Most Agree Clinton Said Little New

Ventura County residents who watched President Clinton’s national address Monday night largely reacted with disappointment and embarrassment about their apparently philandering president.

But most regarded the speech as more political sideshow than an event of significant national importance.

Few of those questioned believed Clinton’s admission that he engaged in an inappropriate relationship would or should have any lasting effect on his ability to govern. And fewer still thought Clinton said anything they hadn’t already assumed.

“I don’t think he told us anything we didn’t know,” said Paul Hinrichs, one of a small knot of football fans at a Ventura sports bar taking a break from a preseason game to catch the president’s brief speech.

“He slithered and slid around,” said Hinrichs, 66, a Ventura geologist. He believes Clinton should resign voluntarily “for the country, his wife, his child.”

And at least one local political power broker--Assemblyman Brooks Firestone (R-Los Olivos)--publicly called for Clinton to step down.

“I think Clinton is an absolutely brilliant liar and I wish he would resign,” Firestone said.

Bob Gallaway, a member of the Ventura County Democratic Central Committee, said that although Clinton said more than most people wanted to hear, like many Americans, he wasn’t surprised by what he said.

“I think it was important for the people of America to agree with [the Clintons] that this is a painful issue and move on to other things,” he said. “People like to hear their views reinforced, and I think all the polls show the American people think this is a private issue and not a political one.”

Paul Leavens, chairman of the Ventura County Republican Party, echoed those sentiments, saying that most people already knew that Clinton had acted wrongfully--but most voters no longer care.

“I think enough embarrassment of the president in the U.S. and worldwide has occurred, and I think impeachment would just perpetuate that and make it worse,” he said. “I admire his courage in finally confessing, but it’s too bad it’s seven months late because it could have saved a lot of these investigations by [independent counsel] Ken Starr.”

Joe Stephenson, 42, an administrator with an oil drilling company who sat on a bar stool next to Hinrichs, described Clinton’s performance as carefully rehearsed “shadow boxing.”

“He blamed the special prosecutor for dragging his name through the mud, and then came out and said he was right,” said the Ventura resident. “He should have come out and been up front in January rather than now and saved our country a lot of money.”

Val Patterson, 25, a waitress at Ventura sports bar McGinty’s, said she simply enjoyed seeing Clinton apologize.

“I knew he was lying all along,” said Patterson, who described herself as an ardent Republican. “I just liked to see him humbled in front of everybody. I was just happy to see him embarrassed.”

Co-worker Abby Reagan, 23, had the opposite reaction.

“I didn’t really care,” she said. “I don’t see what it has to do with anything. . . . Why does it matter if he did this?”

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