PRINT THIS PAGE | E-MAIL THIS PAGE

Friday, September 18, 1998

Rep. Hyde's former lover speaks out

SAN ANTONIO (AP) - A San Antonio woman said she had an extramarital affair in the 1960s with Rep. Henry Hyde, R-Ill., the head of the House Judiciary Committee that is considering impeachment hearings against President Clinton over a sex scandal, the San Antonio Express-News reported in Thursday's editions.

The woman told the newspaper that Hyde, who was married at the time, told her he was single.

"I did not know he was married," Cherie Soskin, now 62, said late Wednesday night. "He portrayed himself as a single person, and I didn't bother to check or anything like that."

An Internet magazine, Salon, first reported the affair between Hyde and Cherie Snodgrass, Ms. Soskin's name from a previous marriage. On Wednesday, Hyde admitted to "indiscretions" with a woman in Chicago in the 1960s while both were married.

Hyde said, "The statute of limitations has long since passed on my youthful indiscretions. Suffice it to say, Cherie Snodgrass and I were good friends a long, long time ago. After Mr. Snodgrass confronted my wife, the friendship ended and my marriage remained intact."

Hyde called the report on the affair "an obvious attempt to intimidate me." He vowed it would have no impact on impeachment proceedings against Clinton.

Salon said Hyde and the former Mrs. Snodgrass had an affair from 1965, a year before he was elected to the Illinois House, until 1969. He was a 41-year-old lawyer and she was 12 years his junior. The Web site published a picture of a woman it identified as her, sitting on Hyde's lap.

Ms. Soskin told the Express-News her marriage was dissolving when she met Hyde, whom she called Hank.

"I was in the process of starting divorce proceedings," she said by phone. "I was no longer living with my husband."

Ms. Soskin declined to say when she found out Hyde was married. She said the affair ended amicably, and she ran into him from time to time on friendly terms. She couldn't recall when she last talked to Hyde.

"I can't even remember. You're going back over 30 years," she said.

Ms. Soskin's ex-husband, Fred Snodgrass, who lives near Fort Lauderdale, Fla., broke down and cried in an interview with Salon as he described the relationship between his ex-wife and Hyde three decades ago.

"He had an affair with a young woman with three children," Snodgrass said of Hyde. "At least the president didn't do that."

Snodgrass and his wife divorced and remarried, then divorced again in 1971. He said the affair devastated their three children.

Ms. Soskin told the Express-News her ex-husband was publicizing her affair with Hyde out of "revenge."

"He was a blamer. He could never accept responsibility for his own actions and blamed everything on Hank," she said.

Ms. Soskin said she was worried publicity about the affair with Hyde would damage her life. She had planned to decline requests for interviews today, but may speak about the subject at a later date, "as soon as I have time to think."

"I put all this out of mind. I forgot so many things," she said.

Ms. Soskin also vowed to call police if the front yard of her North Side home turned into a media circus.

"I have a very great life down here, and I don't want it ruined with all this craziness right now, and my (former) husband would like nothing better than to do that," Ms. Soskin said.