Many Residents Glad Senate Trial Is History

After a year of trashy plot twists and congressional cliffhangers that fizzled into President Clinton’s acquittal on two impeachment counts Friday, many Ventura County residents said they were relieved to see the imbroglio over.

In the end, few residents from Ventura to Thousand Oaks said their minds had been changed about the commander in chief during his impeachment trial.

Most of those questioned agreed that having an affair with a White House intern was seedy and immoral, but few believed the president deserved to be convicted of perjury and obstruction of justice--and booted back to Arkansas--for his affair with Monica S. Lewinsky.

Even as senators registered their historic guilty or not-guilty votes Friday morning, few on this side of the Beltway sat rapt before CNN. Schoolchildren off for Presidents Day weekend road bikes and skateboarded around town. Husbands scouted for last-minute Valentine’s Day gifts.

The impeachment trial’s climax was a bit anti-climactic to those on the far coast, Ventura teacher Steve Blum said.

“I did watch the votes,” Blum conceded after picking up holiday chocolates at the Buenaventura Mall. “And it was like when you’ve taped a game on TV, and you already know how it ends, but you watch anyway. There wasn’t any mystery. But, like the rest of the country, I’m glad it’s over with.”

Ventura waitress Tiffany Force, a lifelong Republican, did not watch the vote. She could not watch.

“I had to turn it off after the first few votes,” Force said. “I saw it was neck-and-neck and I didn’t want to see anymore. I said, ‘This is bull. I’m going to the gym.’ ”

The public opinion split was presumably echoed in Ventura County’s split-party congressional delegation Friday.

Rep. Brad Sherman (D-Sherman Oaks) said the acquittal was no reason for celebration. His Republican colleague, impeachment backer Elton Gallegly of Simi Valley, did not answer several calls for comment.

“It’s no great honor for the president to be acquitted on impeachment charges and no reason for gloating in the White House,” Sherman said Friday. “What it does is allow for a collected sigh of relief for the country because maybe this whole ordeal is over and maybe the American people can move on with the business of the country.”

Sherman, however, doubted independent counsel Kenneth W. Starr would let the matter die. The lawmaker said he expects Starr will attempt to indict Clinton and force him to testify before a grand jury.

“Here’s a man who has disclosed that his fantasy is to storm into the White House and handcuff the president,” said Sherman, who represents the Conejo Valley. “That’s a big fantasy for a little man. . . . I expect he’ll try to drag this on.”

Bob Larkin, vice chairman of the Ventura County Republican Central Committee, attributed a recent drop in party membership in part to the drawn-out, partisan hearings. He said he would fight to make the GOP more centrist once the dust clears.

“We’re now losing about 12,500 Republicans [statewide] every month,” Larkin said. “When you know you can’t win, and you keep the government tied up for months, people will respond. They should have been more objective and not taken this route.”

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Larkin added he hoped Starr would not pursue the case.

“Unless he picks up something new, stronger and different, and really something factual instead of ‘he said, she said’ I think he should let it lie,” Larkin said. “It’s run it’s course.”

While those in political circles had very clear opinions, typical citizens reacted ambivalently to the president’s acquittal: Some were relieved by the news. Others disgusted. A few were left not knowing exactly what to think.

“I’m one of those,” Newbury Park retiree Ed Runyan said. “It’s about time we get this all over and done with, but I don’t like to see Clinton get off with nothing. . . . I think it’s pretty clear that he lied to just about everybody and broke the law when he did it and now he’s gotten off scot-free.”

After all the furor that has consumed Washington for the past 13 months, Runyan said he felt a bit cheated.

“He got lucky, real lucky,” Runyan said. “I tell you, if that were me and I’d done something like that, I’d be in jail cursing the food right about now.”

Linda White, executive director of the Simi Valley Boys & Girls Club, couldn’t decide whether she was more irked with the president, Congress or Starr.

“I just want to smack all those people for wasting all that money, millions and millions of dollars,” she said. “With a tenth of it, I could serve another 5,000 kids with a van to pick them up and provide them care after school with additional staff and programming. They’ve spent millions and I have to fight for $1,000.”

White did support the president’s acquittal. At the same time, she bemoaned his “immoral decision-making” and the message she said it sends to children.

“I hear kids in the hall saying jokes about the president,” she said. “I’ve heard more then once, when kids are caught lying, they say, ‘Well, the president does it, so it must be OK to lie.’ It’s ammunition to use in a situation when they’re in trouble.”

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Likewise, Thousand Oaks resident Kathy Elfand worried about how children would interpret the president’s behavior and subsequent acquittal.

“Unless you’re a parent, you really don’t understand how hard this is to explain,” said Elfand, a mother of two. “The best thing to do is be honest with them and tell them what happened.”

Buena High physical education teacher Blum, however, said his students were skeptical about the morality of their elected officials long before Clinton came along.

“This is a clear case of being caught lying and then heaping on more lies to cover the ones you’ve already told,” he said. “I don’t believe he got away with anything. He was caught lying. I always tell my kids that the truth will set them free. Had Clinton just told the truth, he would have saved himself and his family a lot of agony.

“You know, Clinton didn’t invent lying,” Blum continued. “People lied before him and they’ll lie after him. . . . Most people know the difference between right and wrong. So is lying OK now? No.”

Folmar is a Times staff writer. Johnson is a reporter for Times Community News. Times staff writer Coll Metcalfe also contributed to this report.

* ACQUITTAL: Full coverage of Senate vote. A1