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By Root 944 0

The three were down the hallway in the hotel where I was staying and wanted a chance to visit with me. They were visibly distressed, looking as though they hadn’t slept much the night before. They had been behind the scenes in the caucus room and knew that the proceedings had taken a pro-Thomas direction. Moreover, they felt that the core legal team had not chosen a successful strategy. I had been close with Gary and Keith when I lived in Washington and had shared some of the information just prior to the press story. The experience they were now having, both up front and behind the scenes, deeply pained them. They suggested that I take a more proactive posture, bypassing the committee, if necessary, in order to be heard by the public. Realizing that they were in agony on my behalf, it was difficult to dismiss them. In retrospect, given the extent to which things had collapsed, they were right to question the “strategy” of our team. Though they deserved some assurance, I could not give them any. The media attention and the Republicans’ campaign were such that the fewer people aware of the polygraph examination, the better.

Gary and Keith, particularly as Washington residents with contacts with the federal government, recognized the antics of the Republicans as politics in the purest and ugliest form and believed that the only way to combat them was to counter their political maneuvering. Aware that the Republicans were attempting to gather negative and harmful information about my witnesses and other supporters, they were fearful, with good reason, that any show of support for me could result in professional retaliation. I knew that no ordinary citizen could match the resources of the senators. Moreover, I viewed the experience as a choice about how I was going to live my entire life, not just these few days in Washington. When the episode was over, Senators Simpson, Hatch, Specter, and Danforth, I had no doubt, would continue to act in the same fashion; this was the way of life they had chosen—and it was politics as usual for them. But it was not what I had chosen. I had left it eight years prior and wanted no part of it, particularly now. Moreover, no matter how smart, resourceful, and committed our team was, we were not equipped to play their game.

I reminded Ronald, Gary, and Keith that I had started out saying that I did not want the matter to be tried in the press and that I intended to maintain that posture throughout the proceeding, no matter how tough it became. Though they were not satisfied with my responses, they did not push. Keith, perhaps better than the other two, knew firsthand that once I had made up my mind on a matter of principle, I would not budge. More important, I am certain that they did not want to cause me any discomfort. Disappointed, they left the room just minutes before I left, to take the examination, accompanied by Shirley Wiegand, Charles Ogletree, and Ray McFarland.

Despite the task that I was about to undertake, I was grateful to be out of the hotel room. The day was a typically overcast cloudy autumn day, but being outside offered me a glimpse of life that I missed in the grim reality of watching the hearing from my hotel room. Ray McFarland delivered us to the appointed place, the law office of Arnold and Porter in northwest Washington, D.C. One of the partners there, Charles Ruff, a well-known Washington, D.C., attorney and former president of the Washington, D.C., Bar Association, arranged the polygraph examination. Because it was Sunday morning, Ruff met us in the lobby to give us access to the conference room and office in the secured building. The stillness of the building with its huge empty corridors gave the process an even greater sense of mystery. Ruff spoke only briefly with Ogletree, Wiegand, and me, before he took me to a small conference room where the polygraph equipment was set up. We were all anxious to get the examination under way. It did not seem the time for small talk.

Through the corridors of expensive modern furnishings and tasteful artwork selected to inform