Let's put down our partisan guns for a sec' and give an honest appraisal of the day's hearing.
*In this media-savvy age, even Joe Sixpack can see through the packaging to get at the real product. No one is going to believe in the sincerity of any of these folks.
*And everyone hates lawyers, so the sight of a noisy, fractious roomful of them battling it out may turn off a lot of people to the whole thing--a short-term boon for the Democrats.
*I'll leave it for the professional pundits waxing hypocritical on the idiot box to comment on how whole impeachment process will play out in 2000.
*Ken Starr performed beautifully, holding up extremely graciously for 12 hours under an intense barrage of partisan vitriol. I laughed. I cried. Too bad for him the only highlights they'll probably show on the local news--where most people will catch any of the hearings--was when he got flustered by that Houston Democrat's question on when he knew there was a tape of a woman claiming to have sex with Clinton (Ken: "I don't recall. I don't recollect.") and his spat with Kendall.
*The Democrats mostly came off as shrill (yes crybabies, to some extent, but Conyers, Frank, Waters, are the most leftist members of the party. What do you expect?). But they got their job done brilliantly: making Starr's conduc and Hyde's conducting of the hearing a focus of the hearings, even getting Starr and the Republicans go along with that agenda. It wasn't pretty, wasn't fair, and wasn't subtle. But you gotta give to 'em. It worked. "Then we'll just have to win," Clinton said.
*The Republicans, for the most part, made the mistake of identifying *themselves too closely with Starr, who remains massively unpopular among the populace. The smartest Republicans were respectful of Starr but voiced serious doubts about his inquiry. Bono performing public fellatio on Starr may play well in Bible-thumpin'-land, but not in Volvo-burbia. The Republicans' cowtowing to Starr only serves the Democrats' agenda of making Starr appear like he's a tool of the right, rather than the honest and scrupulous investigator he wants to come off as.
*Poor Henry Hyde. A double scotch for him tonight, nay, a triple. He's seeming increasingly unhealthy as of late. Maybe he should get a membership at a health club, or a tanning salon.
Anyone's comments will be warmly appreciated. |
