Jane Doe speaks

Let those with an infallible internal lie detector decide whether Juanita Broaddrick, Kenneth Starr’s Jane Doe 5, is telling the truth in claiming she was raped by Arkansas Attorney General Bill Clinton in a Little Rock motel room in 1978. Let those with the ability to see into another’s heart know if the tears she shed in recounting this ghastly tale on NBC Wednesday night were genuine.

Everyone else can only shake their heads and wonder. Wonder how this country came to have either a president who isn’t just a straying husband but an actual sexual predator, or a political climate so poisoned that such an allegation makes prime time.

As a matter of law, this charge goes nowhere. The Arkansas statute of limitations for sexual assault is six years. By waiting 21, with no witnesses, no police reports, no medical exams and a long trail of denials, Mrs. Broaddrick has ensured that this can never be more that a he-said, she-said rumor.

In keeping with the surreal nature of the entire body of this president’s sex scandals, there are enough wheels within wheels here to be dizzying. Make that nauseating. Mrs. Broaddrick says she didn’t press charges at the time because: it was 1978, women didn’t press rape charges in 1978 (except for the thousands who did); no one would have believed her (although everyone is to believe her now); she was married and having an affair (connection to being a crime victim unknown).

She denied the allegation when asked about it during Mr. Clinton’s 1992 presidential campaign, and in two sworn statements to Paula Jones’ lawyers and when the story bubbled up again last March. Two friends most eager to verify her claim are the daughters of a murder victim; the murderer was pardoned by then-Gov. Clinton. As if this matter needed any more ulterior motives.

Why was this charge not brought up during the impeachment? The cover story now is that it was not germane to the issues of perjury and obstruction. But the Judiciary Committee made 15 referrals on potentially impeachable offenses. Surely rape could have been fit into at least one had the House seen any merit to the claim.

And no Clinton sex scandal would be complete without comic relief. Philip Yoakum, perhaps Arkansas’ most prominent Clinton-hater, during the 1992 campaign wrote her a touching letter urging her to step forward, cleanse her soul and save the republic from a monster. In that heavy-handed way common among prominent Clinton-haters, Yoakum included the most minute details of the assault, details already familiar to Mrs. Broaddrick, just in case the letter fell into the wrong hands. It did, understandably skeptical reporters looked into it and Mrs. Broaddrick flatly denied it.

Even if this charge is an utter concoction, it is impossible to feel any pity for Mr. Clinton. He asked for it. He destroyed his own credibility in the most careless, arrogant way and now is subject to ridicule and suspicion. For the remainder of his term, he must suffer the consequences. Sadly, so must the nation. That’s cause for real tears.