiry going on, and the instructions that I have given on this are the same instructions I gave on the Gulf War issue, which is to get to the bottom of it, find the facts, tell the truth, and take appropriate action. And I think we ought to let that play out."

A search of the White House site on the World Wide Web, as well as the Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents, reveals something startling. Only on two other occasions has President Clinton directly referred to "sexual harassment." Both times, he merely touched on the topic while talking about something else.

On February 10, 1993, he endorsed a strict military code "applicable to sexual harassment, whether homosexual or heterosexual. The biggest sexual problem in the armed services, according to the men and women who talked to me, involves heterosexual harassment." His point was not to condemn sexual harassment but to defend his policy toward gays in the military.

On July 19, 1995, he noted that his administration had arranged for Spanish translations of "information on the sexual harassment laws," and other documents.

That's all for "sexual harassment." As for "Tailhook," the harassment incident involving naval aviators, he has made two comments:

"We know that the Tailhook scandal occurred. I don't think Tailhook reflects on the whole Navy." (May 27, 1993)

And, "The Navy has had to confront the difficulty of the Tailhook scandal." (May 25, 1994)

End of discussion.

Perhaps President Clinton has denounced sexual harassment in speeches that the administration has somehow failed to publish. But unless a staffer accidentally finds the transcripts in the White House living quarters, these brief passages stand as the president's entire public commentary.

The president's attorneys have surely advised him not to discuss the Paula Jones case in public, and no one should fault him for heeding that advice. But the president was mute on sexual harassment even before Mrs. Jones filed suit in May 1994. Besides, his silence has extended not just to this case, but to the entire problem.

Mr. Clinton's defenders might argue that the sexual harassment issue lies outside the president's official duties, apart from specific cases involving the military. Therefore, they would say, Americans should not expect him to preach about such things. That argument might be plausible, except that President Clinton has offered us sermons on everything from cigarettes to heroin-chic fashion ads.

"[F]or those of us in positions of leadership, talking is acting," he said on World AIDS Day in 1993. "I have to tell you that one of the things that I underestimated when I became president was the actual power of the words coming from the bully pulpit of the White House to move the country." In a television appearance the next year, he added: "So even some things I don't have legal authority over, it's still important for the president to talk about."

From the standpoint of the nation's business, the real issue is not what Gov. Clinton allegedly did in a Little Rock hotel room. It's what President Clinton has clearly failed to do in the White House bully pulpit.

John J. Pitney Jr. (<jpitney@benson.mckenna.edu>) is asssociate professor of government at Claremont McKenna College in California.