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Enough is Enough
Posted
03-14-2001
When is it going to stop? When will the Republican attack dogs and
their lackeys in the mainstream media stop the Clinton feeding frenzy?
Enough is enough already. The guy has a certain magnetism and charm that no
other leader has had (certainly not our unduly-elected pretender currently
in the White House), but can't the people who spent years uncovering every
aspect of the Clintons' public and private lives find something else to
report on now that Bill Clinton has left office? Too many people in this
great nation of ours appear to have bought into the "hype" spewed forth
against the Clintons by the right-wing attack dogs and the lazy media that
won't ever investigate Republicans to the same degree that they do
Democrats.
It would take too long to go
back through both terms of the Clintons and identify all of the scrutiny and
criticism they received that Republican first families never seem to suffer.
But, there are a few items to examine. Contrast the criticism of Bill
Clinton's stance against the Vietnam War and the circumstances of George W.
Bush's draft avoidance, lack of actual service in the National Guard,
criminal convictions, etc. Does it appear that the coverage of each
president's younger years was balanced?
Clinton used terrible
judgment with Monica Lewinsky. But after learning what JFK did in the White
House and all the Republican members of Congress that conducted extramarital
affairs, how much worse is Clinton? I am not minimizing anyone's behavior,
but why is Clinton's sexual behavior "fair game", but other elected
officials' unimportant. I will venture a guess that George W. has done his
share of fooling around too.
Does anyone really believe
every other presidential pardon since James Madison was nothing more than
honest appeals for mercy? Daddy Bush pardoned every Iran-Contra actor right
before they were to testify against him. What could have been more
self-serving? He also pardoned Armand Hammer who was cushy with Soviets
clear back to Vladimir Lenin and a very large contributor to the Republican
Party. He pardoned a Cuban exile that the CIA believed to be a terrorist.
Jeb Bush through his Cuban exile ties in south Florida lobbied directly for
this pardon. He also pardoned a Pakistani heroin dealer because of
intercession by Jesse Helms who had been lobbied by the Pakistani military.
But Marc Rich, who Daddy Bush delayed prosecuting, who Dick Cheney's lawyers
represented until the past year, and whose pardon those very same lawyers
all testified was justified, somehow becomes more scandalous than any other
pardon in history.
There are curious reasons for
virtually every
presidential pardon. But, the media scrutinizes only Clinton's. Can you ever
remember scrutiny of any other presidential pardons? The media has held the
Clintons to standards that no other presidential family has
been held. Some wacky right-winger spouts something off, the mainstream
media runs with it, and too many folks simply buy it. Another example of
inaccurate media coverage concerns the Clintons supposedly
stripping the White House and Air Force One of everything valuable. George
W. himself said it was not true. Someone makes an accusation, and the media
runs with it whether it is true or not. Did the media ever make an issue of
the stuff Nancy Reagan or Barbara Bush took from the White House?
The reason that Clinton irked
the Republicans so much was that he beat them at their own game. After
twelve years of controlling the White House, they could not believe an
anti-war baby-boomer could knock out a World War II hero. He beat them at
welfare reform, the death penalty, and could raise as much money as they
did. Jimmy Carter was the most virtuous president of our lifetime but he was
crucified because he did not play hardball. Bill Clinton did, the
Republicans vilified him, and too many people bought the propaganda.
Neither party has the ethical
high ground. They play by the same set of rules. It just seems that loyal
Republicans never
question their leaders' motives. When the R's raise a half billion dollars,
no one worries that their votes will be for sale. But when
Dems raise money, there are always questions about motives. When Republicans
spout off about individual freedoms, gun owners buy it, even though
Republicans are slowly eroding people's 4th Amendment rights regarding
search and seizure.
I just hope people and the
media are equally critical of this pretend president as they have been of
our former president. Clinton oversaw the greatest boom in our economic
history. If there had been a bad economy, he'd have been blamed. Yet for all
the success, he got little credit. Bush really has made no secret of his
plans. He wants tax cuts for his wealthy friends, to tamper with Social
Security, to spend more on defense, and worry little about paying down the
national debt. Yet, the media and too many folks in the public seem to
blindly accept Bush's plans because he's "likeable". The president has a job
to do. Likeability doesn't get the job done. Let's see the results of a Bush
Administration and then decide who did more for the American people, Clinton
or the Bushes. |
