County Viewers Wake Up With the Clinton Tapes

Like millions of other Americans Monday, Ventura Keys resident Hank Early had breakfast with Bill.

Over sausage and eggs at Duke’s Griddle ‘N’ Grill on Seaward Avenue, the self-professed news junkie watched President Clinton’s unexpurgated grand jury testimony with unabashed fascination.

After months of news leaks, pundits’ pontifications and political rhetoric, here was what the 53-year-old retired engineer had long awaited: the president’s version of his relationship with Monica Lewinsky in his own words.

“This is coming out without the media coloring it and without the politicians spinning it,” he said. “We’re getting news without commentary. . . . It covered the whole gamut of Clinton joking and laughing and weaseling. It’s a more comprehensive picture of him as a person.”

Indeed, as bleary-eyed Ventura County residents tried to readjust to the workweek over a strong cup of Monday morning coffee, many woke up to hear more lascivious details about the presidential person than they had wanted.

With surf lousy Monday morning, 22-year-old Tim Anctil, opted for guffawing between bites of a breakfast burrito as he watched a squirming Clinton.

“I think it’s ridiculous that so much money and time has been spent to find out about this guy’s sex life,” said the Ventura resident. “He should have said he did it a long time ago. There are so many more important things to do in this country. Now he should just leave.”

Monday’s release of Clinton’s videotaped testimony contained few new revelations about the relationship between Clinton and Lewinsky, most viewers acknowledged.

But the lurid spectacle proved compelling viewing for many.

Many who sat glued to their television sets said the broadcast simply reaffirmed their previously held views.

“It reinforced the negatives I felt to start with--even more so,” said 76-year-old Earl Martinson, as he sipped a cup of coffee at The Bench Warmer bar on Main Street in Ventura.

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“I think he just weaseled his way through the questions. It told me he’s worse than I thought he was.”

Mike Blue, owner of Duke’s, wondered if he may have better understood Clinton’s tortured explanation of what constitutes a sexual relationship had he paid more attention in English class.

“It’s like diagraming sentences all over again,” he said. “With every president it gets harder and harder to understand their gibberish.” Indeed, it was the manner in which Clinton answered the questions that baffled professionals in the sexual harassment field as well as laymen.

Shawna Thompson, an Oxnard attorney specializing in employment law, described Clinton’s description of his liaisons with Lewinsky as “ludicrous.”

“Common sense would tell you--by anyone’s version of sexual conduct--he had sexual relations with her,” said Thompson, who is also a Ventura College of Law instructor. “It astounds me that he would think he hasn’t committed perjury.”

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Meanwhile, local politicos were trying to figure out what the seemingly unending saga would mean come Election Day.

“The people who supported Clinton are going to feel betrayed,” predicted Paul Leavens, chair of the Ventura County Republican Party. “I hope this will keep Democrats from coming to the polls.”

Rep. Brad Sherman, a Democrat whose district includes Thousand Oaks, wasn’t so sure.

“For every lazy Republican who’s enraged enough to go to the polls, there’s an equally lazy Democrat who’s angry at Ken Starr who’s going to vote,” he said.

Others worry that every new sensational disclosure is exacerbating Americans’ growing disgust with politics.

“It’s a travesty of justice that these tapes were released and it had no meaningful purpose,” said Hank Lacayo, chairman of the Ventura County Democratic Central Committee. “It just adds to the confusion and the spectacle of what this has become.”

Vicky Larson, a bartender at Lowell’s Town & Country bar, a Ventura institution for 40 years, wholeheartedly agreed.

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She only reluctantly turned on the midday news at a customer’s request.

“You get tired of it,” she said. “I’m beginning to feel sorry for the poor man, to tell you the truth.”

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Staff writer Coll Metcalfe and photographer Spencer Weiner contributed to this story.