Who wins the dishonorability sweepstakes -- John McCain or Bill Clinton?
During the Monicagate sex scandal, John McCain voted to remove Bill Clinton from office. This, despite the fact that Clinton's affair had no repercussions beyond itself. Yes, our last good president (arguably) fibbed during his testimony in the Paula Jones case, but Monica was irrelevant to those trumped-up charges. (Let's not re-enter the silly argument over whether fellatio counts as sex; I always thought it embarrassing for a court of law to address a distinction that usually matters only to teenaged ninnies.)
The McCain situation is different. Vicki Iseman is a lobbyist, and McCain went to great lengths (no pun intended) to aid the concern for which she lobbied. That firm gave him free plane rides and a nice amount of money. Even if John and Vicki did not make the beast with two backs, he still acted like a beast -- as far as the public's interest is concerned.
Update: CNN reports that the McCain story is actually helping McCain find new support among conservatives. The theory seems to be that Limbaugh listeners despise the New York Times so thoroughly that they presume that there must be some good in a man attacked by the NYT.
(Progressives have difficulty imagining a world in which Judy Miller's former employer is considered liberal -- just as reactionaries cannot easily get their heads around the fact that many liberals think the Times has become a neocon romping ground.)
Can the Republicans spin this drama to their advantage? Remember, the Starr probe actually increased support for Bill Clinton.
2 comments:
Please, Joseph? Please make a mock cover of "Modern Maturity", its swimsuit issue, with their contest for all-time Pacemaker Heart-throbs: Nixon's jowls, LBJ's earlobes, and McCain's cheeks.
Ah, AitchD, that's a brilliant plan.
And of course the Republicans can spin this to their advantage. The collective denial they've been in for—8 years? 10? 20?—about the state of the nation and their role in getting it to that place should serve them just fine here. "John McCain: Victim of the Liberal Media," up next on FOX.
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