The Internet Monk
"the power of opinion, the phenomenon of speech, the impact of truth"
A Webjournal and News Review by Michael Spencer
Updated 1/26/01
I like my Clintons Just a Little on the Trashy side
by Michael Spencer
The
pardons, the trashing of the White House, the gosh-awful creepiness of
Clinton's last day, it's all brought the media around like smelling
salts.
Of course, the incredible first week of the Bush Administration is the backdrop for all of this outbreaking sanity. The grown-ups are clearly in charge, and the difference is breathtaking. Democrats seem in disarray, from the now certain approval of all the Clinton cabinet, to the endorsement of Tax cuts by Mr. Greenspan, to Ted Kennedy standing in the White House driveway singing the praises of the Education proposal, to Democrat Zell Miller cosponsoring the tax cut proposals. It has been a wonderful week and Mr. Bush is showing the country a kind of "down to business" leadership style that will win a lot of admiration. Eight years of dorm bull sessions and fraternity pranks is over.
Which brings us back to the rancid garbage pile marking the Clinton exit trail. The Internet Monk is proclaiming on this page that the pardons issued by Mr. Clinton will become a major scandal that will rock Senator Clinton's effectiveness. Without the political cover of the Presidency, Democrats will quickly calculate that there is little reason to circle the wagons around the kind of scurrilous corruption present in these pardons. Without the "War Room" directing every response, we can expect sudden eruptions of honest outrage.
At what, you say? At the pardoning of child molester Mel MacDaniel, serving time for recruiting fifteen year olds into a ménage. At the pardoning of Clinton's brother for a cocaine charge. At the pardoning of Susan MacDougal, convicted by an Arkansas jury of being a simple, old-fashioned thief. At the pardoning of Marc Rich, a felon who fled the country rather than face justice. Rich did business with Khomeini and South Africa and was prosecuted by Rudy Guliani for 48 million dollars worth of a tax dodge. His exquisitely trashy ex-wife wrote a cool million in contributions to the Clintons, plus stocked their homes with furniture.
Then there is the trashing of government property by "Animal House" employees of the outgoing Clinton team: Walls used for anti-bush graffitti, computers and typewriters damaged, phone messages changed. Then there is Air Force One cleaned out of anything that could be carried off without a truck. And who even wants to get into the Presidential humidor story.
Illegal. Oh, I doubt it. Just wonderfully trashy. So very indicative of the total lack of shame and complete impunity to embarrassment that make the Clintons garishly abnormal. Even as I type, Fox News is noting that Senator Clinton is canceling speaking engagements. Too bad. Republicans are getting very good at those protests.
Somewhere out there, Bill Clinton is sitting in front of his TV, Big Mac in hand, stogie nearby, dressed in pajamas and surrounded by boxes, laughing at us all. I'm laughing back, but I'm betting a few Democrats stopped laughing a while ago.