Who Heard the P-word?

The week Flytrap broke, Newsweek's cover package included a sidebar on Washington lawyer Vernon Jordan and his relationship with the president. The piece featured the following provocative line: "Asked at a party earlier this year what it was he and Clinton talked about on the golf course, Jordan slyly replied, 'We talk pu--y.'" Now, Chatterbox has learned, Newsweek Assistant Managing Editor Evan Thomas has written Jordan a letter of apology, of sorts--though it doesn't change the substance of Newsweek's account. Thomas told Chatterbox he had originally remembered Jordan's comment as something "which I thought I had heard myself." He later was told that Jordan was pissed at him, and realized he'd been eliding two memories. "He didn't say it to me," Thomas says. All this is presumably what he wrote in his letter to Jordan. But Newsweek says its account of what Jordan said (to somebody) is still accurate. Thomas: "We stand by the story." ... Jordan, who has not returned Chatterbox's phone call, was reportedly not completely mollified by Thomas' letter ... Two questions: 1) Does Jordan really want to start a dispute over whether he uses the P-word? 2) If not, why is he that concerned with the minutiae of who, exactly, remembers hearing him use it, especially since the Newsweek account doesn't say to whom Jordan said it? ... How did Jordan find out that Thomas (whose name wasn't on the story) thought he'd heard it himself, anyway? It must have taken some work. Now we know what Jordan does all day! ... According to Time, Jordan once told a reporter that he and the president "talk like men," adding "There's nothing wrong with a little locker room talk." Chatterbox agrees, and has always assumed it was part of Jordan's charm. Don't disillusion us! ...

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Stuart Taylor Memorial Disclosure: Chatterbox is still talking to Newsweek about a job. It's taking a long time, isn't it? ...

E-mail Timothy Noah at .

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Mickey Kaus, a Slate contributor, is author of The End of Equality.

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