By Kyle Smith
Wednesday, June 06, 2018
Time to quit Bill Clinton, Democrats. Give him up. Chuck
him under the wheels of the nearest Greyhound. Stop making him the guest of
honor at your parties and fundraisers. Stop treating him as an amusing
celebrity instead of a despicable human being on your talk shows, stop giving
to his foundation, stop attending his speeches, stop being deferential.
Denounce him publicly and without equivocation. Exile him. You’ve exiled actors
and newsreaders and comedians for doing less than he did. I picture them all
commiserating somewhere together, on an Island of Misfit Boys — Matt Lauer and
Garrison Keillor and Kevin Spacey and Charlie Rose and Al Franken and Louis C.K.
Meanwhile the Big He is still everyone’s darling. All this time, liberals and
the media, you’ve been applying a lower standard of character to a former president than you apply to
chat-show hosts and jesters.
Yet the party and its media arm continue to treat him
ever so delicately.
After Clinton’s disastrous appearance on Today Monday morning — during which he
(yet again) told random lies, tried to change the subject to unrelated matters
(such as the increase in the number of female members of the Arkansas bar when
he was governor), lashed out at his interviewer Craig Melvin, and sought
sympathy for the massive legal bills he incurred by lying to the country for
seven months — Stephen Colbert on Tuesday offered him a mulligan.
“I noticed you didn’t enjoy that entire interview. I want
you to enjoy this one,” Colbert said to Clinton. In the most sycophantic manner
imaginable, he asked:
Do you understand why some people
thought that was a tone-deaf response to his questions about the #MeToo
movement and how you might reflect on your behavior 20 years ago, and how that
reflection may change based on what you’ve learned through the #MeToo movement?
As if Clinton or anyone else didn’t know until the last
year that it is not okay to have state police bring a woman to your hotel room,
then drop your pants and command her to “kiss it.” Or to grope a grieving woman
in the White House. Or to commit rape. Or to take advantage of a 22-year-old
intern.
When Bill Clinton is in the room, the media gently
acknowledge only this last matter (if any of them), and only because what
happened between Clinton and Lewinsky is so utterly beyond dispute. But the
Colberts and Todays of the world
continue to shy away from even asking Clinton about the credible and detailed
rape allegation made by Juanita Broaddrick — much less subject him to sustained
questioning about it. Given what we know about Bill Clinton, how likely is it
that Broaddrick is lying? Why is she the one woman on earth whose rape
allegation is simply dismissed out of hand by feminists? Why are feminists so
lacking in curiosity about her charge that they express no interest whatsoever
in even getting Clinton to answer questions about it? Only Lewinsky gets
brought up around Clinton, and even then, only in deferential, euphemistic, and
non-antagonistic terms.
The essence of the Democratic-party/Democratic-media
approach to Bill Clinton has changed very little since 1998, when onetime Time correspondent Nina Burleigh
indelibly said: “I would be happy to give him a blowjob just to thank him for
keeping abortion legal. I think American women should be lining up with their
Presidential kneepads on to show their gratitude for keeping the theocracy off
our backs.” This was a nonsensical, if immensely clarifying, remark at the
time, given that if Clinton had been removed from office after his impeachment,
he simply would have been replaced by Al Gore, another abortion cheerleader.
Burleigh’s remark illuminated the moral peril of blindly
supporting the chief of your tribe regardless of how reprehensible his behavior
may be, and those who make excuses for the often vile acts and comments of
President Trump should reflect on that. But now that Clinton is no longer in
the position of “keeping abortion legal” (not to mention that we’ve had five
Republican presidents since Roe v. Wade,
and abortion remains much easier to obtain in the U.S. than in Europe), what
possible reason can there be for continuing to treat him with soft murmurs of
sympathy?
Take off the kneepads, media. Stand up straight and tall.
Barack Obama proved that there is such a thing as a Democratic president who
doesn’t abuse women in his personal life. If you don’t want to look absurd when
attacking the failings of President Trump, apologize for making excuses for
President Clinton. See him clearly as the sleaze he is and always has been.
Redefine him for future generations as a loathsome, lying hack.
And when you’re done with that, I’ve got another
assignment for you: John F. Kennedy.
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