Uncovering Clinton
It's not a recent release, but I just completed,thanks to my public-funded library, Michael Isikoff's 1999 volume "Uncovering Clinton" about the investigation and cover-up of the Monica Lewinsky/Bill Clinton affair. Isikoff's reportage for the Washington Post and later, Newsweek, led him from Paula Jones's sexual harassment claims to Kathleen Willey to Linda Tripp over a period of about four years. Isikoff was martyred by the nation's right-wing, and pilloried by many on the left, after Clinton's attorneys effectively convinced the public that the charges against the president were "politically-motivated." And while Isikoff's book reveals many lunatic elements on the right, to be sure, it also reveals a man in reckless occupation of the Oval Office, an emotionally-ill individual with an uncontrollable libido, who confessed privately to Lewinsky literally "hundreds of affairs," going so far at one point as to circle the days on his office calendar when he, in his words,"had been good."Paula Jones, one of multiple women to claim sexual harassment by Clinton throughout his political career, comes off as particularly believable and sympathetic in Isikoff's narrative. It's easy to conclude, in retrospect, that she was failed miserably by feminist political groups, arguably because she didn't share Anita Hill's high economic and social status in our government's hierarchy, but certainly because the leaders of those organizations saw the president as a political ally.
The Clinton/Lewinsky affair may have been unveiled publicly by political enemies who held a frighteningly-personal hatred for the president, but that fact should do nothing to forgive Clinton for what was, very plausibly, much more than just the breaking of the marital vows with his wife, it was a pattern of lecherous and treacherous behavior on the job, causing him and his underlings to lie and break the law to protect his secrets.
The scandal may pale, by comparison, to the lies and distortions from the Oval Office that led to our military's imperial invasion of Iraq, but it's part of the same frightening narrative of the last half-century, one that includes the secret escalation of the war in Vietnam, Watergate, the secret sale of arms to Iran, the Iraq debacle, and warrantless wiretapping by the National Security Agency-- that is, the systematic destruction of our government's balance of power through institutional bullying by the executive branch. "Uncovering Clinton" chronicles compelling examples of the like, and as his wife and his one-time political team campaign for a return to power, his behavior, and theirs, deserve an immediate re-evaluation.
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Presidential candidate Mike Gravel (Grah-VELL') is starting to garner some positive ink. This is Salon's profile, posted this morning. Perhaps the United States would be better off if we started electing the candidate with the lowest financial net worth.
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Thursday's GOP presidential debate was hilarious. No candidate wanted to mention George W. Bush's name-- it came up twice, but they all tried to piggy-back on Ronald Reagan's so-called "legacy. " Here's some news, though, for the ten Angry White Males on the GOP stump: Reagan' may be the primary man to blame for the dire straits we're in today. He preached the revolutionary message of a powerful executive branch, outrageous military expenditures, privatization, more privatization, and even more privatization. The result is perpetual war, the degradation of civil liberties, the greatest budget deficit in history, and the destruction of the city of New Orleans.
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The Des Moines Register's humor columnist, Ken Fuson, printed a list of memorable "epitaphs" in his Friday column. I always liked the idea of the tombstone engraving, "I expected this. Just not so soon."
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The rain hasn't let up in central Iowa for weeks, and lowland flooding is starting to become a serious issue. I drove to and from Iowa City the past two weekends, and the South Skunk River near mile marker 159 is out of its banks, and the water stretching the width across several hundred yards of farm fields. You might know this area by one of its most recognizable attractions-- the "Adult Video" store just north of Interstate 80. Last weekend, the water had encroached all the way to the business' parking lot. I had to buy an inflatable doll just for use as a flotation device. A flotation device! But seriously...
posted by CM @ 2:17 PM
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