Acquaintances Recall Monica's 'Boast of College Affair'
Bill Nalty
Since Field Marshal Rodham has distributed this 'talking points'
info to her minions, we best be aware of what is emanating out
of Oregon.
The Oregonian (Portland)
Sunday, January 25, 1998
Acquaintances Recall Boast of College Affair
Lewis & Clark friends find Monica Lewinsky's indiscreet talk of a
married man unsettling
By Brent Walth, Nena Baker, Jeff Mapes, and Erin Hoover of The Oregonian
staff
The few people in Portland who knew Monica Lewinsky well remember her as
a bubbly, nonstop talker who sometimes craved attention.
But among those who knew her best, what made her unforgettable was the
ongoing affair she boasted of having with an older, married man while
she attended Lewis & Clark College.
The woman at the center of the sex scandal involving President Clinton
talked frequently and indiscreetly about her college affair, according
to fellow students and acquaintances in Portland.
Now, college officials said Saturday, an "issue of forgery" may have
surfaced that could be pertinent to the special prosecutor's
investigation of Lewinsky's relationship with the president.
A former White House intern, Lewinsky, 24, reportedly discussed her
affair with Clinton on 20 hours of tapes that her friend, Linda Tripp,
secretly recorded in Washington, D.C.
Lewinsky's life in Portland, according to the people who knew her, had a
striking parallel to the events in Washington: Lewinsky talked at length
about her sexual relationship with a married man, even in front of
people she did not know well.
The Oregonian has spoken to more than 30 former college classmates and
acquaintances of Lewinsky's, some of whom only knew her in passing.
But three acquaintances have described in detail a relationship Lewinsky
had with a married man that they often considered inappropriate. At
least one of her closest friends urged her to break it off, but she
refused.
Many of her closest friends have been reluctant to talk about Lewinsky
in an effort to protect her. But they also are troubled because what
they know about her, especially regarding her relationship with a
married man, could bear directly on Lewinsky's credibility as well as
the president's.
Those closest to her have asked for anonymity because they fear becoming
part of the media spectacle surrounding the controversy.
But all her friends say there was nothing about her time in Portland, or
her comfortable upbringing in California, to suggest the trouble ahead.
Growing up
Monica Samille Lewinsky was born July 23, 1973, in San Francisco. She
grew up in the posh Los Angeles neighborhoods of Brentwood and Beverly
Hills, famous for its 90210 Zip code.
When she was 14, her parents divorced, splitting a $1.6 million home and
putting an end to $20,000 family vacations, according to accounts in The
Washington Post and other publications.
Court records suggest acrimonious divorce proceedings between Bernard
Lewinsky, a prominent cancer doctor, and Marcia Lewis, a writer who
chronicles the lives of celebrities and for a time worked on the
Hollywood Reporter.
>From 1988 to 1990, Monica Lewinsky attended Beverly Hills High School.
She appeared in musicals, and the yearbook described her as "most likely
to get her name in lights."
But with a year to go before graduation, she transferred to Bel Air
Prep, an exclusive, 200-student private school where tuition is $12,000
a year.
She graduated in 1991 from Bel Air, now called Pacific Hills School, and
did not stand out in any particular way. Headmaster Richard Makoff
recalled Lewinsky was a member of the chorus and had "a nice singing
voice."
After graduation, Lewinsky attended Santa Monica College, a two-year
community college, and then transferred to Portland's Lewis & Clark in
the fall of 1993.
Lewis & Clark
As a psychology major, Lewinsky made the dean's list, which requires a
3.75 grade-point average, for one term in 1994. She was one of about 40
psychology majors in a graduating class of 362 in 1995.
"She was motivated to make something of herself," said Kurt Carpenter,
one of Lewinsky's roommates in a rental house on Northeast Hassalo
Street. "She worked hard in school. She was searching for what she
wanted to do."
Her life in Portland did not hint at a privileged, well-connected
upbringing, said Theresa Lovett, who lives across the street.
"She never talked about money or seemed preoccupied with that sort of
thing," said Lovett, who hired Lewinsky to baby-sit several times and
was impressed when the college student brought over art projects to
entertain Lovett's son.
Lewinsky worked at The Knot Shop, a now-defunct kiosk selling men's
neckwear in downtown Portland's Pioneer Place mall.
But much of her work was aimed at her studies. She did an unpaid
practicum at Network Behavioral Healthcare Inc., a social services
center for the mentally ill in Portland.
In school, she expressed interest in forensic psychology and in
developing profiles of criminals. She also was an intern at Metropolitan
Public Defenders, where, according to her resume, she worked on devising
"psychology expert reference techniques."
Those close to her during her time in Portland describe her with
adjectives such as "nice" or "sweet." Linda Estergard, a college friend,
called her a "a wonderful individual."
But some Lewis & Clark classmates drew different conclusions about the
outgoing Lewinsky.
'Self-esteem issues'
"She'd sensationalize things and dramatize things," said Stephen
Enghouse, 29, a psychology major who socialized with Lewinsky. "One of
the things I remember is a story about how she attended a birthday party
with Michael Jackson."
Enghouse, who also graduated in 1995, said he took things Lewinsky said,
during lunch in the student union or during study breaks in the library,
"with a grain of salt."
"She really had some self-esteem issues," said Enghouse, a food business
consultant. "She was sort of stereotypical Beverly Hills: Wealthy
family. Divorced parents. She was young and immature and wanting
attention."
Enghouse, who has had no contact with Lewinsky for three years, said he
doubted her story about heading off to a White House internship after
graduation.
"With Monica, you just never knew," Enghouse said.
The tales Lewinsky told that most bothered her friends and
acquaintances, however, were those of her affair with a married man
eight years her senior.
Talked of affair
Lewinsky met the man in California before coming to Lewis & Clark in
1993. The man and his wife moved to Portland about that time.
One classmate recalls Lewinsky talking openly about the relationship
during lunches in the Trail Room, the cafeteria in Templeton Hall, Lewis
& Clark's student center.
The former student, who asked not to be identified, recalled that
Lewinsky had no problem with the fact she was seeing a married man or
discussing it publicly, sometimes in front of people she barely knew.
"I never quizzed her about it personally, but I often heard her talk
about it," said the student, who now is attending graduate school. "She
was proud and not repentant at all."
The former student said that Lewinsky was so brash in discussing the
affair that he thought she might be making it all up.
But others who knew her say they think the relationship was real. They
say that the man visited the Hassalo Street house and that Lewinsky made
no secret about the nature of their relationship.
"She was somewhat taken by this guy," said one acquaintance who knew her
for a year in Portland and saw her with the man.
The acquaintance echoed other close friends who said they thought
Lewinsky was an honest person but "not perfect by any means."
"I found Monica to be a trustworthy person when I was with her," the
acquaintance said. "She was a fairly insecure young girl, and you know
she made some poor choices in life."
New questions about Lewinsky's honesty surfaced Saturday when Lewis &
Clark linked her to a possible forgery.
In a statement, the school said it had encouraged one of its employees
to come forward with documents that might be pertinent to special
prosecutor Kenneth Starr's expanding investigation into Clinton and
Lewinsky.
"The documents may go to the issue of forgery," said Scott Staff, vice
president for college relations. "But those documents have not been
authenticated or investigated in any serious legal way."
Staff declined to identify the employee or provide any specific
information about the documents, although he said the information "has
nothing to do with Monica Lewinsky's academic work, nor is it related to
private sexual matters."
Lewinsky showed no interest in politics before leaving Portland. "Her
mom lived in Washington, D.C., and she wanted be with her after
graduation," classmate Zachary Isenberg said.
Isenberg said that an internship at the White House, a job many young
college graduates yearn to win, was for Lewinsky "just something to do.
It all fell together for her. It wasn't at all planned."
Lewinsky got the help of Walter Kaye, a retired New York insurance
magnate. A friend to Hillary Rodham Clinton and Marcia Lewis, who is
Lewinsky's mother, Kaye is a big contributor to the Democratic Party.
White House interns are unpaid, and their jobs often are mundane. But
the address is eye-popping on a resume. Most White House interns work in
the Old Executive Office Building, across a driveway from the White
House. But Lewinsky worked in the office of Leon Panetta, who was
Clinton's chief of staff at the time.
Her internship led to a paid position handling letters for the Office of
Legislative Affairs in December 1995. Six months later, she moved to the
Pentagon as confidential assistant to Kenneth Bacon, the assistant
secretary of defense for public affairs.
Co-workers at the Pentagon said she dated two single men, both in their
40s, during her time there, The New York Times reported.
Lewinsky told her college friends she didn't like the Pentagon job. It
lacked the excitement and glamour of the White House. She was also ill
at ease being a young assistant amid so many older workers to whom she
often had to give directions.
"She felt awkward about it because she was younger than everyone else,
but she had a certain degree of power," Isenberg said. "She didn't have
many friends and was lonesome. She wanted out."
People in high places were helping. Presidential confidant Vernon Jordan
had set her up in a new job at a Revlon affiliate in New York, although
the job offer has since been withdrawn.
Defense officials learned in early November that Lewinsky would leave
the next month. But before then, she found a confidant in Tripp, herself
a former White House aide who had ended up unhappily in a Pentagon job.
Lewinsky thought she had found a friend to whom she could tell her
secrets. She did not know until too late that Tripp had a hidden tape
recorder that would change everything.
Erin Hoover, James Mayer, Steve Suo, Rob Eure and Jennifer Bjorhus of
The Oregonian Staff contributed to this story.
Reporters Nena Baker, Brent Walth and Jeff Mapes can be reached at
294-5072 or by e-mail at brent...@aol.com
Š1998 Oregon Live LLC
mars...@erols.com
I just have to wonder what's going through Monica Lewinsky's head
these days? don't you?
http://www.geocities.com/Area51/Zone/5613
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