Sue Hartigan <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes: March 22 —New polls showed Saturday that the grand jury proceedings have already taken a toll on public faith in President Clinton’s personal morals. The same polls indicated the credibility of Clinton accuser Kathleen Willey is also in serious doubt. But a new figure emerged Saturday to corroborate one heavily disputed aspect of her story. Despite the controversies, the president’s job approval rating holds strong, ranging between 59 percent and 67 percent in three new public opinion surveys released this weekend. Personal Approval Sees Drop But a survey conducted by Democratic pollster Celinda Lake and Republican Ed Goeas for U.S. News and World Report showed that just 36 percent of Americans approve of him as a person and 50 percent disapprove. His approval as a person is down 6 percentage points from last December, before detailed allegations were aired about alleged sexual relations with Lewinsky and what Willey says was an unwanted sexual contact with her just outside the Oval Office. But among Democratic women, Clinton suffered a much steeper decline of 19 percentage points. A Newsweek poll released Saturday found that 43 percent of those surveyed said should leave office if Willey’s accusations are true and Clinton lied about it under oath. But 31 percent said he should be able to stay in office if he apologizes to the American people and 18 percent volunteered that no apology would be necessary. A CNN/Time poll, which was conducted three days after Willey’s nationally televised charges March 15, indicated that half of Americans (52 percent) believe Clinton has engaged in a “pattern of sexual misconduct.” Public Split Over Willey Respondents were split over whether to believe Willey and nearly half (48 percent) said she went public with her story for monetary gain. One disputed aspect of Willey’s story—that she confided details of the 1993 alleged encounter with Clinton to her friend, Julie Hiatt Steele, right after it happened—was corroborated Saturday by Richmond, Va., television producer Bill Poveromo. In an affidavit that Clinton’s lawyers have used to undercut Willey’s credibility, Steele swore that Mrs. Willey never mentioned the incident when it happened and later asked Steele to lie and say that she was told in 1993 about Clinton’s alleged unwanted pass. Poveromo, who works for WWBT-TV, told The Associated Press that Steele, his friend of several years, confided in him over dinner at her home last April that “the president had groped Kathy (Willey) and that Julie did know about it right after it happened.” Steele later changed her story in the affidavit and in press reports “because she freaked and panicked,” Poveromo said. Nancy Luque, Steele’s Washington attorney, said: “She absolutely stands by her affidavit. She did not tell Poveromo that the Clinton-Willey encounter occurred because she didn’t ever believe that it had.” Newsweek’s March 19-20 telephone survey of 750 adults had a 4-percentage point margin of error. The CNN/Time poll, conducted March 18-19 among 1,032 adult Americans claims a 3-point sampling error. Pollsters for U.S. News questioned 1,005 registered voters March 17-19 and also claimed a margin of error of 3 percentage points. -- Two rules in life: 1. Don't tell people everything you know. 2. Subscribe/Unsubscribe, email: [EMAIL PROTECTED] In the body of the message enter: subscribe/unsubscribe law-issues