Tripp's motivations? No, unlike you, I'd not have done the same thing in her place; I'd have just told Monica I didn't want to talk to her about it.
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.
2) Certainly not Starr, unless he's genuinely demented. But I don't doubt there are many other possible candidates. And if Willey is prepared to claim Bill put the moves on her, and is lying, lying at least is all she's doing. Blackmail is just a tad more serious. Her husband was obviously distraught; so distraught that he committed suicide. His emotional state would have been sufficient reason for her not to confide in him; and, as you say, she may by then have wanted out of the marriage. (Now THERE'S a good rumor to send over to Drudge: Kath offed hubby, or arranged for it to be done, and set up the whole Clinton thing to distract attention AND to provide her a handy alibi!)
And not to run this one into the ground, but I find the story of the mussed blouse and smeared makeup highly suspicious.
3) 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.
Unlikely. Everyone knows Hillary's loyal to Bill. And that she doesn't give a damn whom he sleeps with. And Tripp's "exile" to the Pentagon can be explained much more easily: she'd annoyed people over the Vince Foster business, just as she'd evidently annoyed people in the Bush administration. Judging from her actions overall, I'd guess she's a pretty annoying person. The job at the Pentagon was a good one; she had no reason to complain of the transfer.
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...
My recollection (though this should be checked) is that it was Lucianne Goldburg who suggested Tripp begin taping the conversations. And let us not forget that Tripp had earlier hoped to make Big Bux selling her "inside view" of the Foster suicide, but Goldburg couldn't make a sale. All this suggests to me that Tripp was not, and is not, precisely a disinterested party. Tripp didn't send the tapes to Starr immediately. She may well have been giving copies to Goldburg all along; certainly G has copies now. In October an unidentified female called the Rutherford Institute suggesting that Lewinsky be investigated. G has denied doing this; was it Tripp? Tripp then talked to Jones's lawyers, though as far as I know she didn't give 'em copies of the tapes. Finally she got in touch with Starr, when warned that she'd violated the Maryland wiretapping law.
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...
Why not? Because it's not relevant to what Starr was supposed to investigate in the first place. Whitewater. And I don't think he should have been investigating that, either. My feeling about special prosecutors is that their brief should extend ONLY to alleged illegal acts committed by the Prez while he's in office, and that these acts must pertain to the the job itself. Thus Watergate, Iran-Contra, illegal campaign financing, and possibly Travelgate would qualify. Whitewater should have been handled in Arkansas, where it took place, by the locals. Jones's is a civil suit.
I'm not especially outraged that Lewinsky's mother was called; evidently her daughter confided in her. I'm outraged that this sorry business is being investigated in the first place. Monica didn't charge harassment; didn't charge anything at all. Jones did, and so yes, she--her associations and her past--will be checked out.
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.
Huh? If someone with unlimited funds were digging into every aspect of your own private life I suspect you'd be FURIOUS. I certainly would. As far as the "kissing relationship" thing is concerned, the WH has denied that they were considering such an explanation, and I doubt very much whether it was a trial balloon, either. Too silly for words. No one over the age of 15 would believe such a thing. |
