President Gold Digger.

• Position: Paula Jones v. Bill Clinton - Editorial

Funny how the insults the Clinton Administration has been hurling at Paula Jones seem to bounce back and stick to the President. White House staffers and their friends in the press--including the now-penitent Evan Thomas of Newsweek--called Jones a "gold digger" and "trailer trash," and implied that she was sleazy enough to prostitute herself for money and fame.

But even as the White House struggles to discredit Jones, all the other scandals swirling around this Administration make Clinton himself look more like a gold digger and a prostitute every day.

Clinton's unseemly, and in some cases illegal, courtship of the rich is the flip side of his contempt for ordinary citizens like Paula Jones. Here is a President who holds himself above the law, and who flouts the public interest more flagrantly and more obscenely than any previous President.

The question of when Paula Jones will get her day in court is really a question about whether this President can continue to blow off the public.

The Supreme Court is right to worry about government grinding to a halt if a judge can order the President to forgo his duties on any given day to appear in court. But surely, between fundraising events, Clinton can find a little time to answer Jones's charges. The courts should agree to let the President reschedule court appearances that he says conflict with his job, but they should start the proceedings in the Jones case immediately. If the President skips out repeatedly or for frivolous reasons, he'll be disciplined in the court of public opinion.

If Jones's story is accurate, Clinton was enormously arrogant and abusive toward her.

It is clearly a violation of the privileges of office for a governor to dispatch state troopers to bring a woman to his hotel room for sex.

And it is clearly sexual harassment if, as Jones says, Clinton let her know that he was friends with her boss, and then told her to keep quiet, leading her to fear for her job. Jones also says that Clinton fondled her against her will, exposed himself, and asked for oral sex.

It's not a pretty picture. And there is plenty of reason to believe Jones is telling the truth. She reacted immediately, told co-workers her story, and appeared visibly shaken. She told one friend to...