Did He Cry for Caity Mahoney?

It's the new power politics of the crybaby. When the temper tantrum doesn't work, dissolve into tears.

Last January Mr. Clinton gave the nation his finger, and lashed out in self-righteous anger and indignation: "But I want to say one thing to the American people. I want you to listen to me. I'm going to say this again. I did not have sexual relations with that woman, Miss Lewinsky."

But, more recently, after the American people failed to cower in the familiar manner of White House staff sycophants, at a September 9 press conference with congressional Democrats who had just come from a breakfast meeting with the President, a new strategy of public deception had come to the fore. A reporter asked the question: "Did he cry?"

Not, mind you, "Did he commit perjury, obstruct justice, or abuse power?" But, rather, "Did he cry?"

No, came the solemnly scripted reply from Rep. David Bonior, the minority whip from Michigan: "The President didn't cry, but you could tell by the way he was breathing, you could tell by his demeanor, that he felt the pain."

Ah, he feels the pain. Take that, you dirty dogs. Next came a nauseating and self-flagellatory round of public and private confession. Meanwhile, at night, the President was said to pray, and, perhaps, to don a penitent crown of thorns--as evidenced by the mysterious stigmata that seemed to appear each morning upon his face.

Doesn't his contrition rebuke the nation? As Paul Begala might say: "Shed some tears. Repel impeachment. Kinda cool."

Then the President gathered in the court soothsayers, a bevy of false prophets and political theologians, for a prayer breakfast: "It is important to me that everyone who has been hurt know that the sorrow that I feel is genuine."

Well. No problem there, Mr. President. I am sure your sorrow is genuine, and it does my heart good to see you squirm. But what I want to know is: When are you going to get off this crybaby act and do the manly thing and commit suicide?

TOKYO, Dec 21 (Reuters) - Renowned Japanese director Juzo Itami, who once had his face slashed by Yakuza mobsters because of one of his films, has committed suicide at the age of 64, police said on Sunday.

Itami, 64, won national and international fame for films such as "Tampopo," "Ososhiki" (The Funeral), and "Marusa no Onna" (A Taxing Woman). He died Saturday after jumping from the roof of the eight-story building where he worked.

Regarded as Japan's second-greatest living film-maker after Akira Kurosawa, Itami was rushed to hospital where he died of massive internal injuries, a police spokesman said.

A spokeswoman for his production company said Itami left a suicide note in which he referred to the impending publication of a news report detailing an alleged affair.

"My death is the only way to prove my innocence. There was no other way I could prove it," the note said, according to Itami Productions.

The weekly "Flash" magazine is due to publish a report on Monday alleging the director was having an affair with a 26-year-old woman.

But then Juzo Itami was an artist, and a man of courage, Mr. President, while you are nothing but a sniveling coward.

Did you cry when the 36 boxes of the Starr Report were being unloaded on Capitol Hill? I sure hope so.

You see, you are convincing no one with your sorry acting. If you are truly sorry, what are you still doing in the White House?

You said: "It is important to me that everybody who has been hurt know that the sorrow that I feel is genuine--first and most important my family, also my friends, my staff, my cabinet, Monica Lewinsky and her family and the American people." Well, is that all? What about the Chinese? What about the Martians?

Let's recall a little story from the Star, a supermarket tabloid. Not the best of sources, to be sure. But, say, two or three credibility cuts above the Clinton News Network (CNN), and four cuts above your lying attorney David Kendall.

It was the Star, after all, that broke the Gennifer Flowers story. It was the Star that broke the story of your Machiavellian advisor Dick Morris and his enjoyment of a prostitute with attractive toes. The Star reported the news while the networks were reporting your lying spin.

First, however, the timeline--with some helpful new information provided by the Starr Report.

July 4, 1997: The Drudge Report says Newsweek's Michael Isikoff is on the trail of a second Paula Jones--this one inside the White House. Drudge doesn't identify the woman.

July 4, 1997: Monica Lewinsky has a "very emotional" visit with the President. The President scolded her: "It's illegal to threaten the President of the United States."

July 7, 1997: The Starbucks Massacre. Former White House intern Mary "Caity" Mahoney and two co-workers are killed execution style at the Starbucks Coffeeshop in Georgetown. Both Monica Lewinsky and George Stephanopolous are regulars there. When this event occurred, only the White House was aware it had an "intern problem."

July 15, 1997: Just after Monica Lewinsky returns from an overseas trip, the President has her come to the White House to discuss Linda Tripp and Newsweek.

July 28, 1997: Drudge reports that Kathleen Willey is the woman Bill Clinton sexually harrassed inside the White House. Speculation about a Starbucks connection subsides on the Internet.

Dec. 5, 1997: Paula Jones' legal team notifies the White House that Monica Lewinsky is on their witness list.

Dec. 6, 1997: Nearly 5 months to the day after the still unsolved Starbucks Massacre, Eric Butera, an informant working with DC Police on the Starbucks case, is beaten to death while working at their behest on an unrelated drug case.

Jan 21, 1998: The Washington Post identifies Monica Lewinsky as a former White House intern implicated in a sexual relationship with the President.

And now some excepts from the March 3, 1998 issue of Star Magazine:

Mahoney was gunned down, execution style for no apparent reason last summer at a Starbucks coffeehouse near the White House - a place where Monica, 24, and other Clinton interns frequently hung out.

STAR has also learned that Monica and confidante Linda Tripp - who secretly taped Monica's claims of a White House affair with President Clinton - frequently talked about being in danger.

"You don't think they're going to kill us?" Tripp said a number of times in recent months to another friend of hers.

Then, just as the sex scandal was about to surface, Tripp was mysteriously invited by a close pal of Hillary Clinton's to a weekend getaway and fretted to a friend: "What if they poison me?"

But it was the shocking slaying of the other former White House intern that has raised the most disturbing questions yet in the scandal.

Mary Caitrin Mahoney, 25, campaigned full time for Bill Clinton in the 1992 race and then arrived in Washington in January of 1993 with a coveted summons to be one of the President's first interns.

She later became assistant manager of a Starbucks coffeehouse in the posh Georgetown district - where she still had friends in high places and a thirst for the hottest political gossip.

One day Chelsea was a customer - but she couldn't find enough change for her coffee. Caity Mahoney reached into her own pocket and treated her.

Last July 7, Caity was in the cafe cleaning up after closing time with co-workers Emory Evans and Aaron Goodrich. Sometime after 9pm, two gunmen got inside and shot all three to death.

Caity was singled out for the most horrendous fate - as if she'd been the killers' prime target. Of the ten shots fired, she was hit five times at point blank range, including at least once in the face. The final bullet was delivered to the back of her head after she'd already fallen.

In one hand, in a death grip, Caity clutched the keys to the store's safe, which held the weekend's receipts of more than $10,000.

D.C. cops were mystified by the apparent lack of motive in the crime.

The safe hadn't been opened. The cash registers were undisturbed. The store hadn't been ransacked. None of the victims' personal belongings had been touched.

"No one knows whether Monica ever confided in Caity about her relationship with the President," says an insider.

"But they talked a lot. And now Caity is dead."

What I want to know, Mr. President is this: Did you cry for Caity Mahoney?