When the Talk of Town Becomes the Talk of Nation

WASHINGTON —  James Rawlings, truck driver, sat over a plate of orange chicken reading the Washington Times sports page this past weekend, not because he wanted to read the sports page, but because his friend Robert was the first to grab the front page, where the headline screamed: “What Did Lewinsky Send to Clinton?”

Having traveled 18 hours on a bus from Hannibal, Mo., for an antiabortion march, they find this whole White House mess repulsive.

But that didn’t stop them from toting a tiny TV on the bus, then spending six hours in the lobby of Catholic University, where they are staying, munching candy bars and potato chips and discussing the commander-in-chief’s allegedly outrageous libido.

For the first time in a long time, the average American can talk politics and actually enjoy it.

This is a story with all the sex, lies and audiotape of a soap opera--and potential political repercussions of the highest order. It’s gossip without the guilt. Serious news that’s easy to digest--like scarfing down a box of Ding Dongs and still getting the average daily allowance of vitamins and minerals.

No wonder the entire nation--liberal, conservative, don’t bother to vote--is obsessed with the latest sex-related allegations surrounding President Clinton.

“I don’t think it matters who you are, blue-collar or white-collar, you’re talking about it,” said Fred Rohloff, 49, a Mission Viejo resident who visited the Nixon Library in Yorba Linda over the weekend.

“Whether it’s true or not,” 22-year-old Theo Yih said as she celebrated the Chinese New Year at a school in the San Fernando Valley, “it’s an incredible tale.”

Now, this is news you can use: Waste a whole night in your pajamas eating ice cream, envisioning sex acts in the Oval Office and come away sounding like a political wonk. Play semanticist, analyzing the chief executive’s use of present tense in his televised denial (“There is no improper relationship.”). Pull out your Bible and ponder the precise definition of adultery (does oral sex count?). Ponder the pitfalls of life in a techno world (Could he actually have been numb enough to leave messages on her answering machine?). Pepper dinner conversation with phrases like “suborning perjury,” pretending you actually knew what it meant before last week.

All across America, people have their brains in the president’s boudoir.

“I wonder what Clinton is thinking right now--probably, ‘How could I be so stupid?’ ” Yih said. “All these women are saying he slept with them or had affairs. They can’t all be lying.”

At her Northridge newsstand, Shannon Ramos was watching newspapers and magazines fly off the rack. Scandal is good for business.

They are kibitzing about it on the running path and in the grocery store, at the gas station and under the hair dryer. It is Topic A around the water cooler, at sidewalk cafes in Venice Beach and in the back seats of taxicabs both inside and outside the Beltway.

“The first thing you have to realize, young man, is all men are dogs,” a D.C. cab driver said last week, launching a 15-minute defense of Clinton and his alleged indiscretions--which the cabbie believes are absolutely true, but hardly worth all this fuss.

“Most of my clients were most upset about the lying,” said Atlanta hairstylist John Salvadori.

Indeed, a Los Angeles Times Poll shows most Americans are willing to forgive Clinton if he had a sexual relationship with Monica S. Lewinsky, the young former intern--44% think he did--but say he should resign or be impeached if he lied about it or tried to obstruct justice. The poll showed Clinton’s sky-high personal approval rating is slipping.

“I wouldn’t put it past him, but do I care? No,” said Keith Donaldson, an MCI business manager eating cheese fries at a Johnny Rockets in suburban Virginia.

“It’s nobody’s business who he’s sleeping with,” said Erin Groves of Scranton, Pa., who visited the White House this weekend with three generations of relatives, from 22-month-old niece Caitlyn to Grandma Nixon, who’s 80. “Nobody’s in your bedroom.”

“I care, but what can I do about it?” asked 17-year-old Ahmed Abedy as he slathered mustard on a hot dog in his father’s cart on the corner of 17th Street and Pennsylvania Avenue, just one block from the White House. “It’ll just roll off. I know it will. He’s the president.”

Riding the whole roller coaster of emotions, the country is going through this thing with its leader--not to mention the first lady and daughter, Chelsea. People are disgusted, repulsed, frustrated and angry--some at special prosecutor Kenneth W. Starr, some at Linda Tripp--who secretly taped Lewinsky (her friend!), some at the former intern, and some, of course, at the president himself.

There’s no shortage of sentiment on the subject. And for a country where many folks can’t even name their representative in Congress, they are surprisingly well-informed. The Times poll showed 96% of Americans were familiar with the matter.

Clinton lied and should resign, say some. People should leave him alone and stay out of his business, say others. He has disgraced the presidency. He’s done good for the economy. People are laughing at us.

“Two words: Guil Ty,” said Benjamin Frank, 52, a mechanic in Canoga Park. “Now, I voted for Clinton too, but some things you can’t change, like the truth. The truth here is that the president is in a whole lot of trouble. . . .”

To Lynn Gorman, it is her country at stake.

A nursery school teacher, Gorman stopped at the White House this weekend with her husband and 18-year-old son as they drove from their Richmond, Va., home to western Maryland. Self-proclaimed news junkies, they wanted to check out the media frenzy they had seen on TV. They found one woman holding a sign: “Resign.” “Vulgar.” “Lies.”

“It just saddens me so much that we’ve lost a lot of class and integrity to the office of the president,” she said. “It’s really upsetting. I think politics in general, whether it’s a perception or a reality, is now seen to be sleazy and full of half-truths. It’s just disgusting that we’re all having to deal with this publicly and on a regular basis.”

Then again, we’re used to it.

“If they did do a cover-up, it wouldn’t surprise me,” said David Powell, a zoology graduate student at the University of Maryland. “It’s certainly not the first time. He’s no more corrupt than any other politician.”

Standing on the sidelines at a pickup game of roller hockey in front of the White House on the closed section of Pennsylvania Avenue, Powell said that if Clinton did what Lewinsky allegedly says on the tapes, “he’s pretty darn stupid.”

Teammate Art Lawson, an emergency medical technician for the District of Columbia Fire Department, said he has not decided whether to believe the alleged affair happened, but that Clinton should step down because the past week has been so “embarrassing” for Americans.

“It makes the country look bad,” said a disgusted Lawson, recalling the awkward situation in which questions about improper relationships disrupted a photo-op with Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat. “That’s really tacky.”

There’s just so much to gab about.

The dress he allegedly gave her. The tie she allegedly gave him--that he apparently wore to a State of the Union address. The special prosecutor. The secretary. The literary agent.

It has been the lead story at dinner tables everywhere. This is the stuff every family keeps stashed in the gossip closet: adultery, crushes on older men, sneaking in the back door late at night. And it’s all happening to the most powerful guy in the world.

“Michael Jordan, you expect him to be a role model. Wouldn’t we expect our president to be a role model?” asked Carol Curry, a Chicago retiree visiting the nation’s capital. “I think it’s sad.”

But that didn’t stop Curry from posing outside the White House for a $6 photo-op with the cardboard Clintons. She didn’t vote for him--but doesn’t think he need resign. Mostly, she tsks, tsks it from a maternal perspective.

“My God! His daughter! I believe he’s very attached to his daughter. What must she think?” asked Curry, who has a 30-year-old daughter in addition to the son, 27, she was visiting in Washington. As for Lewinsky, “I think her mother should talk to her,” Curry said. “If she were my daughter, I’d really be mad.”

While people laugh or lash out at the man in the Oval Office, they cringe and cry about his wife and daughter. Imagine reading about your dad being allegedly involved in phone sex with someone your age on the front page of the newspaper.

“I keep thinking of poor Chelsea at school,” said Belinda Cho, 15, who attended the Valley Chinese New Year’s party. “I hope he tells her the truth. And his wife too. He may be the president, but he still has to answer to his family.”

But while official Washington is yammering about resignation and impeachment and a disgraced presidency, a lot of the talk among regular people is of the “What’s the big deal?” variety. In some strange way this makes the president seem more real to them. The economy’s booming, no wars are on. So what’s to worry about?

“President Clinton has gotten our inflation rate, our unemployment rate and the general economy better than it’s been in 50 years,” said Paul Emmert, finishing a cigarette and slurping down a Coke as he emerged from a White House tour. “If they want to talk about affairs, they can go back to Thomas Jefferson.”

Even at the Nixon Library, in the heart of Republican Orange County, there was a touch of so-what attitude.

“His personal life has nothing to do with how he runs the country,” said Donna Denton, 57, who views Clinton as a hard-working president targeted by shrewd women because of his power. “There’s too many women who like to play these games with authority figures. . . . Who’s to say Bill Clinton wasn’t set up?”

Times staff writers T. Christian Miller and Joe Mozingo in Los Angeles and Marc Lacey in Washington, and correspondents Edith Stanley in Atlanta and Tom Becker in Los Angeles contributed to this story.