Brock in a Hard Place

If you're David Brock, a past spent writing right-wing pieces for the American Spectator means sometimes having to say you're sorry. And ever since his highly public split with Spectator publisher R. Emmett Tyrell last year over a Brock book on Hillary Clinton that was disappointingly unscathing, Brock has been apologizing early, often and on whatever media outlet he can find. Tuesday saw him on the Today show, CNN and Good Morning America, serving up an apology for his 1993 American Spectator article -- which became the genesis for Troopergate, the Paula Jones lawsuit and all things Monica.

As a somewhat peripheral figure on the right wing, "Brock's more famous for what he's done than for who he is," says TIME White House correspondent Jay Branegan. "He did what many people feel was a pretty nasty piece of work against Anita Hill, and the Troopergate story had problems. But he got some vindication from the mainstream press on the Paula Jones part of the story."

Obviously, the White House is pleased about Brock's conversion. But what benefit this will give the President remains to be seen. Like most of the players in the Paula/Monica affair, Brock is hardly without blemish. All he's admitted is what we already knew -- that he'd been writing his stories from a very clear anti-Clinton bias.