Huffington on Perjury

Arianna Huffington writes that she believes we must prosecute President Clinton and O.J. Simpson for lying under oath. Only then, she says, will their lies stop consuming so much of our national attention and energy (Column Right, July 21).

Huffington writes that “the most divisive perjury case our nation is grappling with involves President Clinton.” I doubt that. I do, however, believe that equating an alleged lie about consensual sex with an alleged lie about beating a woman senseless is an issue over which Huffington and her conscience should grapple.

HAL WOLKOWITZ

Tarzana

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Couples throughout history have all been faced with the same eternal problem: What do you do when you cheat? Truth is noble but it also destroys relationships. Is a casual fling worth that? Most say no, hence, the sexual lie.

The real issue in the Clinton-Lewinsky affair is not subornation of perjury. It’s national hypocrisy. Must intimate details of our sex lives be revealed to anyone with a mike? Must we never lie about an affair, when doing so spares a loved one pain or embarrassment?

Anyone who answers these questions truthfully would demand an immediate end to the Starr inquiry. But we’re not. National hypocrisy on a cosmic scale.

RUSS KINGSTON

Los Angeles

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As an African American man, I totally agree with Huffington; perjury should not only be prosecuted but to the full extent of the law. What I fail to understand is her rationale that singles out Simpson but completely ignores the most blatant perjurer of the whole trial debacle, namely, Mark Fuhrman. Could it be Huffington is engaging in a little “political correctness” of her own by continuing to pick on a black man who was found not guilty by a jury of his peers rather than a white police officer (darling of the Republican right) who single-handedly destroyed much of the credibility of the prosecution’s case by openly lying on the witness stand?

The slap on the wrist Fuhrman received for lying was an insult to honest, hard-working police officers who go about their duties with integrity. If Huffington is going to choose a whipping boy, then she should at least lay the licks where they really belong.

LAFAYETTE L. FUNCHES JR.

Inglewood