Clintonophobia!

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The Arkansas branch of Clinton haters is led by two attorneys: Sheffield Nelson, who is a Republican candidate for Governor, and the quixotic Cliff Jackson. Both seem to harbor personal animosity toward the President. Nelson, who lost to Clinton in a Governor's race in 1990, was responsible last year for bringing damaging Whitewater-related allegations to national media attention. He also taped a conversation in which Jim McDougal, the Clintons' Whitewater partner, accuses the President of lying about the business venture. Jackson, who was a schoolmate of Clinton's at Oxford, represented the two Arkansas state troopers who told tales about Clinton's use of state employees to procure women. Jackson later arranged for a Washington press conference by Paula Corbin Jones, a former Arkansas state employee who says she was sexually harassed by Clinton while he was Governor. Although Jackson says he has urged reporters to stay away from allegations about Clinton's sexual escapades, Jones is expected to file a formal sexual harassment suit against the President sometime later this month -- an event the media will probably not ignore.

Other Presidents have been vilified, says historian Alan Brinkley, but new forces are shaping Clinton's situation. "Clinton is the first President who has generated this kind of right-wing hatred," Brinkley said, adding that the proliferation of radio talk shows and direct mail -- two methods of communication much used by conservatives -- have changed the political landscape. According to mail wizard Richard Viguerie, he and his fellow conservatives regard Clinton as a "serious threat" and thus feel justified , using any material at hand to bring him down. "It's nothing personal. Just business," Viguerie said. "But they have a lot more material to work with. What President since Lyndon Johnson has been so open in his sexual promiscuity? He brings this on himself. No one has given the country, the media, his opponents as much personal material to work with."

The White House is planning a counterattack against professional Clintonophobes like Brown, the kind who feed "the slime funnel," as an Administration official calls it, of negative stories in the media. "They are very good at shepherding people around," said the official. "We are worried to the extent they get their poison message into the mainstream media because there's a very low filter for it. The American people aren't aware of the extent to which the President's political opponents have been able to plant stories."

Historian Brinkley says Clinton has his work cut out for him because he is young, unlike previous Presidents who had "genial, paternalistic qualities and sunny personalities." Brinkley says Clinton is also a victim of a political fact of life: he's on the wrong side of the tolerance fence. "Liberals tend to value tolerance highly, so there's a greater reluctance to destroy enemies than among the right," he said. "Democrats are historically more likely to cooperate with Republican administrations than Republicans with Democratic administrations." With Clinton's foes growing fiercer by the day, his problem is that Democrats have a lot more to contend with than just Republicans.