By Cap'n O

MARCH 8, 1999:  It was one of the best sermons I've ever been awake to remember. The message behind the story of Jesus' 40-day fast in the desert and sneaky Satan's efforts to tempt him is this: What do you stand for as a person? What makes you tick? Will you do what is right, or will you cut corners, not care and try to rationalize wrongdoing?

It's a frightening thought. The last time I engaged in deep introspection and tried to figure out what I stood for, I scared the hell out of myself and drank heavily for days in order to wipe the horror of it from my brain. It was a rough experience for a 10-year-old.

Facing up to what we do or don't stand for is a frightening experience. Chances are, most of us aren't the noble people we imagine ourselves to be. But it's a necessary exercise. At some point we have to be brutally honest with ourselves.

So as uncomfortable as it may be, the people of this nation, especially the fervent Bill Clinton supporters, now need to look in the mirror and be brutally truthful with themselves. At the least, you've been supporting a president who's a pervert and wannabe porno flick star. Now there are allegations that he's a rapist.

It might have been convenient, even easy, to dismiss the allegations of Gennifer Flowers, Paula Jones, Kathleen Willey and others about Groping Bill's lewd and improper advances. And it's easy to dismiss the Monica Lewinsky affair. After all, she started it by flashing her thonged posterior at our weak-willed president. She was in love with him, and what middle-aged married man with a teen-aged daughter wouldn't partake of such an opportunity?

But last Friday the stakes in this sick story got higher for all Americans. The Wall Street Journal published the story of Juanita Broaddrick, a 55-year-old Arkansas woman who claims that Clinton raped her in 1978 in a Little Rock hotel room. Her story is not one of lewd sexual advances, not one of some horny guy looking for a wild time; it is one of rape.

Broaddrick told the Journal that Clinton, then Arkansas attorney general and a gubernatorial candidate, visited a nursing home she owned one day and invited her to visit his campaign headquarters the next time she was in Little Rock.

Broaddrick, who was then married to her first husband, looked up Clinton's campaign headquarters when she went to Little Rock. He suggested they have coffee in her hotel room. She accepted.

Broaddrick said she wasn't in the room for more than five minutes when Clinton put his arms around her. Eventually, she said, Clinton got her on the bed, held her down, bit her on the lips, ripped open her pantyhose and raped her. She said that Clinton told her not to worry because he had the mumps as a kid and was sterile. She also said that when Clinton left the room he put on a pair of sunglasses, looked at her and said, "You'd better put some ice on that."

Broaddrick never called police, and Clinton was never charged with rape, so in terms of the law, he is innocent. Clinton's press secretary has denied the allegation.

But Clinton has denied other things. He said he never had sex with Lewinsky. But then there was that blue dress. He denied Jones' allegations and then settled her sexual harassment lawsuit for $750,000. Based on Clinton's past lies, it's not too much of a stretch to believe that Broaddrick is telling the truth when she says that Clinton, then the state of Arkansas' top law enforcement officer, raped her.

A couple of days ago a radio news announcer reported that two girls were nearly raped in Santa Fe and that they and their parents were scared. Every day in this city, Albuquerque police officers investigate rape cases with the intent of convicting the rapists and sending them to prison.

It has been easy to ignore Clinton's sexual transgressions. But at some point, some day, we have to be brutally truthful and ask ourselves where we stand as individuals.

Your president is now alleged to be a rapist. America, where do you stand?

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