A US appeals court ruled yesterday that a sexual harassment case against President Clinton can go woes adding to the personal in which Mrs Hillary Rodham Clinton's credibility has come under sustained attack.
One particular criticism of his wife so angered the president that he would like to punch the newspaper columnist responsible on the nose, White House press secretary, Mr Mike McCurry, said yesterday.
These developments coincide with a new poll showing that the president's approval rating has been dragged down by the budget fight in Washington.
The percentage of Americans who say he is doing a good job fell in three weeks from 51 per cent to 42 per cent, according to a USA/CNN/Gallup poll published yesterday. Mr Clinton is now trailing the likely Republican challenger, Senator Bob Dole, by 49 to 46 per cent. On November 18th he led 55-39.
A three judge appeals court panel in St Louis ruled 2-1 yesterday that a case brought against the president by a former Arkansas state employee, Ms Paula Jones, can go ahead.
Ms Jones alleges that Mr Clinton sexually harassed her during an encounter in a Little Rock hotel suite in 1991. She claims he exposed himself and asked for oral sex, which she refused.
Mr Clinton has denied the charge, and his lawyer, Mr Robert Bennett, sought to have the case dismissed on the grounds that a sitting president should not be subject to such litigation.
Ms Jones's lawyer. Mr Gilbert Davies, successfully countered that his client, who is seeking $700,000 damages, had the same right as anyone else to a fair and speedy trial.
Mr Clinton's lawyer can appeal to a full circuit court and then take the case to the US Supreme Court, a process which could delay an embarrassing trial until after the November presidential election.
"There was a very strong dissenting opinion, which I believe the Supreme Court will adopt," Mr Bennett said.
The journalist who so angered Mr Clinton was William Safire, a former speech writer for President Nixon who called Mrs Clinton a "congenital liars' in his regular New York Times column on Monday.
"Drip by drip, like Whitewater torture, the case is being made that she is compelled to mislead, and to ensnare her subordinates and friends in a web of deceit," wrote Mr Safire.
The column is "an outrageous personal attack that has no basis in fact," Mr McCurry said. "The president, if he were not the president, would have delivered a more forceful response to that on the bridge of Mr Safire's nose.
Would he really do that, Mr McCurry was asked at a White House briefing. "He might like to. The president being president, knows he can't possible do such a thing," he replied.
Mrs Clinton's credibility has been dented by the discovery of documents which cast doubts on the White House version of her involvement in the failed Arkansas savings and loan company at the centre of the Whitewater affair, and the sacking of White House travel staff.
The Republican senator Mr Alfonse D'Amato, who is chairman of the Senate Whitewater committee, said that billing records which the White House produced last week were proof that Mrs Clinton, when working as a lawyer for the Rose law firm in Little Rock, Arkansas, did more work for the S&L company Madison than she had admitted in sworn statements.
"These are serious charges that are wholly unfounded and completely false," Mrs Clinton's lawyer, Mr David Kendall, said in a letter to Mr D'Amato. "Since you have made these allegations, in fairness you ought now to state the specific factual basis for them."
Mrs Clinton had said she did only minimal work for Madison. The billing records show she charged the company $7,000 for 60 hours of work over IS months, including contacts with 68 Madison executives, other lawyers and state regulators.
The First Lady had also denied a role in the controversial mass dismissal of White House travel office staff in 1993, but a two year old memo which surfaced last week described her as a prime mover behind the dismissals.
"Clearly the First Lady has some explaining to do," the Washington Post said.
The memo, written by aide Mr David Watkins, said "We ... knew there would be hell to pay" unless the seven travel office employees were dismissed in conformity with the First Lady's wishes".