Michelle, if I may comment re
Yes but you are forgetting something here. Unlike Watergate, the truths in this personal matter would have affected Hillary, Monica and Chelsea in a personally damaging matter. Of course with the benefit of hindsight we can all see that Clinton should have fessed up to the whole incident and now everyone would be better off - scandal actually draws MORE attention to this embarrassing incident. But he didnt know that then. So he probably weighed the evidence that he thought Starr had at the time, and came to the incorrect conclusion that he could deny it and stall for the rest of his term. My guess is Hillary supported that decision. Had this been about a different matter where others were not involved the decision of how to present it to the courts/TV would have been different.
Lets put it this way, if I were Monica, I would have wanted him to lie.
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Many of those things are true and undeniable. Admitting an extramarital affair would have/has? affected Hillary and Chelsea. *BUT* Even as one news anchor said when the Lewinsky/Tripp tapes were first released, "The Clinton strategy is clear: When faced with allegations of wrong doing, the standard procedure is to deny, deny, deny, until faced with undeniable evidence. Then and only then, make a quasi-admission wrapped in vaguely worded, carefully crafted legalese".
That is the procedure Clinton has always used, in filegate, travelgate, Whitewatergate, campaign finance-gate, etc. It worked sometimes, for example in the Flowers controversy, mainly because Flowers wasn't accusing him of legal wrongdoing, so the public shrugged it off. But Jones accused him of wrongdoing, and Clinton again used the standard operating procedure of deny deny deny. Ok, Hillary and Chelsea would have been embarrassed there. But the same procedure of automatic denial is used in all other allegations. Deny, disclaim knowledge, etc.
Al Gore is in on the act too. Previously Al Gore said he "might have talked on the phone a few times at the White House to political campaign people". But now the Justice Dept has a memo in which Al Gore discusses ways in which the DNC can raise funds, and then have those funds diverted directly to the Clinton/Gore campaign.
The problem always with lying is that eventually your statements begin to contradict each other. But to these politicians, lying is a natural instinct. |
