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Monica Lewinsky, on what she terms the worst day of her life — when Ken Starr released a report on her relationship with the president:
“I was a virgin to humiliation of that level until” the day the report was released, Lewinsky said. She added: “To have my narrative ripped from me and turned into the Starr report and things that were turned over or things they delved out of my computer that I thought were deleted — I mean, it was just violation after violation.”
Emphasis added by me.
Some people need an editor, just walking around talking…
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The part of that clip I identified with, as a member of the “Faith and Family Left,” was Brian Williams saying that, as the father of young children, he called home and said that tonight would be a good night to mute the first part of the broadcast…
This was such an episode in the further degradation of our public life…
I still don’t get people who crucify Mark Sanford and yet still love Bill Clinton despite their behavior while in office. Clinton was far, far worse: President versus Governor, in the White House versus out of the country, lied about it repeatedly versus admitted to it;
Aside from the fact that Sanford’s affair had been going on for a year or more and we don’t really know how much longer it would have stayed hidden had Gina Smith not surprised him at the airport: Doug, are there really many such people as you describe? Most of the liberal/progressive persuasion would dislike Sanford but like Clinton because of politics; like me, they didn’t care that much about the private life stuff in either case. (Some might have derided Sanford on the affair business because of perceived hypocrisy of the GOP on Culture-war grounds, but inaccurately in Sanford’s case, as he was more libertarian and not a Bible-thumper). People who were offended by Sanford’s behavior would probably feel the same or worse about Clinton.
But on Brad’s point about degradation of the culture: what the heck happened to the National Geographic channel? I thought it was supposed to be about “Look at those TWO apes, THIS must BE where they LIVE (boom, boom).”
Two words, Phillip: Bimbo Eruptions. Clinton had (and I’d be willing to bet still has) a problem with controlling his libido. What he did while in the Oval Office was worthy of resignation.
Liberals give Bill Clinton a whole lot of leeway when it comes to his behavior because of his politics but love to kick Sanford for the same behavior because of his politics.
I don’t agree that what Clinton did was worthy of resignation, nor do I have any particular issue with Sanford’s affair. In fact, I wouldn’t term it “the same behavior” in Sanford’s case, because it was about much more than libido in his case, his marriage was obviously over and he had clearly fallen in love with someone else, a relationship that still seems to exist. So in that sense I would say Clinton’s behavior was more reprehensible but still not worth resigning over.
Well, in most workplaces it would be worth getting fired over.
If, when I was a vice president of The State, I had been caught messing around like that with an intern — someone far, far subordinate to me — AT THE OFFICE, I probably would have been fired.
And I think it’s safe to say that there were people crusading for tough laws regarding such sexual exploitation in the workplace who were also wanting to give the most powerful man in the country a pass on that, as being “just sex.” Not that there’s a one-to-one comparison, but I think you’d find a fairly large area of intersection between those two sets of people.
The honorable thing for Clinton to have done, under the circumstances, was to resign. I wanted Sanford to resign, too, but the case for that wasn’t as strong. The only place where the duties of his office intersected with his offense were relatively minor — sneaking away from the state without telling anyone, misleading his staff so that it misled the public. As job-related offenses, those aren’t nearly as dire as messing around with an intern, if you’ll forgive the use of caps again, AT THE OFFICE.
I wonder how many people there are who believed Clarence Thomas should have been denied high office for using suggestive language in the workplace, but are willing to give Clinton a pass for actually engaging in sex with an intern in the workplace.
Yeah, I know — their excuse will be that the difference is consent. As though the consent of a 22-year-old intern to sexual relations with the most powerful man in the world were the product of mature deliberation, and somehow erases the offense of the man…
I get it, it’s the sanctity of the Oval Office, the actual room. Well, lemme tell ya, far more obscene acts have been perpetrated in that room than what happened between Clinton and Lewinsky.
Actually, I think it was in another room off of the Oval Office. Which is why I said at the office, rather than being specific.
The fact is, it happened in the workplace. There’s just no getting around that. And the president lied to us about it, shaking his finger in our faces to shame US into not believing it.
It’s interesting that only now, after almost 12 years out of the spotlight, Lewinsky is starting to show up all over the news. Is it the Clinton campaign trying to get her out of the way early, or is it someone trying to preemptively sandbag Hillary? The timing is much to suspect for it to just be happening.
I was kind of thinking that maybe Monica was “cashing in” on the fact that the Clintons are coming back into the limelight with Hilllary! being the front-runner for the 2016 nomination.
You might be right about that. Sometimes a cigar is just a cigar….
It’s kinda weird. I mean, I thought her 15 minutes were up…
Mark Sanford left the country and did not tell any one where he was going. No one knew where he was. Had emergency befell our state, we would have been leaderless, at least until Sanford’s unavailability was established, and given the person occupying the Lt Gov office, probably therafter, as well.
I am no defender of adultery nor of workplace sexual relations, especially between boss and subordinate, but I do not believe at the time many men would have been fired for receiving oral sex “consensually.” It was seriously wrong, but not worthy of defeating the will of the electorate.
I believe abandoning your post is more worthy of losing your job over, and Sanford was only censured.
“Had emergency befell our state, we would have been leaderless, ”
I always find this argument amusing… what emergency has occurred in the past twenty five years that would require immediate attention from the Governor in person? Let’s assume that Sanford was smart enough to see if a hurricane was heading toward the state before he hit the Appalachian Trail… what else would require his immediate attention that only Mark Sanford could deal with? A terrorist attack?
I am more than confident that any number of pseudo-Al Haig’s would appear claiming to be in charge.
The “yeah, but something MIGHT have happened” doesn’t carry much weight when nothing did happen.
A wildfire, a terrorist attack, severe tornadoes
The sort of thing you call out the National Guard for….
None of which has occurred in my twenty five years in South Carolina.
Do you really think the state would have been paralyzed to the point of inactivity in any of those cases? Would everyone just be wailing “What would Mark do?!!”
He shouldn’t have done what he did but the risk was extremely low and his physical presence would not have made a significant difference in any case. He was gone for a weekend…
Well, actually there were wildfires in Horry County the summer of Sanford.
Luckily, Mark was there with his bucket of water or else the state would have burned to the ground.
Why are we still beating the Clinton and Sanford dead horses? Clinton will continue to screw around and Sanford will continue to be a junior member of the House. I think we have more pressing problems than the personal affairs of either Clinton or Sanford.