Jenice Armstrong: Chelsea's on the firing line

IT IS AN enduring image, that of Chelsea Clinton as a girl walking between her parents, holding their hands, in the aftermath of the Monica Lewinsky affair.

Now, all these years later, Chelsea Clinton is approaching 30. But it's still hard not to feel at least a twinge of sympathy for her when questioners bring up her parents' infamous marital issues.

On one hand, as much as people would love for her to go Oprah and dish about the inner dynamics of the Billary duo, you can't blame her for keeping her silence. What more about the Monica Lewinsky affair does America really need to know, anyway? A far more relevant question for Chelsea would be: Why does she think her mother would be a better president than her dad? Or what exactly were those differences she said her parents had about NAFTA?

And why don't you hear people posing similar questions to the former president or Sen. Hillary Clinton? Chelsea was an innocent bystander in all this.

On the other hand, tactless questioning such as the kind she's encountered lately goes with the territory now that she has become one of her mother's top surrogates. Surely, Chelsea knew to expect that. What's surprising is that she hasn't been asked more about her parents' relationship than she already has.

When a student at Indiana's Butler University asked how her mother's credibility had been impacted by the affair, Chelsea appeared caught off guard. "Wow, you're the first person, actually, that's ever asked me that question in the - I don't know - maybe 70 college campuses that I've now been to," she said.

"And I do not think that's any of your business."

Chelsea had a similar response earlier this week when another college student, this time in North Carolina, dared to broach the subject. "It's none of your business," Chelsea said once again.

"That is something that is personal to my family. I'm sure there are things that are personal to your family that you don't think are anyone else's business, either."

Unfortunately, what the former First Daughter will discover, if she hasn't already, is that claiming something is "personal" won't automatically make it so in the minds of some people. And instead of preventing future embarrassing exchanges, it'll probably stir up even more unless she comes up with a less peevish and, hopefully, a final way of deflecting them.

Besides, although these questions might be lacking in taste, they aren't completely meritless. People are curious. And given the latest crop of public officials confessing extramarital dalliances, voters have come to expect a public baring - perhaps minus such details as the cheesy hotel to which a certain sitting public official took his paramour.

And let's not forget that Monicagate wasn't simply a family affair. It happened in the fishbowl of the White House and the president wound up being impeached in the aftermath. That made it anything but personal. But this was none of Chelsea's doing. She was just a kid. So although the questioners have a right to continue bringing it up, she has a right to continue refusing to discuss it. *

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