Silicon Investor (SI) -- The First Internet Community

STOCKTALK

We've detected that you're using an ad content blocking browser plug-in or feature. Ads provide a critical source of revenue to the continued operation of Silicon Investor. We ask that you disable ad blocking while on Silicon Investor in the best interests of our community. If you are not using an ad blocker but are still receiving this message, make sure your browser's tracking protection is set to the 'standard' level.

Politics : Did Slick Boink Monica? -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Zoltan! who wrote (9922)	3/6/1998 3:13:00 PM
From: Grainne	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 20981

Duncan, there are so many different people who are trying to make excuses for Bill Clinton's ALLEGED misconduct, that I am just incredulous. I found a wonderful column in my local paper which addresses the way many feminists are dealing with the crisis: Have We Become A Nation Of Hillaries? DEBRA J. SAUNDERS Friday, March 6, 1998 IT'S A GOOD thing Anne O. Faulk sold her book, ''Holding Out,'' to Simon & Schuster and the movie rights to HBO before the Clinton scandal broke. ''Holding Out'' is a modern version of Aristophanes' Lysistatra. Except that in Faulk's novel, women wage a nationwide sex strike, not to stop a war, as in the Greek classic, but to bring about the impeachment of a Supreme Court justice who beat his wife until she killed herself. Faulk's book sits on my desk as a reminder of the quaint, bygone days of sisterhood. I think back to 1995, when Senator Bob Packwood, R-Ore., was hounded from office for pawing female staffers and volunteers. Then women united to punish a man who used his power to use and abuse women. Today, alas, the public philanderer is a Democrat. Which means, feminists aren't rushing to stand up for women, they're looking for loopholes. On CNBC's ''Hardball'' this week, feminist Susan Estrich came up with a clever distinction. Clinton's use of the White House as a babe pond isn't an issue because no one -- read Kathleen Willey, who was asking for a job when she says the president molested her, or intern Monica Lewinsky -- filed a complaint. Trailer trash Paula Jones' lawsuit apparently doesn't count. Sisterhood? That's been replaced by a reverence for the private affair. If Hillary doesn't mind, why should we? It doesn't matter that taxpayer funds paid La Monica's salary at two jobs, including a security-sensitive post at the Pentagon. Or that women who don't put out can't get those jobs. It doesn't matter that Lewinsky's former White House boss, Jocelyn Jolley, was abruptly transferred from her job at the same time Lewinsky was removed from the White House, reportedly to make Lewinsky's departure less noticeable. ''There's a difference,'' Faulk said, ''in Monica Lewinsky having an affair with the president'' and the more serious offense of wife battering. OK, beating is worse. But don't think that a lot of real people haven't been put through real pain to bolster Clinton's phony feel-your-pain image. Start with secretary Betty Currie. Insiders admire first flack Mike McCurry for not trying to discover the facts of l'affaire Lewinsky so that he doesn't have to lie or be subpoenaed. Currie hasn't had that luxury. Add Willey, whose story varies only as to whether she was angry at the presidential pass. (Maybe she wasn't at first, then was.) Add Lewinsky, who may have committed perjury for the prez. Apologists say any man would lie about adultery. But the president is not any man. He is America's top lawman. If he didn't want to tell the truth, he could have invoked the Fifth Amendment. Instead, while he denies it, I think Clinton lied and prompted others to lie -- thus betraying his office with the same impunity with which he betrayed his wife. Clinton has turned America into a nation of Hillaries -- standing by her man, poised to destroy anyone willing to tar his image by speaking the truth. ''I like Clinton as a president,' Faulk said. 'But if he turns out to be a sexual predator, I would hope that the women of America will rise up and do something about it. Do I think they will? Nope.'' I care if he used the White House to reward women who put out with public money and deny jobs to women who don't. I care if he's a perjurer or obstructor of justice -- a cover-up kid. If he broke the law, lied under oath or pushed others to lie, he shouldn't be president. I remember the fall of Packwood. I believed that if the senator used his position to mistreat female employees, he should resign. Other women used to believe that too. They argued that no man should be able to use public office to intimidate women. But if those beliefs only apply to Republicans, then that sisterhood is a pretense and a phony. c1998 San Francisco Chronicle Page A23 sfgate.com