January 26, 1998 — HONG KONG — I just saw a soundbite on local television where the POTUS again denied any sexual affair with former White House intern, Monica Lewinsky. The poor S.O.B. looked like a hunted animal. He wasn't cool, he wasn't calm. He looked real mean and angry as he abruptly ended the q&a and said he would now like to get back to working for the American people.
The denial is nothing new. He has been claiming nothing sexual happened between him and Lewinsky ever since the allegations began. But the difference in his attitude I saw in this latest denial made me sit back and take notice. Here was a man under intense pressure. When the story first broke, alleged objective journalists were describing his denials as being made with "carefully chosen words." What were they trying to suggest, I wonder?
In the latest soundbite, Clinton wasn't being careful with his choice of words. The POTUS was pissed, big time. In his frustration he even stumbled as he made his statement. What I saw was one seriously angry man.
This makes me very uneasy. This guy is the one who will ultimately decide how much collateral damage will be acceptable when U.S. and British missiles slam into Iraq. My money would say it is going to happen sometime soon. The American media haven't given Clinton much choice.
Okay, so we don't like Saddam, but a whole bunch of Iraqi civilians are going to die in the next installment of the long running Gulf War drama. Exactly how many depends on the scale and spread of the missile launch. With a seriously distracted and pissed-off POTUS trying to deflect attention away from domestic sleaze attacks - the number could be unnecessarily high. Well done, Ken Starr and your gang of right-wing doogoodniks. Your obsession with presidential semen distribution will possibly result in countless more Iraqi kids being blown to hell and back. Console yourself with the thought that at least they won't suffer a lingering death because of the U.S./British backed embargo. I suppose, in a way, giving them a quick death is the humane thing to do.
Speaking as an outsider watching this soap opera unfold on prime time television, I am rather shocked and concerned to see just how far the fascist right wing will go in their efforts to destabilise the presidency. Not Clinton per se, but the office of the President of the United States.
This Lewinsky affair, even if it did happen and everyone concerned told the most unbelievable porkies* in an attempt to cover it up - it is still small beer in the grand scale of things. The POTUS, bless him, has lied through his teeth on much more important issues. I am not a Clinton apologist - read my back columns - but let's face it, he is arguably the lesser of potential evils that could conceivably reside in the White House.
But everyone has a limit. Does this so-called investigation have the potential to drive Clinton into making unwise decisions?
Not that the U.S. media appear to be concerned with the consequences of their actions. I guess their determination to 'get to the truth' on this issue is a graphic and internationally witnessed example of an allegedly well intentioned American Pie.
January 27, 1998 — NEW YORK — Three years ago, a three-judge panel of Goober Helms cronies essentially fired Bob Fiske and installed Ken Starr as their not-so-Independent Counsel in an attempt to heat up the battle to hobble Bill Clinton.
While the press has been in a virtual orgy of "Presidential sex" coverage, they've been ignoring a couple of things: that fact that the frenzy is over unproved allegations, leaks and rumors, and the fact that Ken Starr is a right-wing hatchet-wielder out to do a Jack Torrence on America, a Barbarian whose hordes of attorneys and reactionary pals are trashing Constitutional democracy in general and the Presidency in particular.
That's right - not the President, the Presidency. Anthony Lewis brought up a good point yesterday in a New York Times op-ed piece titled Lord High Executioner: "The Constitution was not meant to give us -- and we should not want -- a system of government in which a roving inspector general with unaccountable power oversees the President of the United States."
Originally assigned to look into the Whitewater mess, Starr has been able to use the right-winger bona fides of the three-judge panel to expand his investigation the wrong way — not to investigate the corruption of bankers and realtors tied to Whitewater (which should be no surprise, because so many are registered as Republicans), but to essentially spin accusations about people's sex lives.
It plays into a pattern which we've seen from the hard right wing of the Republican party to weaken the other two branches of government. They're tying up the court system by slowing the approval of judges. Essentially the same people who unleashed extremists like Scalia and Thomas on the Supreme Court refuse to appoint moderate judges they conveniently label "judicial activists."
These Barbarians think they're empowering the right wing. Maybe, just maybe, it's true… but not as much as they are sowing the seeds of destruction of the three-branch government system, the Constitution and the Bill of Rights.
James "Swampfungus" Carville promised a war against this assault on not just the President but America this last Sunday on Meet the Press. This morning, Hillary Clinton fired off the heavy guns herself.
Originally scheduled some weeks ago to appear this morning on NBC's Today show to discuss child care issues, she honored her obligation, and had some choice words for Malibu Ken and company.
She showed both poise and patience as she counseled America to "be patient, take a deep breath, and the truth will come out… [People ask] how can you be so calm, and how can you just look like you're not upset? And I guess I've just been through it so many times. Bill and I have been accused of everything, including murder, by some of the very same people who are behind these allegations. So, from my perspective, this is part of a continuing political campaign against my husband."
On the topic of Vernon Jordan and the help he gave to Monica Lewinsky: "I just can't describe to you how outgoing and friendly Vernon Jordan is. When he stood up and said what I believe to be the absolute truth, he has helped literally hundreds of people, and it doesn't matter who they are."
On the question of where there's smoke: "There is no fire. Think of what we've been through for the last six years. Think of everything we've been accused of… Having seen so many of these accusations come and go for the last six years, having seen people profit — like Jerry Falwell with videos accusing my husband of murder, of drug-running — seeing some of the things that are written and said about him — my attitude is we've been there before, we've seen this before, and I'm just going to wait patiently until the truth comes out."
On Matt's question about whether the current situation is the worst political smear of the twentieth century: "There have been a lot of smears, but this is one of the worst. Just think about it, and this is what concerns me: this started out as an investigation of a failed land deal. I told everybody in 1992 that we lost money. People said 'it's not true, they made money, they have money in a Swiss bank account.' Well, it was true. We get a politically motivated prosecutor who is allied with the right-wing opponents of my husband, who has literally spent four years looking at every telephone call, every check we've ever written, scratching for dirt, intimidating witnesses, doing everything possible to try to make some accusation against my husband."
Matt: "We're talking about Kenneth Starr."
Mrs. Clinton: "We're talking about a whole operation."
Matt: "Did he go outside his rights to expand this investigation? After all, he got permission to expand the investigation from a three-judge panel."
Mrs. Clinton: "The same three-judge panel that removed Robert Fiske and appointed him, the same three-judge panel that is headed by someone who was appointed by Jesse Helms and Lauch Faircloth.… [Janet Reno] does not want to appear as if she's interfering with an investigation.… It's just a very unfortunate turn of events that we are using the criminal justice system to achieve political ends in this country. I'm not here just because I love and believe my husband, I'm also here because I love and believe in my country, and if I were just a citizen out there, maybe because I know about the law and I have some of the motivations here, I would be very disturbed about this turn of events… This is deliberately designed to sensationalize charges against my husband because everything else they've tried has failed, and I also believe this is an effort, very frankly, to undo the results of two elections."
In response to Matt quoting Carville's "This is war" remark: "This is a battle. Look at the very people who are involved in this. They have popped up in other settings. The great story here for anybody willing to find it, write about it and explain it, is this vast right-wing conspiracy that has been conspiring against my husband since the day he announced for President. A few journalists have kind of caught onto it and explained it but it has not been fully revealed to the American public. And, you know, in a bizarre sort of way, this may do it."
Dirty tricks are nothing new to the Clintons: Mrs. Clinton told the story of a doctored photo of "Clinton protesting the Vietnam War" at an Arkansas-Texas football game — at a time when Clinton was in London as a Rhodes scholar.
Matt and Mrs. Clinton talked about Chelsea and how she's handling it, and while the chat did turn personal, the issue of how political smear campaigns directly hurt people did come up.
Mrs. Clinton finally did talk a little bit about child care and the State of the Union Address, and dropped some hints about programs that the President will propose, including programs for children and public-private partnerships to save the most historic artifacts of United States history.
Her parting shot in response to Matt's question about whether it's worth it hit a number of issues: "It is worth it… I believe the country is better off because my husband has been President… People came up to me and said 'You tell your husband to stand firm. We need him'… You take the good with the bad and the good has far, far outweighed the bad."
Judging from Hillary Clinton comments and attitude, this looks to be only the first flurry in what looks to be a coming battle which could well redefine the Presidency. The office and stature of the President, not the President himself, is clearly at stake, and failure to protect and defend it would be a blow to democracy and a boon to the self-serving extremists and reactionaries seeking to impose their narrow and undemocratic agenda on our country.
'Nuff said.
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