YESTERDAY'S ICONIC MCP

I can not help but weigh in on the current contretemps over Bill Clinton's response to an NBC interviewer's questions about his sexual liason with Monica Lewinsky. 

I voted for Bill Clinton twice, but later recognized I had been deceived into giving him a second term. The man has made me cringe ever since the Lewinsky scandal. It didn't need a "Me-Too" movement to persuade me he was a pig.  

Sure, Lewinsky was over 21. She was in her first job out of college, a White House intern, afflicted with an obsessive crush on the most powerful man in the world. His use of his power over that foolish young woman was inexcusable. 

And in the process, the asshole sacrificed the last two years of his presidency for a blow job in the Oval Office. And now he poisons the 2018 political atmosphere. The man refuses to get off the stage.

"Me-too" has nothing to do with my revulsion of the conduct of that slug. Even then, I did not understand the bland response of Lewinsky's father. I said, at the time, I could not understand why he wasn't talking about how much he would like to get a shotgun and shoot that slick son-of-a-bitch.

Clinton's defensive allegation in the NBC interview that Kennedy and Johnson were also unfaithful to their wives is beyond disgusting. Even now he misses the point. Or would have us miss it. It's all about power, the boss screwing the intern who has a crush on the boss. He used the furniture of the Oval Office as a casting couch. He is an Arkansas politico's version of Harvey Weinstein. Ugh.

In the NBC interview he whined about the punishment he has already suffered: his need to borrow money for his defense. What an outrage. He has since cashed in on his presidency. Why didn't the interviewer ask him how much he and his wife are worth now? Speeches at 100k plus? Now pimping a "beach read" novel that he "co-authored?" Give me a break.

Yes, the Starr inquisition and the Republican impeachment were shameful political maneuvers. But Clinton gave em the opening and they took it. Disgraceful conduct on both sides, and the country was the loser. Shame on all of them.

And I gotta add, I am stunned by the ineptitude of the Clinton defense effort. We cannot tell whether it was sloppy lawyering, or a know-it-all client who rejected professional advice, (I have been witness to both) but some combination of those factors led to a video recording, a riveting dramatic permanent record of finger-pointing perjury in living color. And all of this in response to questions he knew were going to be asked. Brilliant.

Gotta give him credit. His pronouncements, "It depends on what "is" is," and "I did not have sexual relations with that woman," are historic. 

Indeed, ten years later, I was involved in a trial in Oregon, and an adverse witness, caught in a prior testimonial contradiction, was asked by my partner if the witness's current testimony was "truthful." She responded, "I am not sure what you mean by "truthful." The mild mannered Judge exploded: "Truthful means truthful! Telling the truth! This is not a Clinton deposition!

Otherwise, put me down as "Undecided."