Clinton rips Starr, coverage by media-Calls prosecution 'embarrassment'

Boston Globe ^ | 11/20/04 | James Jefferson, AP

[kattracks]

LITTLE ROCK, Ark. -- In a prime-time television outburst, Bill Clinton ripped old nemesis Kenneth Starr and what the former president portrayed as a gullible media eager to report every ''sleazy thing" leaked from a prosecutor bent on bringing him down. The exchange came in an interview with ABC news anchorman Peter Jennings that aired Thursday night, hours after Clinton opened his $165 million presidential library. Clinton blasted Starr and spoke disdainfully of a media that he suggested was complicit in a scheme to ruin his presidency.

''No other president ever had to endure someone like Ken Starr," Clinton said.

[snip]

Clinton added that he does not care about what his detractors think about him. Jennings then said it seemed to him that Clinton did care.

The former president responded, ''You don't want to go here, Peter. You don't want to go here. Not after what you people did and the way you, your network, what you did with Kenneth Starr. The way your people repeated every, little sleazy thing he leaked. No one has any idea what that's like."

[snip]

''You never had to live in a time when people you knew and cared about were being indicted, carted off to jail, bankrupted, ruined, because they were Democrats and because they would not lie," he said. ''So, I think we showed a lot of moral fiber to stand up to that. To stand up to these constant investigations, to this constant bodyguard of lies, this avalanche that was thrown at all of us. And, yes, I failed once. And I sure paid for it. And I'm sorry. I'm sorry for the American people. And I'm sorry for the embarrassment they performed."

[trek]

"And, yes, I failed ONCE(!!?????). "

ROFLMAO!!!! Sick Willy IS STILL AT IT!!!

This man is truly psychotic. He really does deserve our pity. This may explain the Bushes odd performance at the Library opening.

[Freee-dame]

Monica. He should be thrilled the rest wasn't brought up and thrown in his face. However, history will document all of it, and that's what scares him.

Bingo! I was horrified when the Ken Starr report / impeachment was all about Monica and not about technology to China, etc.

[John Robertson]

Uh, no, didn't ask about that. My impression is, it wasn't really a hard-hitting interview, Clinton was just lying in wait to get in what he thought was his point of honor. It was actually a point of psychopathology, but that's been said abundantly here already.

[wewon]

ok, that's what makes them democrats. twisted character.

[shrinkermd]

I>``I can do any Goddamned thing I want. I'm President of the United States. I take care of my friends and I fuck with my enemies. That's the way it is. Anybody who doesn't like it can take a hike.'' -Bill Clinton, in a White House staff meeting, as reported by Capitol Hill Blue's Doug Thompson in his column on 1999-Apr-8, regarding sicking the IRS on Ken Starr

"``He who is void of virtuous attachments in private life is, or very soon will be, void of all regard for his country. There is seldom an instance of a man guilty of betraying his country, who had not before lost the feeling of moral obligations in his private connections.''-Samuel Adams [letter to James Warren, November 4, 1775]

[mabelkitty]

Right.
I highly doubt it was Ken Starr's office who called Monica Lewinsky a star-struck stalker, a young woman who needed counsel, or any other such branding to hide her real purpose as plaything for a power-hungry lunatic.

This is also not the first time the psycho went off in an interview - if you recall, last year when he was pushing his fictional biography, a British interviewer asked about Lewinsky and got the same "you people", finger pointing, and gritted teeth treatment. It's become his schtick to try and intimidate journalists from bringing it up and mentioning it to his face.

Clinton doesn't understand - you are only feared if you are respected or powerful - he is neither.

The reason he gets poked on this issue in his face is because he can never overcome ridicule and his place as America's court jester. We laugh AT him, not WITH him.

[alrea]

He's the one who embarrassed and lied to the American people and yet, it's always someone else's fault?

Does the library have records of dead people associated with the Clinton mob? Does the library have the Presidential Sink and Thong on display?

[gaspar]

Or rape.

[conservatism_IS_compassion]

If Clinton were a republican, the NYTimes, et. al. would have had him committed or tarred and feathered long ago.

To the contrary, the personality you describe cannot be a Republican - the personality you describe cuts corners and takes the easy way out. Precisely what journalism does. The motive of the journalist is to make himself seem smart to the public, and he does it with cheap talk. Second guessing the people upon whom the public actually depends. The liberal politician merely sails down that propaganda tailwind of criticism of the doers.

People who become Republicans are people who respect management as a discipline, and know that management ain't as easy as it looks. Those who don't, become journalists or other liberals such as Democratic politicians, union leaders, trial lawyers, and so forth - the complaining professions.

Why Broadcast Journalism is
Unnecessary and Illegitimate

[CitizenM]

This part of the exchange is quite interesting:

---

JENNINGS (Discussing rankings by presidential historians]: They gave you a forty-first in terms of moral authority - after Nixon. CLINTON: They're wrong about that. You know why they're wrong about it? They're wrong about it. JENNINGS: Why, sir? CLINTON: Because we had $100 million spent against us in all these inspections . . . In spite of it all, you don't have any example where I ever lied to the American people about my job, where I have let the American people down. And I had more support from the world when I quit than when I started. And I will go to my grave being at peace about it. And I don't really care about what they (presidential historians) think.

---

Hmmmm –Two points: If historical reflections are unimportant– why the big to-do about a Clinton Library? And - If Clinton doesn't care about what is said and recorded about him after he is gone it is also evidently unimportant to him that the Clinton legacy of lies and sex scandals is one that Chelsea will have to live down all of her life.

[krunkygirl]

So succinct and apropos. Thank you.

[doberville]

" Since his heart surgery Billy Jeff's nose is no longer RED! He's finally off the cocaine."

YES!!! Yes!! EXCELLENT point!

[Armedanddangerous]

Hey all

Isn't it fun to rewrite history with the help of the MSM to make yourself into the 21st century equivalent of Ghandi?

What an arrogant man. And the hell of it is, with the majority of talking heads He will probably get away with it.

[Armedanddangerous]

How DARE you people tell the truth about me!


Don't you people know who I AM?

You should feel lucky just to HAVE ME and Hillary!

That's what He was saying yesterday, in a nutshell.

[Condor51]

That was the first thing that jumped out at me. No more 'coke nose'.

[Paulus Invictus]

''You never had to live in a time when people you knew and cared about were being indicted, carted off to jail, bankrupted, ruined, because they were Democrats and because they would not lie,"

Would not lie? What a joke--they all lied. Most of his admin backers got all they deserved and should be incarcerated en masse. This moron is still well beyond delusional. Blaming Starr for his own failures is so incredible that perhaps even a few RATs will not believe it (but most will go along with him). This patent attempt to reconstruct his legacy should never be allowed to proceed. The man is so reprehensible, words fail me!

[oldironsides]

1200 FBI files brought to the Clintons first term in the whitehouse. Jennings had better hope the dark side of Bill smoothes out before 2008. Tax audits and FBI file info drops in the media were common. The lefties never faced the dark side of Bill. The people that worked with him know his dark side. I understand it is scarey.

[longfellow]

You left out the best part, he was deploying troops while getting the blowjob, sending boys into harms way.

[woofer]

woofer, dude you are scaring me. I am the same except i started posting sooner

Yeah, it is kinda spooky how many of us took the same route to FReeperdom. JimRob must feel like he's been stalked and wake up in cold sweats some nights.

[Oreo Kookey]

Oh, yes, I smell it now.