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bttt

thx for the reminder ping

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Bravo. Extremely well done.

check out hitchen on clinton-nixon ping

The book begins with a puzzle: How did the flower children fall for such a self-evident thug and opportunist? And it offers a possible hypothetical answer, which is that ''the Night Creature'' -- Nixon -- and his heirs and assigns could not ever possibly be allowed to be right about anything. When Eszterhas writes about Nixon, and his admirers like Lucianne Goldberg, he hits an overdrive button and summons the bat cave of purest evil. He hasn't read as much recent history as he thinks he has, or he would know that his forebears were mesmerized in precisely the same way to believe that Alger Hiss was framed. Thus does Nixon inherit an undeserved and posthumous victory. If by chance we ever elect a bent and unscrupulous Republican president, he or she will have a whole new thesaurus of excuses, public and ''private,'' with which to fend off impeachment. These ''bipartisan'' excuses will have been partly furnished by the ''nonjudgmental'' love generation. If Eszterhas had had the guts to face this fact, he could have written a book more like ''F.I.S.T.'' instead of ''Sliver.'' Meanwhile, and almost but not quite unbelievably, we await the president's comment on Juanita Broaddrick's allegation.

Christopher Hitchens
Basic Instinct
Hitchens on "American Rhapsody"
The New York Times, July 30, 2000

Historians will record that Republicans could not muster the necessary sixty-seven vote Senate majority to convict the President at trial.

Those same historians should note, if only in a footnote, that not a single senator made the trip to the Ford Building to review documentation of Clinton's "nauseating", "alarming" and "horrific" sexual misconduct; evidence that ultimately made the difference in the impeachment vote.

America's Impeachment Secret



Rep. John Kasich of Ohio told an interviewer that he hadn't paid attention to the charges.
Sen. James Jeffords asserted on Vermont radio that rape was "a private matter.".
Senator Daniel Akaka of Hawaii told the weekly that "I've heard smatterings about the charges," but "I really haven't paid attention" to them.
Senator Joe Biden of Delaware said, "I guess Starr didn't think she was (credible) . . .I tend to be guided by Starr's judgment."
Senator John Breaux of Louisianna offered only "I have no comment.
Senator John Chafee of Rhode Island confessed that "I just haven't paid attention to it. There are certain things I just shut out."
Senator Peter Fitzgerald of Illinois said, "I don't see it as anything that is relevant at this moment to my job in the United States Senate.
Senator Charles Schumer of New York said, "I haven't looked at that . I'm working on Social Security and Health care."
Senator Jay Rockefeller of West Virginia said, "I'm beyond that, we've been through that."
Senator Ted Kennedy was asked about Broaddrick's charges while on a Washington escalator. Kennedy "made no verbal response..."

THE PRESIDENT IN THE ATTIC--WHO IS BILL CLINTON?
REASON Magazine* May, 1999

a senator to Henry Hyde

It is natural for man to indulge in the illusions of hope.
We are apt to shut our eyes against a painful truth,
and listen to the song of that siren
till she transforms us into beasts.
Is this the part of wise men,
engaged in a great and arduous struggle for liberty?
Are we disposed to be the number of those
who, having eyes, see not,
and having ears, hear not,
the things which so nearly concern their temporal salvation?
For my part, whatever anguish of spirit it may cost,
I am willing to know the whole truth;
to know the worst, and to provide for it.
Patrick Henry

In a dark time, the eye begins to see.
Theodore Roethke

But even as Clinton fails to grasp the scandal's metabolism
he understands all too well its most significant byproduct.
You can see it in his eyes.

Once reflecting a Machiavellian confidence,
they now dart back and forth reflexively,
searching futilely for approval,
attempting desperately to dispel his own certain knowledge
that his moral authority is gone. . .
forever.
Mia T