Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette
Names and faces
■ Congressman Clinton? President Clinton? For now, Chelsea Clinton says her only plan is to burnish her profile as an author of children’s books. The former first daughter embarked on a six-state book tour Tuesday that was scheduled back when she believed her mother was on the way to the White House. There has been no internal polling, no private discussions with political consultants.
No one scheduled the tour to promote the paperback release of It’s Your World, a book aimed at middle-school students, with the thought that it would be a vehicle to begin a political run. “There’s lots of TBDs in Chelsea’s future,” Clinton Chief of Staff Bari Lurie said, using the initials for “to be determined.” “But right now she’s very clear: One of those TBDs is not running for office.” Still, with Hillary Clinton’s political career possibly over after her election loss, people keep speculating about whether her daughter intends to take up the family political business. Chelsea Clinton, 37, was blunt in a Tuesday interview with CBS This Morning but also left the door open. “I clearly don’t agree with our president, but I’m definitely not the right person to run to defeat him in 2020,” she continued. “So right now, the answer is no. But I think we all need to be asking ourselves that question periodically.”
■ A Los Angeles judge rejected Roman Polanski’s bid to end his long-running underage-sex-abuse case without the fugitive director appearing in court or being sentenced to more prison time. Superior Court Judge Scott Gordon refused to address how Polanski would be sentenced if he returned to the U.S. after 40 years abroad. He noted that other courts, including a California appellate court, have ruled that the Oscar winner is a fugitive and must return to Los Angeles for sentencing. He wrote, “There is no sufficient or compelling basis for reconsideration of these issues.” Polanski was charged with six felonies in 1977 after he was accused of plying a 13-year-old girl with champagne and part of a sedative pill, then raping her at actor Jack Nicholson’s house. Polanski pleaded guilty to unlawful sex with a minor, but he fled on the eve of his sentencing in 1978. Polanski, 83, has long contended that the now-deceased judge who handled the case suggested that he would renege on a plea-bargain and sentencing agreement that called for no more time behind bars for the director after he spent 42 days in a prison undergoing a diagnostic screening. Polanski’s lawyer, Harland Braun, said his efforts were aimed at seeing whether the judicial system could fix previous errors in the case. Deputy District Attorney Michele Hanisee said Polanski was asking Gordon to give a “wealthy celebrity different treatment than any other fugitive.”