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Politics : Bill Clinton Scandal - SANITY CHECK -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: one_less who wrote (32738)	2/8/1999 12:01:00 PM
From: Daniel Schuh	Read Replies (3) \| Respond to of 67261

I don't know, brees, what has happened to the "feminist agenda" in the past year? I'm a little suspicious of your objectivity on the matter. Perhaps you need to check out Maureen Dowd's column from yesterday, which I quoted in full in Message 7704347 He knew he was overmatched, comparing Monica to Marlene Dietrich, who saved her man with dazzling -- if duplicitous -- testimony in "Witness for the Prosecution." When he said of Mr. Clinton, "I assume you think he's a very intelligent man," Monica shot back: "I think he's an intelligent President." In Washington, "intelligent man" is often an oxymoron. When testosterone hits high tide, the judgment of highly placed men goes splat. That is why this trial is so loony. Congress has an illustrious history of politicians having affairs with younger female aides and lying about it. The House managers pretend to be outraged that Mr. Clinton lied to Sidney Blumenthal about Monica. As if members of Congress never lie to aides intending that the lies be repeated? The Republicans have acted like cheap hypocrites. Americans hate unfairness, and they know that Mr. Starr's partisan, relentless conduct has tainted his investigation. Testosterone poisoning has long been rampant here, of course. The "kinder, gentler" movement doesn't have much hope against the one man JLA wrecking crew. Anyway, what feminist agenda are you talking about? Another old post you might enjoy is from Camille Paglia, who had Clinton pegged on Monica right from the start. See salonmagazine.com, more particularly my excerpt in Message 7031846. 1/22/98 was very early in the Monicagate saga, maybe a week after the initial Drudge leak. Paglia still supports Clinton, on strictly "feminist agenda" grounds. Here's the end of Paglia's piece. In general I subscribe to the European model of life. I believe it is in our best interest to be realistic about sexuality. This American insistence that we must always have a good "family man" in leadership positions is not realistic. A man of power is going to be a man of very high sexual energy. I want that kind of a man. I want a Clinton more than I want a Nixon. I don't want a cold fish! I want someone in the White House who would love to have sex with 10 different people in three days. That doesn't bother me in the least! What does bother me is lying. I cannot stand lying. To me it's not that he's a sex addict. It's that he's a liar! I don't want to be lied to. I think there's got to be a better way to handle tacky crises. If you've made a mistake, admit it! Take the consequences and move on. But it's infuriating that he seems to live in this fantasy world. He thinks he's the aw-shucks naughty boy that women will always forgive because he's so charming. If Clinton falls as a result of this scandal, how will he be remembered? People often wonder why the American public constantly forgives Clinton. I believe that he's a genuinely telegenic politician who is a very gifted personality. I believe he really does feel people's pain! I think he has genuine compassion, even though he's also a very shrewd political strategist too. But if he's addicted to anything, it really is to instant gratification, to the life of the senses. His identity is almost too porous -- it's as if he suffers a weird emotional leakage toward women. And it's genuinely tragic, because I think with a little better judgment, his legacy -- particularly in reconciling the polarized extremes of liberalism and conservatism -- is a very substantial one. But now these peccadilloes may overshadow it. I still think that he will be remembered fondly even by those of us who are most critical of his uncontrolled sex life. Note that Paglia is not at all kind to Clinton on your favorite topic. Of course, since she's not an outright Clinton hater, she's got to be an absolute Clinton lover, by local standards. The "objective" crowd here can only accept opinions on Clinton that lie somewhere in the broad spectrum between hating him and despising him, absolutely. Anything less judgmental than that is pure WH spin. At any rate, the feminists are going to have a very hard time finding a home in the Republican party, where both the RR and the neoconservatives have overturning Roe v. Wade as a political prime directive. GWB may be able to save the Republicans from themselves there, we'll see.