Hi Ray, Ithought you might enjoy this Buzzflash editorial. Take care, Brian
--------------------- Lott and Bush Paid Tribute to a Pawing Lecher A BUZZFLASH EDITORIAL It Wasn't About Lying or Sex with Clinton. It Never Was. If the Grand Hypocrisy Party had really been outraged by Bill Clinton's libido, then how do you explain their slobbering tribute to the retiring centenarian, pawing lecher of the senate, Strom Thurmond. Even BuzzFlash.com was so caught up with Lott putting his white sheet on at the Thurmond tribute that we passed up writing an editorial about the Grand Hypocrisy Party's (GHP) double standard on all things libidinous. According to a December 13, 2002 Atlanta-Journal Constitution Story: At the party celebrating Thurmond's 100th birthday, Lott referred to Thurmond attending the fictitious opening of a Hooters restaurant, a chain that features waitresses in tight T-shirts and shorts. "What is Hooters, if it's not about breasts, if it's not about the women's physiques?" Lott said. Lott's comments alluded to Thurmond's reputation for womanizing, the subject of jokes among male senators and congressional staffers but a long-standing matter of concern to some female employees and reporters on Capitol Hill. Mark Steyn, a syndicated "conservative" columnist, paid a fond tribute to the sexually hyperactive Thurmond, a serial harasser in a column "Strom Has Done a Lot of Living" (See: http://www.suntimes.com/output/steyn/cst-edt-steyn08.html): And he's the only circuit court judge in South Carolina history to have made love to a condemned murderess as she was being transferred from the women's prison to Death Row. This was Sue Logue, the only woman in the state ever to be sent to the chair, but not before she'd been sent to the back seat of Strom's car for a lively final ride. (It was a particularly bloody murder case that had begun when Mr. Logue's calf had been kicked to death by some other feller's mule.) I mention this not merely to be salacious and gossipy, but as an example of the extraordinary pageant that is Strom's life. If this were an appreciation of John Kerry, we'd have exhausted all the interesting stuff a couple of paragraphs up and you'd already have flipped to the sports section. I only met the senator during the impeachment trial in 1999. On the first day, in a chaotic melee by the elevators, I was suddenly pushed forward and thrown between Thurmond and California Sen. Barbara Boxer. Ol' Strom had just cast an appreciative bipartisan eye over the petite brunet liberal extremist. Boxer gave an involuntary shudder. I was squashed between the two for about five seconds when I became aware that my elbow was being affectionately caressed by Strom. Presumably he'd mistaken my dainty arm for Barbara's, but who knows? But what a great country. In how many other national legislatures can a guy just wander in off the street and find himself in a tripartisan squeeze being petted by a 97-year-old senator? And remember that Bush the elder joined Bush the Junior, Bob Dole and other GHP luminaries in paying their respects to Thurmond. Strom was a dirty old man even when he was young. So what does this have to do with Bill Clinton? Everything. Don't let any Republican off the hook who says that the impeachment wasn't about sex, it was about lying. Give us a break. Any good ol' boy down south who got a blow job from a busty 20-something babe and then went home and told the truth to his wife would be laughed out of the bar as a -- well to put it euphemistically -- weak man. Why are the good ol' boys snickering and hooting about ol' Strom's pawing ways and sexual lechery? But they can't stop fulminating about Monica Lewinsky and Bill? No, it's not the lying. That's a way of life for a philanderer. Can you imagine how many times Thurmond made up stories about his sexual peccadilloes? If Bill had behaved as a good ol' Bubba (meaning making sure the White Guys got their affirmative action cut) they wouldn't have sought to impeach him; they would have made him a God darn' testosterone hero, the subject of endless envious drinking tales. Just like ol' Strom. "But it's the lying," your Grand Hypocrisy Party friend insists. Then how come not one Grand Hypocrisy Party official appears offended that Bush Junior has put convicted Iran-Contra liars and perjurers in key administration positions. (After all, Papa Bush pardoned them all to save his own neck.) In the meantime, the Bush Cartel gets off telling the Big Lie, day after day, with hardly a wimper out of either party. With that in mind, BuzzFlash.com thought it was appropriate to dust off this tribute to Bill Clinton that we wrote in the fall of 2000. * * * In Praise of Bill Clinton For fear of the Bush Campaign pouncing on them like a crazed leopard, many Democratic officials won't say it. So BuzzFlash will. Bill Clinton, Congratulations on a job well done. For eight years, the United States of America has enjoyed unprecedented prosperity, declining crime rates, and a world at relative peace. Bill Clinton led this country through that period, even though everything - including the kitchen sink - was tossed at him by the rabid dog wing of the GOP. >From the moment Clinton was elected, the Grand Old Party didn't let up for a minute. They raged and whined their way through eight of the most stable and economically sound years the U.S. has enjoyed in decades. After the Bubba from Arkansas outfoxed them time after time, they tried the highest risk maneuver offered in a democracy: impeachment. When the smoke cleared, Bill Clinton was still standing. Weakened, but still in power. Yes, Clinton has a zipper problem. And when he got caught with his pants down, he lied to the nation. Let's forget for the moment that the Paula Jones deposition was the culmination of an entrapment plot by a loose confederation of right wing and GOP operatives. Clinton was wrong - and he apologized. Clinton's sin was venial, not mortal. The fallout from the scandal should have ended long ago. But even now, the GOP standard bearer, George W. Bush, is continuing to bring the topic up. Why are the conservative Republicans obsessed with sex in the White House? Because they can't attack Clinton for what is really at the heart of their hatred. Clear and simple, the conservatives loathe the President for his embracing of a multicultural society. They don't like assertive women in the cabinet, minorities in prominent positions, gays treated with respect and dignity -- and they detest an assertive first lady. Sex is just the tar they use to demonize Clinton. If it were about sex, the Republicans would just be shooting themselves in the head. BuzzFlash could name all the GOP leaders who have admitted to adulterous affairs or been outed, but the list would be too long and would ruin the flow of this article. Two examples, one past and one present, will do. Newt Gingrich was welcomed back to the Philly Convention as a wounded warrior on the mend. Of course, Newt was chief flame-thrower during the impeachment process, decrying Clinton as a moral degenerate. Newt, however, didn't disclose that he was screwing a Congressional aide more than 20 years his junior, cheating on his second wife, at the same time that he was calling on Clinton to resign because of his adultery. So how come Newt wasn't wearing a scarlet "A" at the GOP convention? Then there's Bill Thomas. You may not have heard of him. But Congressman Thomas is Chair of the powerful Ways and Means Subcommittee on Health, which oversees Medicare issues including prescription benefits for seniors. Just a few weeks ago, Thomas's hometown paper in California revealed that the married Congressman was having an affair with a high-powered lobbyist for the pharmaceutical industry. Adultery and conflict of interest all wrapped in one satin sheet: sounds like something that the GOP junkyard dogs would leap on in a minute. But did you hear a word of condemnation out of George W. Bush, Tom DeLay, Dennis Hastert or Dick Armey? No charges of immorality, no calls for Thomas's resignation. Not a peep. The Republicans are quick to forget the human failings of their own. Heck, just ask George W. Bush. Here is a guy who was a self-confessed alcoholic until he was forty, has all but admitted to snorting cocaine, was a womanizer, a failed business man until luck hit him on his head -- and he evaded service in Vietnam to boot. Does anyone see any sneers and jeers coming out from the Republican National Committee about the Texas Governor? Is anyone calling for investigations? Call it hypocrisy of a cunning and brazen sort. But the anti-Clinton drumbeat that continues to this day is not about randy romps in the Oval Office or House Office Buildings. It is about Clinton betraying the Southern Good Old Boys and letting women, gays, and minorities get in on a cut of the action. That is the mortal sin in their eyes. That is what drove them into an eight-year frenzy and obsession with taking Clinton down. Among all the accusations that have flown, all the investigations that have been conducted, all the venomous attacks that have been launched, the only thing that stuck was that a White House intern performed sexual favors on the President. Clinton may have lied to the American people about an Oval Office sex act, but he never betrayed the American people in the most fundamental sense. No recent president has put more energy, intellect and political savvy into the job than Bill Clinton. We are a better country now than we were eight years ago. Whatever his moral lapses, Bill Clinton, as he enters the final lap of his presidency deserves our praise, not our condemnation. Al Gore, who has been the most active vice president in the nation's history, also merits much of the credit. It is a shame that conventional wisdom will force Gore to distance himself from the President. Bill Clinton stood up to the forces who oppose America's evolution into a multicultural society, time and time again. It was no game for the faint of heart. We are a better country for it. Thanks, Bill. A BUZZFLASH EDITORIAL ORIGINALLY POSTED IN THE FALL OF 2000 * * * And by the way, if you still think the impeachment was about the lying, here's a quotation from a Tom DeLay press secretary talking about the effort to impeach Bill Clinton: "This whole thing about not kicking someone when they are down is BS - Not only do you kick him - you kick him until he passes out - then beat him over the head with a baseball bat - then roll him up in an old rug - and throw him off a cliff into the pound(ing) surf below!!!!" (Michael Scanlon, Press Secretary to House Minority Whip Tom DeLay, discussing the GOP strategy toward President Clinton as the impeachment process got underway in August of 1998. As excerpted from the book, "Inside the Impeachment of William Jefferson Clinton" by Peter Baker.) God bless the GOP men of peace, honor, lechery and lies. Do you have any doubt that they would lie -- and lie again -- to achieve their goals? And there are thousands like a Tom DeLay press secretary in the Bush Cartel wing of the Republican Party. In fact, they are running the country. A BUZZFLASH EDITORIAL * * * BUZZFLASH NOTE: See also, "The Party That Keeps Giving," at http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A46264-2002Dec27.html BACK TO TOP MEDIA WATCH DAILY BUZZ FIFTH COLUMNIST CARTOONS SOUTHERN STYLE ANGRY LIBERAL INTERVIEWS CONTRIBUTORS MAILBAG PERSPECTIVES EDITORIALS ANALYSIS ALERTS PERSPECTIVES HEADLINES SEARCH MEDIA LINKS LINK ARCHIVES SEND NEWSFLASH ABOUT HELP KEEP BUZZFLASH BUZZ'N! Unless otherwise noted, all original content and headlines are © BuzzFlash. Contact BuzzFlash for reprint rights. _______________________________________________ Futurework mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://scribe.uwaterloo.ca/mailman/listinfo/futurework
