The End of the Clinton Era

[philunderwood]

The End of the Clinton Era

By Mona Charen

www.JewishWorldReview.com |

Rep. Anthony Weiner has achieved something by behaving so spectacularly shamefully. Unless I miss my guess, he has revived the concept of sexual morality. Even for a jaded nation, this is one sex scandal too far. We've had it. Our capacity to remain non-judgmental on sexual matters — as we've been tirelessly instructed to do for 40 years — seems to have reached its end point.

The national reaction to Weiner's conduct, in contrast to previous sex scandals (and there have been too many to count in the past two decades), has been not amusement (though jokes made the rounds) but disgust. When even the ultra-liberal New York Times reaches for terms like "profoundly squalid," it's safe to say we've arrived at a new cultural moment: "Judgmentalism" is back.

Admittedly, we are groping our way toward minimal dignity unsteadily. A Washington Post columnist, among others, dusted off the cliche that it's "not the crime, it's the cover-up." Former DNC Chairman and Senate candidate Tim Kaine sounded a similar theme in calling for Weiner's resignation: "Lying publicly about something like this is unforgivable, and he should resign."

Lying is immoral. Lying in the flagrant and utterly discoverable fashion that Weiner did is also idiotic. But as this disgrace demonstrates so graphically, it's not always just the cover-up. Would things would be materially different if Weiner had freely confessed to sending crotch shots of himself to assorted young women on Twitter? No. So let's please retire the Watergate platitude. It's not just the cover-up; it's the behavior.

Because we are so out of practice at condemning even utterly shameful conduct, we look for security in law. "Remember," a constituent cautioned, "he has broken no laws. He has not used campaign funds..." Ah, well, that's all right then. Weiner himself, explaining his decision not to resign, said, "I don't believe that I (did) anything that violates any law or any rule."

Is legality the only relevant standard? The question is not whether Weiner deserves to go to jail, but whether he merits the honor of holding elective office. And actually, Weiner is mistaken on the matter of rules. According to the rules of the House of Representatives, members are required to conduct themselves at all times in "a manner that shall reflect creditably on the House." Anyone think this is a close call?

As we claw our way back toward some minimal standards of dignity, we must grapple with the legacy of President Bill Clinton. It's exquisitely ironic that — of all people — Weiner apologized to the reportedly angry former president. It seems Mr. Clinton performed the wedding ceremony 11 months ago for Weiner and his wife, a longtime aide to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. In this telling, Bill Clinton is playing the role of Ward Cleaver? Mind-boggling.

The curdled condition of our culture is not entirely attributable to Bill Clinton, but he certainly merits dishonorable mention. His refusal to acknowledge shame cemented an age of shamelessness. Mr. Clinton fought ferociously — and dragged the country through a tawdry impeachment spectacle — on the grounds that sexual behavior was a mere trifle. His defenders, remember, hotly denied that mere sex could be relevant to a president's (or anyone's) public role.

"It's just sex," they protested. It was a private matter. Why are you so interested? What's wrong with you?

More, they argued that lying about sex was perfectly normal and even admirable. He was trying to spare his family. Everyone lies about sex. Those who were trying to drive a president from office for dallying with a 21-year-old intern and lying about it were the ones who needed reformation.

Obviously, the stakes are very different for a sitting president than for an N.Y. congressman. But it does seem that the mood is, at long last, changing.

"I can't (defend him)," pronounced Senator Harry Reid, D-Nev. Rep. Allyson Schwartz, D-Pa., who heads the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (and clearly has political motives, but that's fine), offered a complete refutation of the Democratic Party's position during the Clinton impeachment. Urging Weiner to put us out of our misery, she said, "As Americans we have the right to expect better behavior from members of Congress, leaders of our country. I don't think we should accept it."

When it was Larry Craig, Eric Massa, Mark Sanford, or Eliot Spitzer, we had our giggles. But with Weiner, the smarminess seems to have finally provoked a gag.

Not even Jon Stewart is laughing. "I hope it's not true," he said in all seriousness last week.

Why? It's only sex, right?

[philunderwood]

Bill Clinton Syndrome

By Bob Tyrrell

www.JewishWorldReview.com |

They call it BCS, Bill Clinton syndrome, and it has broken out anew in New York and here in Washington, where it was first discovered. As elaborated upon in scholarly detail in the now famous "Starr Report: The Official Report of the Independent Counsel's Investigation of the President," BCS strikes powerful figures, usually male, who experience lewd compulsions of an overpowering nature, generally in the presence of technology — often the telephone, occasionally a smartphone or even a computer — and usually when they are alone or behind closed doors with a woman of inferior rank. The first victim of the syndrome was, of course, President Bill Clinton, but it has struck a growing number of powerful individuals, most recently Rep. Chris Lee, International Monetary Fund chieftain Dominique Strauss-Kahn and now Rep. Anthony Weiner (pronounced VY'-nehr — at least by him).

Clinton was the first known sufferer of the syndrome, hence his eponymous relation to it. It struck him in the mid-1990s, though for him it was not so bad. He was impeached, but later he was glorified. MSNBC did a documentary on him, "President of the World: The Bill Clinton Phenomenon." He also was spoken of as a possible candidate for mayor of New York and secretary-general of the United Nations.

Seized in the presence of a telephone late at night, he called a young lady repeatedly to exchange with her lascivious thoughts. As reported in this column recently and elaborated upon in my book "The Clinton Crack-Up: The Boy President's Life After the White House," foreign intelligence agencies unfortunately were listening in on the calls. It was a high-tech telephone, but not that high-tech. He used an unsecured telephone. Now tapes of those calls are lying around intelligence offices worldwide. Possibly, the spooks dust them off from time to time and have a good laugh. Though possibly, the tapes still could be used to compromise Bill, in the event that anyone in official Washington is stupid enough to trust him with anything of a confidential nature.

More recently, Strauss-Kahn was struck down in the posh Sofitel Hotel in Manhattan when a Guinean chambermaid entered his room to clean it. What he did with her is in dispute — and far be it from me to compromise legal proceedings with my mere speculations. There is, however, no doubt that he suffered some uncontrollable romantic seizure, and now we know that the arresting officers — when they accosted him on his Air France getaway flight — confiscated his mobile phones (he apparently had more than one), Apple computer and iPad. His lawyers claim that, as The Wall Street Journal put it, the devices "contained information that may be legally sensitive." The lawyers are asking prosecutors to return the devices and not to read their contents. I am sure they will cooperate.

Now along comes the ill-starred Rep. Weiner (alternate pronunciation, WY'-nur). He apparently suffered at least the underpants version of BCS. He served as the moral scold to Republicans in Congress. Let one even belch in public and the Hon. Weiner was on him/her with an inimitable shrill rebuke. Now his voice will fall silent, save for an occasional "I'm sorry. I want to apologize, especially to my wife," who is an aide of some sort to Hillary Clinton.

Apparently, the Hon. Weiner suffers BCS when alone in the presence of his smartphone or computer and begins sexting madly to women whom he does not know and who are not his lawfully wedded wife. He takes pictures of himself in various stages of dishabille and includes the pictures in his messages. The ladies somewhat virginally reply. A couple of weeks ago, he sent a picture of his underpants containing what looked like a large Idaho potato. The picture fell into the hands of conservative philosophe Andrew Breitbart, who brought it to the attention of the omnivorous press corps, one of whose members prevailed on the idiotic congressman to say that he could not "with certitude" say it was not his underwear. This week, he held a news conference and admitted that he does indeed suffer from BCS, though he did not use those exact words.

What will become of these wretches I do not know, but for Weiner there is hope. The press has reported that his recent marriage to the Hillary Clinton aide was "officiated" over by none other than Bill Clinton. I advise that Bill counsel Weiner and Hillary counsel the wife. Then let all four retire from public life. Along with them they can take any other public official suspected of suffering from BCS. This nonsense has gone too far.