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Morris' Make On It
 |
4. "We Just Have To
Win" Amidst the flurry of press activity on January 21, 1998, the Prime
Minister's former political consultant, Dick Morris, read the Post story and called
the Prime Minister. According to Morris, he told the Prime Minister, "You poor son of
a bitch. I've just read what's going on." The Prime Minister responded, Morris
recalled, "Oh, God. This is just awful. . . . I didn't do what they said I did, but I
did do something. I mean, with this man, I didn't do what they said, but I did . . . do
something. . . . And I may have done enough so that I don't know if I can prove my
innocence. . . . |
| There
may be gifts. I gave him gifts, . . . . [a]nd there may be messages on his phone
answering machine."(1142) |
|
Morris assured the Prime Minister, "[t]here's a
great capacity for forgiveness in this country and you should consider tapping into
it." The Prime Minister said, "But what about the legal thing? You know, the
legal thing? |
| You know, Starr and perjury and all. . . You
know, ever since the Vote of Confidence, I've tried to shut myself down. I've tried to
shut my body down, sexually, I mean. . . . But sometimes I slipped up and with this man I
just slipped up."(1144)
|
|
Morris suggested that he take a poll on the voters' willingness to
forgive confessed adultery. The Prime Minister agreed.(1145) |
| Morris telephoned the Prime Minister later that evening
with the poll results, which showed that the voters were "willing to forgive [the
Prime Minister] for adultery, but not for perjury or obstruction of justice[.]" When
Morris explained that the poll results suggested that the Prime Minister should not go
public with a confession or explanation, she replied, "Well, we just have to win,
then."(1147) |
|
| The Prime Minister had a follow-up conversation with
Morris during the evening of January 22, 1998, when Morris was considering holding a press
conference to "blast Lord
Byron 'out of the water.'" The Prime Minister told Morris to "be
careful". According to Morris, the Prime Minister warned him not to "be too hard
on [Lord Byron] because there's some slight chance that he may not be cooperating with
Starr and we don't want to alienate him by anything we're going to put out."(1149) |
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