Death of American Virtue - Ken Gormley [211]
The Dallas lawyers returned to their hotel, downed some beers, and mulled over their decision. Their impression was that Paula Jones “was telling the truth.” Frankly, they agreed that Paula didn’t seem “intelligent enough to hold a lie together.” Clearly, Bill Clinton had lured Paula up to his hotel room. The only question for a jury was “whether she wanted some sort of sexual encounter.” They believed that twelve ordinary jurors would side with Paula, rather than the womanizing president. Campbell told his younger partners, “Go back to your room and think about this and pray and make sure—let’s don’t go into this half-cocked.” An hour later, the Dallas lawyers regrouped in the lobby. “Yes, let’s do this,” they declared, gripping hands in solidarity.
Campbell did not pretend to be neutral when it came to Bill Clinton. As one former partner would explain, “Don is a very conservative guy and really sees the world in black-and-white.” Campbell clearly disliked Clinton and did not consider him “a very good president.” Also, it was part of Campbell’s psychological makeup to believe that every opponent “is truly, truly evil and that his client is truly, truly good.” Said another former partner, “He’s a little bit of a scorched-earth litigator, and just his psychological makeup, he’s got to believe that the person that he’s suing is just incredibly black-hearted.” That was the approach Campbell took into the Paula Jones case.
Yet the Dallas lawyers did not view themselves as biased or politically inspired. Jim Fisher, occupying the chair as lead trial attorney, was slated to handle the president’s deposition. Fisher did not personally harbor any ill will toward Clinton. He was a devout Christian and believed in forgiveness. “My own faith requires me to love the sinner but hate the sin,” he later explained. “We worked real hard not to build up enmity at the man [Clinton]. We abhorred what he did. But I went on national TV and told people to pray for President Clinton, and I’m not saying it was easy or that I did it successfully. But I don’t think that I ever got to the point that I despised him.”
Fisher’s dominant emotion was one of pity. “I think he [Clinton] did some really despicable things. But I don’t think I ever built up a good hate for the guy. In fact, I kind of think he’s pathetic in a lot of ways. He can’t control himself. He has a serious problem that has brought him a great deal of shame. And I think that’s the right light in which to view him.”
The Dallas lawyers quickly filed an amended complaint, beefing up certain counts and jettisoning others that Judge Susan Webber Wright had already tossed out. Since there was increased chatter on radio talk shows about the “distinguishing characteristic,” the attorneys also filed new interrogatories requesting that President Clinton provide information regarding “each and every medical doctor who has performed any surgery or medical procedure on your genitalia.” The president seemed to be acting unusually “defensive” on the topic of the “distinguishing characteristic,” so the Dallas lawyers poked and jabbed into that sore spot, testing for telltale grimaces.
In the meantime, they had their own sources of discomfort. One big problem was that Judge Wright seemed to be hardening her position against the plaintiff’s case. At a secret status conference held on January 12 in the federal court house in Pine Bluff, away from the Little Rock spotlight, Judge Wright had reviewed the parties’ briefs and furrowed her eyebrows. On this day, the Republican judge had broken her usual rules and allowed counsel to drink coffee in the courtroom, to ease the stress. “And I have candy,