Small Cell, Long Journey (Wash. Post Gives Journalistic Lewinsky to Clinton Pal Susan McDougal)

The Washington Post ^ | Thursday, December 26, 2002 | Jennifer Frey

[kristinn]

It will forever be the question people ask her.

Why?

Why didn't Susan McDougal just answer the questions? Why on earth would anyone choose to spend two years in jail, when all it took to be free was to provide a few simple, incriminating sentences?

The offer was there: The Office of the Independent Counsel, Kenneth Starr's office, would give her immunity from any charges related to the failed 1980s Whitewater real estate venture, in which she and her husband, Jim McDougal, were business partners with President Bill and Hillary Rodham Clinton, if only she would connect the Clintons to the deal.

And she said no. And she went to jail. The pictures, the video, they are hard to forget: McDougal on the day she went to prison, a woman in chains, taken away in her skirt and black stockings. In the end, she served the maximum 18 months for civil contempt of court for her refusal to testify, and 3 1/2 months of a two-year term for fraud in a 1996 Whitewater case brought by Starr's office. (Her husband, also convicted of fraud, cooperated with the Starr investigation. He died of a heart attack while in prison.) Why did she refuse to talk?

Her answer is pretty simple: She didn't know anything. She thought that, if she testified she didn't know anything, she'd be charged with perjury. She says the only way to stay out of jail was give prosecutors dirt about the Clintons, which would have been a lie.

So she dug in her heels.

[kristinn]

Susie has a book out, so the Post gets on its knees for her like they never did for, say, Linda Tripp.

[Kozak]

Why oh why didn't she talk??
Oh yeah, so she wouldn't end up DEAD.

[kristinn]

Ding! Ding! We have a winner. However, the Post is not hiring reporters with unbiased critical thinking abilities.

[Consort]

She was stupid, full of self-pity, and enjoyed the martyr role, along with helping to demonize Ken Starr. It also kept her away from her idiot husband.

[Samizdat]

She got convicted. She needed a pardon. She clammed up for a pardon and to stay alive. That's it.

[Ronin]

Why didn't she talk?

D'oh.... ask her husband.

[tubebender]

(Her husband, also convicted of fraud, cooperated with the Starr investigation. He died of a heart attack while in prison.) Why did she refuse to talk?

What more needs to be said...

[zarf]

The McJackass story is one of the great no brainers of the entire Whitewater thing. Yet, the media just rolls over and never, ever challenges her wonderously lame excuse as to her silence.

She can thank the Lord that her husband bought the farm. It saved BlowJob Bill and her sorry ass.

[f.Christian]

she had a lawyer...who was paying him?

[zarf]

Another great mystery.....

[Lancey Howard]

she had a lawyer...who was paying him?

Yeah, that scumbag Mark Ger-whatsisname. He was asked that question a hundred times and always flat refused to answer. Thereby answering the question - - he was paid by the scumbag Democrat mob.

[Lancey Howard]

Mark Geragos, I think, is her lawyer's name.
The book will be an attempt to recoup lawyer fees, presumably.
In any event, she is far too stupid to have written any book herself.

[friendly]

A ditto to "why didn't she talk?"

The Clintons use murderous thugs to enforce their agenda. Think of the Clintons and one of their vermin "private investigators" in L.A. who was just arrested on a laundry list of outrageous charges. And had vast amounts of cash and explosives in his office when police searched.

[kristinn]

FYI.

[Angelwood]

I saw Susan McD's book at Border's this week. She had help writing it and gives credit to her "fiancee" Pat (Harris, I think, but I can't recall his name at this moment). I put another book on top of the small pile of hers. I hope it bombs just like Al & Tipper's attempt to rehabilitate themselves.

IMO, the truth is that Susan is still lying and painting herself as a victim. The truth is that she was convicted, rightly so, and that she was given one of Clinton's last minute pardons because she rolled over for Bill and Hill and never answered simple questions in front of the grand jury investigation.

My original estimation of Susan McDougal stands: She looks good in ORANGE and she should have served her full time in jail.

[kristinn]

You know I don't like it when books are "hidden." In the article, Susie says prison changed her for the better and that parts of the book are devoted to stories about some of the tragic lives women prisoners led on their way to the big house.

[Bloody Sam Roberts]

"Why didn't Susan McDougal just answer the questions?"

Because Arkancide is real. Say what you will, but she made the right decision.

All of that notwithstanding...I personally think her life is still in danger.

[Sal]

. (Her husband, also convicted of fraud, cooperated with the Starr investigation. He died of a heart attack while in prison.) Why did she refuse to talk?

ROTFL. Isn't it Jeopardy that starts with the answer and follows with the question?

[AGreatPer]

We will nevere know, but I wonder how much money she got when her husband died in prison? I thought he had lots of money but not sure.

[AGreatPer]

I just found an answer to my own question in my #10, this is partial of the article.

Jim McDougal ain't worried
At 55, Whitewater's inventor has seen a lot pass under the bridge.

By Bob Lancaster
September 8, 1995

If they succeed in putting him in prison for his dealings at the failed Madison Guaranty Savings and Loan, it will only raise his standard of living and improve his circumstances. He lives now on a disability pension in a house trailer in Arkadelphia, Arkansas. Has no family to worry about--no wife (divorced), no children, his only living relative an aunt in a nursing home; his parents dead, all his friends dead.

So, Susan didn't get any money from him. That settles that.