Seems to me slimy. But then I never did like spies. Especially nasty when masquerading as dear friends.
I agree. I don't excuse Tripp's recordings, and I'm sure Monica feels betrayed bigtime, no matter whether she is lying on the tapes, fantasizing, or telling the truth. With the rapid stream of events, I admit I haven't given much time to think about Tripp's motivation for doing this. But, if I put myself in her place, I have to say that I may have done the same thing, I don't know. Before you get too outraged, read the whole thing and see if it makes sense.
I've included the things we know, and what we don't know, I made up: -g-
1) Tripp had some seniority as a White House employee, as she worked at the White House since at least some time since during the Bush administration. We don't know what her political bent is, could be Republican or "neutral", not likely Democrat if Bush admin hired her, but possible. In any case, she saw fit to work in the Clinton White house through the first term.
2) Tripp sees Willey emerge from the Oval Office, with blouse, blah blah, etc. I know you suspect they may have conspired together, and I grant that anything is possible. But the pieces don't quite all make sense: The Willeys are bankrupt. Tripp says, "you go and get Bill to xx with you in the Oval Office, under the pretext of seeking employment, and ....what? Who pays the Willeys, Ken Starr? Who would be so crazy as to be on the paying end of a deal like that? All Kath would have to do is record the conversation, then demand the payer just pay up right now, or she was taking the tape to the FBI. Not only that, but if that was the deal, why didn't Kathleen let her husband in on it, so he wouldn't have had to commit suicide? Was the plan to privately blackmail Clinton, for some hush money? But eventually she would have had to explain to her husband where the money came from, so why wouldn't she have explained the plan to him?
[from a different, later post:] But now, less than a year later, the family's doing just FINE. And Kath's supposedly willing to testify against Bill. Interesting. Well, at least Kath and the kids, if any, are doing fine. So the deal, whatever it was, wasn't communicated too well to her hubby. Or maybe she decided she was tired of living with a convicted embezzler, and had plans of ending that marriage, and so wasn't letting him in on her plans.
3) Assuming we somehow got to this point, the story anyway is that Tripp evidently doesn't like the idea that Bill may be...overly affectionate with women other than his wife. Maybe Tripp is friendly with Hillary. Obviously Tripp would see Hillary in the White House, so knew her, at least casually. Tripp mentions to someone that she is uncomfortable with the way Kath looked after seeing Bill. Tripp is told, perhaps rudely, that she didn't see anything, and to stop making things up. Then Tripp is effectively fired from her job, and "placed" at a new job in the Pentagon. Banished, you could say.
4) Lewinsky happens to find new employment at the Pentagon within months of Tripp. The two have ties to their past employment at the WH, so they keep up, or perhaps renew a friendship. Next Lewinsky starts telling Tripp about her affair with Clinton. At this point, we could assume whatever we wanted: Lewinsky could be making it up, or embellishing on some kissy-poo. I'm becoming more accepting of that possibility. Maybe she wants to appear to the more senior Tripp to be not just some former lowly intern, but someone who made some PROGRESS, and became quite intimate with THE MAN. Could be that the story kind of grew; maybe she didn't plan it that way, but as one lie went, another seemed to fit the ongoing story better than the truth.
Truthful people tell the truth most of the time. Liars don't. True.
5) Now Tripp begins to think how she can make the WH get its just deserts for how she feels she was rudely and unjustly treated. So without telling Monica, Tripp begins to record the conversations. She doesn't have the guts to confront Clinton personally and demand anything, so she simply takes the tapes to Starr, which is IMO a logical choice: He's investigating Whitewater, so he's "in the business" of going up against THE MAN. Starr takes it to Reno, she is shocked, because Clinton and Lewinsky had filed affidavits saying otherwise from what Lewinsky is saying on tape. She doesn't have any choice but to give the go-ahead to a possible charge of obstruction, perjury, etc.
6) Somehow, the media gets wind of it, through "sources". Maybe just to get the fun going, Tripp calls Matt Drudge herself. And then ABC news gets some juicy sources....we know the rest. Monica gets put under 24 hr suicide watch (I heard this on the radio 2 days after the story broke, and didn't hear or see it anyplace else).
7) Starr is in the business to investigate Clinton; he's already heard the tapes, so Reno figures why not? I personally still see no reason why Starr is so objectionable. As I posted earlier, Clinton's lawyers have subpoened Paula Jones' Mother and Paula's sister and grilled them, yet I don't hear any OUTRAGE over that, and how OUT OF CONTROL Clinton's lawyers are, and what a POLICE STATE this has become with that CLINTON subpoening EVERYONE. People get subpoened during investigations. Always have, always will, and a new IC other than Starr would be subpoening people too. It's called following up leads, checking up on other witness's stories, verifying, etc.
Also: A lot of the rage against the violation of Lewinsky's privacy is, though understandable, perhaps misplaced: The news organizations are the ones who accept all these "anonymous tips", these secret little whispered conversations about other people's private lives. And then they broadcast those intimate, rather private details to the entire world. If I was Monica, you can bet I would be suing ABC News for A LOT of money. LOTS just for the stained-dress disclosure. Even if it WAS true. I would also be pursuing every other news organization that was in on the first reporting of the smarmy details of her private conversations with Tripp. Defamation certainly, invasion of privacy, whatever it took.
Now that I've reached this rather enlightened ending, the only peice that doesn't fit is Clinton's heavy resistance to Starr. Maybe he feels some guilt, and is afraid of even the public's reaction to a kissing relationship. I agree with CGB on this, that were I Hillary (tough to imagine) I would be much less than pleased if Bill publically admitted even to that. This is the age of enlightenment, but kissing would presumably mean mouth-type action rather than the affectionate peck on the cheek one might give to a grandmother. But, Bill would of course survive, and no legal charges could be made.
Later,
DK
PS: This guy at this website does Clinton song parodies, and sounds darn close to Clinton. I get a kick out these songs, but you may not. There's little buttons to hear samples.
paulshanklin.com |
