I hate to say it, but Clinton's BJ did interfere with his duties.

[hedgehog]

I can remember when he attacked the weapons plant in the Sudan that I thought it was a clear case of "Wag the Dog". I figured that he was exaggerating the terrorist threat to divert attention from the personal attacks on him. I'm not defending the people who made such a big deal out of his affair. I would still like to see how much money the FBI spent tracking Clinton and how much was spent tracking Al Queda back then. Still, if Clinton had taken some cold showers instead, he never would have left himself open to attack.

[Cooley Hurd]

1. .

The little you know...:eyes:

[rzemanfl]

2. This is why oral sex and automobile driving don't mix. But

blow jobs come to an end, * is permanently stupid and incompetent.

[TahitiNut]

21. The World According to Garp?

:rofl:

[The_Casual_Observer]

3. I thought it was a clear case of "Wag the Dog".

Boy, you were pretty naive back then huh?

[hedgehog]

106. Me and a lot of other people.

Clinton inspired the movie, Wag the Dog.

[Kire]

114. How did he do that?

Wag the Dog came out in 1997. The Sudan-Afghanistan attack was in 1998. I remember everybody saying "this is Wag the Dog! The movie was right!"

See post 11

[zbdent]

115. DEAD WRONG ... the book that inspired "Wag the Dog" was out

barely in 1993 ... maybe you're confusing "Primary Colors" the book with "Primary Colors" the movie?

First published in 1993 as "American Hero", here's the listing from a library source:

# Originally published as American hero.
# Once upon a time there was a mean, dying GOP chairman who had a brilliant scheme to ensure that his man would retain the office of president of the United States of America. But the only man who could pull off this elaborate plan was a certain celebrated Hollywood director. Add to the mix a left-coast gumshoe named Broz who is trapped between cover-ups, undercover work, and his or mortality, a cast of bicoastal desperate characters, and the stage is set for a powerful D.C./L.A. production.

The only way that Clinton "inspired" Wag the Dog the movie was the fact that he was president at the time the book (American Hero) came out, and "liberal Hollywood" was more than happy to play snugglebunnies with the righties, making a buck off the "allegations" of infidelity of Bill Clinton.

[Monkeyman]

4. Nope History show Clinton was on top of things

Its the Replug controlled Congress that used the words wag the dog after they stopped all of Bills ideas and Bills to fight terrorism. Sudan was a CIA mistake not Bills

[CatWoman]

44. LOL

Well, I don't think he was particularly "on top"

:rofl:

[dreamsvsnightmares]

112. Thank you this is the first honest opinion that I have seen

in a very long time. Always remember that wag the dog was the rebukes way of refusing Cllinton the tools that he needed to complete the capture of obl

[Bucky]

135. Aren't all opinions honest? (Some are better informed, of course)

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

5. If you hate to say it,

why did you?

And this is relevant how?

[hedgehog]

73. Just a response to the knee jerk support for Clinton we see so often.

By all reports, The Road to 9/11 is a slanderous movie and I'm glad to see all the opposition. I just didn't want to pretend that Bill doesn't have feet of clay.

On edit: I hate to say it because so many here seem to think that Clinton can do no wrong. I think he's done a lot of harm to the Democratic Party and I think in most cases he was Republican lite. It's just that we were always so busy defending him from stupid attacks from the Republicans we never really looked at what Clinton was doing and not doing. He manged to approve NAFTA and Welfare "Reform" but somehow he never got past "don't ask, don't tell" and universal health care is still a mirage.

[Bunny]

6. Sigh.

:eyes:

[Mabus]

7. How did it interfere with his duties?

He bombed them and he was right. He was doing his job. Believe it or not, Clinton was capable of multitasking. Besides, his actions have nothing to do with what you believed to be true 8 years ago.

[snappyturtle]

8. Oh! please...................

I wish this president would get a bj once in a while and maybe he would quit attacking his countrymen!

[AZBlue]

26. I agree!!

Although, I for one am NOT volunteering. Not enough money in the world...

I nominate Ann Coulter.

[regnaD kciN]

79. I'm sure Condi's handling that matter just fine, thank you...

:evilgrin:

[snappyturtle]

126. Is she?

LOL :scarcasm:

[Imagevision]

148. Bill must have smiled bigtime with the cigar stunt -- that was slick...

[NRaleighLiberal]

9. Pertains to probably most presidents. None of our business.

Geez, if the right was on to FDR about his affair like the preoccupation with Clinton's errors of judgement, WWII could have turned out differently. Something tells me payback began with Nixon/Watergate - it is now a full partisan tennis match....and no one wins.

[bluestateguy]

10. Well, of course he did a damn stupid thing

He betrayed his wife and daughter, which is why it should have been a family matter and not a matter of state.

In addition, he should have known that his dalliance would only play into the hands of the same people who were working to bring him down since the day he announced for president in 1991.

[LSK]

11. August 20, 1998

http://www.cnn.com/US/9808/20/us.strikes.01/

[lyonn]

99. Thanks for article - sets-out what Clinton thought and his reason

for attacking Afghanistan & Sudan factory, Osama & terrorist training camps. Clinton was saying what our great leader is now saying, only doofus (bush) didn't talk the talk until 9-11, ignored it matter of fact. bush had 9 months to take revenge for the Cole bombing and Did Nothing.

[saltpoint]

12. BClinton's sexual indiscretions were the concern of himself, his wife,

and their relationship. It was no one else's business.

The subject should never have been fodder for public discourse. Monica Lewinsky should have kept her mouth, uh, shut to her friend Linda Tripp, I mean.

Linda Tripp, who is evidently a woman of no decency whatsoever, betrayed her friend Monica, blabbed the gossip to Ken Starr, and provided the blue dress to the whole mix.

Starr was thwarted in his Whitewater investigation re the Clintons and doubled back to try the president for lying about sex.

The money wasted on that case could have been much better spent for library books for a grade school in Nebraska, band instruments for a high school in New Mexico, and girls' basketball uniforms in Mississippi.

[lyonn]

101. A civil lawsuit against a sitting President is ridiculous

The Monica part was immaterial, the lawsuit was a disgrace. What court allowed that?

[saltpoint]

127. It was a disgrace, yes. And of course, there was the lurid media,

fanning the flames against the "liberal" Bill Clinton.

Dole tried the "Where's the outrage" strategy and nobody bought it, and rightly so.

[Yupster]

142. It was ridiculous for sure, but geeze

Can you at least not have an affair at work while you're being sued by someone else who claims you harrassed her at work.

Can't you keep it in your pants even then?

Hell, forget the keep it in your pants. You're married in one of the best homes in the world. You can wave it around in 40 different historic rooms, but can't you not cheat while you're being sued for trying to cheat? At least?

[Rosemary2205]

13. Oh God PLEASE make it stop.

So now Lieberman is going to set the debate in General Discussion?

Please PLEASE please don't pander to their schtick.

[whistle]

14. Is that what the film Path to 9-11 suggests?

[Lindacooks]

147. Yes.

That's just one of the reasons we're frothing mad.

[hedgehog]

155. I had no idea the movie referred to Monica.

Now I know why I upset so many people so thoroughly. I in no way wanted to defend the movie.

[Lindacooks]

160. Oh, I'm sure that you didn't want to defend the movie.

It's incredible what these repukes will stoop to, isn't it?

It seems that on every issue, THEY cause a problem, then they turn around and blame it on someone else. Every single time.

[seabeyond]

15. you didnt believe him about terrorist. you wagged the dog

and then you say it interfered. but really it didnt interfer did it. was just your perception. you can say that he brought on you questioning him because of monica, but it didnt interfer with job, he still did it. he still implemented policy. he still talked about it

[WilliamPitt]

16. *banging head*

[greenman3610]

17. if you thought it was "Wag the Dog"

you were highly misinformed back then, and
you need to re-evaluate.

The diversionary quality of the attacks on Clinton are
well documented in Joe Conason's "Hunting of the President',
and David Brock's "Blinded by the Right"

[AndyA]

18. Clinton's BJ certainly interfered with his duties while it was occurring,

which was only for a few minutes, but it was the GOP-led Congress, ravenous to prosecute Clinton on ANYTHING that diverted his attention the most.

If this same GOP-led Congress were even 25% as interested in upholding the law today as they were back then, Bush would already be in jail. Hypocrisy, lies, deceit, collusion, corruption, and double standards by politicians are just as bad, if not worse, than an extra-marital affair. They should have let Hillary deal with it, she would have likely been more severe in her punishment.

[SammyWinstonJack]

22. Wasn't he on the phone conducting business as usual, at the time?

:evilgrin:

[lyonn]

117. Is that what they mean by multi-tasking?

Clinton was always admired for being able to handle many issues at the same time.

[MichiganVote]

19. How long was that BJ anyway? I mean really....

5 minutes

10,

30 minutes

five years of Bush bullshit?

[flordehinojos]

the republicans can't let go of clinton's blow job.they would have to face

bush and his betrayal to the u.s.a and to democracy. they can't do that.

[MichiganVote]

102. Well this is longest republican inspired BJ on record

[flordehinojos]

138. they get such orgasmic pleasures out of their lying that it is immoral and

indecent, and when you think of it, it is more like masturbation. the republicans are masturbating!

[spanone]

20. This isn't about Clinton.

sure been hiding a lot of threads lately.

[Rabrrrrrr]

23. No, the Republican Slime Machine that was hellebent on trashing him

and hamstringing him and hauling into congress every time they didn't like the way he sneezed interfered with his duties.

But even with all the bullshit he had to attend to, he still managed to spend more time, and of a far, far higher quality, on his duties than Fuckstick ever has, or that few other presidents have ever done.

[Connie_Corleone]

24. How was he exaggerating the threat when it turns out he was right?

[hedgehog]

77. The problem isn't that he was right, the problem is that a lot of

people didn't believe him at the time. Look back on all the discussion about us bombing an aspirin factory. Before 9/11, it certainly looked like "Wag the Dog".

[butterfly77]

25. Just like Bush being incompetent , dumb and uniformed

is interfering with him performing his duties properly.

[buddhamama]

27. William Cohen

Clinton's Secrectary of Defense disagrees, especially with the "wag the dog" Repub BS.
whatever :eyes:

[DemExpat]

28. I would have thought they would be very relaxing

and invigorating for a man in his position.

:evilgrin:

I doubt that they interfered at all with his duties, but they sure did make him incredibly vulnerable to attack, and betrayed his family. Double dumb.

DemEx

[hedgehog]

82. That's what I'm trying to say.

Some part of a President's power is tied up in prestige rather than statute. When Clinton fooled around and then lied about it, he threw away a lot of the power he had. The Republicans may have stabbed him in the back,but he gave them the sharpened knife.

[VOX]

29. Wrong! It was the right wing's REACTION to his BJ that interfered!!!!!

Was it foolish for Clinton to engage in extramarital sex? Yes, but that's just my opinion, because his choice to do so was a personal matter.

But the right wing's entrapment of Clinton, and to literally make a federal case about his philandering (But...but...but..."He lied to the American people!" *gasp*), while Trent Lott, then Senate majority leader, called his attacks on OBL strangely timed...to me, **that's** interfering with leadership. :grr:

[huskerlaw]

30. That sounds like something

my mother would say. My mother, by the way, is a Bush-loving Republican. Not that you are, but well...I'm just sayin'.

Meanwhile, that argument is SO fucking tired...not to mention complete bullshit.

When all else fails, blame the Clenis! Please. :eyes:

[tenshi816]

31. Oh, please.

That's like saying that everyone who has an active sex life can't possibly perform in a high pressure job.

Bill Clinton's sex life should never have been under scrutiny any more that mine or yours should be, whatever the job we do. He did well to function at all as President given the unrelenting attacks from the GOP that began even before he took office.

Do you honestly believe other US presidents haven't had extracurricular fun? They were just lucky not to be hounded by hypocrites on the other side who were doing the same thing. (Hello, Newt and Henry Hyde, I'm looking at you as just two examples.)

[Kire]

32. Talk about a drive-by

Hedgehog hasn't replied to any of the posts in this thread yet.

[OPERATIONMINDCRIME]

33. Why Is A Duck... ....Because One Of Its Legs Are Both The Same.

[Oeditpus Rex]

57. Why is a stove?

Because the more you polish it, it gets.

[OPERATIONMINDCRIME]

64. Wannabe.

:rofl:

[tinfoilinfor2005]

34. Yes of course, because from there on in the repukes and the msm

made certain that it would be "Circus Bill and Monica" for the rest of his administration. He fought them tooth and nail in an uphill battle so that he could concentrate on the business of the country, and he did a darned good job, but the republicans hated him so much that they preferred a weakened country over allowing Clinton to do his job.

[MODemocrat]

35. My God, maybe that's what is wrong with George Bush

He's getting something that's making him crazier than a pet coon. I think the "wag the dog" was simply
a figment of the republicans' imagination. They're just great at using cliches. Bill Clinton was a good president, and they couldn't bring him completely down no matter what they did or said. I'm not ashamed to say that I voted for him twice, and would go to the polls to vote for him again, if only he could run.

[buddhamama]

36. Clinton was doing his job

you said so yourself, you thought he was exaggerating the terrorist threat...

Clue Alert: He wasn't. And, if he was so distracted how was it that he knew how serious the threat was?

Your logic makes no sense to me.

We were attacked under Bush's watch too, what's your reasoning for that?

[hedgehog]

85. The problem I have is that I thought he was lying about

National Security in order to distract the media from his personal problems. Lest we all forget, Wag the Dog came out in 1997 and was a bout a president who cooks up a war in Western Asia to distract attention from a sexual scandal.

[tenshi816]

140. What's the problem?

Now you know Clinton wasn't lying. Why is this still a problem for you?

[Tom Rinaldo]

37. No. Republicans in Congress Hijacking the Government Did

Clinton's BJ was no more distracting to his doing his job than any other powerful guy's after hours BJ is. Having the Republicans attempt to impeach Clinton for it however might have been a distraction. But which branch of government do you figure was most distracted by an attempt to impeach the President? To the extent that our nation suffered from inattention to matters of importance, it was a Republican self inflicted wound. Virtually nothing else, literally, got dealt with in Congress while it was pursuing Clinton's impeachment. Clinton however stayed on the job and kept his Administration on task.

[MsUnderstood]

38. to stupid to respond to. . .naw I guess not

I can remember when he attacked the weapons plant in the Sudan that I thought it was a clear case of "Wag the Dog". I figured that he was exaggerating the terrorist threat to divert attention from the personal attacks on him.

You THOUGHT it was wag the dog...do you still? After all you've learned? Tell us your thoughts about HISTORY not your historical thoughts. Nobody cares about what people thought 10 years ago.

I would still like to see how much money the FBI spent tracking Clinton and how much was spent tracking Al Queda back then.
The FBI cared more about Clinton than terrorists. . .and that is Clinton's fault how? Clinton still did his job while fending off the wolves wanting to know about his PERSONAL LIFE.

Still, if Clinton had taken some cold showers instead, he never would have left himself open to attack.

Oh yea Clinton could have prevented 9/11 by keeping his pecker in his pants. . .and Bush could have prevented it by:

Cutting down on those vacations
Reading the memos he was given
Not giving money to the Taliban'

I cannot fathom the IQ of anyone who can with a straight face say it is the fault of a blowjob that 3000 american citizens and 3000 American soldiers have died in the last 5 years.

[hedgehog]

110. Of course we all know now that the threat back then was real.

I'm talking about what we knew and thought back then. If we had listened to Clinton when he told us that terrorism was a threat, wouldn't it have been a major issue during the Summer of 2001?. I wasn't the only one on the right or the left who thought that Clinton had been exaggerating the threat.

Clinton may or may not have been able to stop 9/11. The problem I am pointing out is that he he knew people were looking to attack him politically and he gave them a weapon. It was the most spectacular example of a politician self-destructing since Gary Hart. You know and I know that a President's personal life should have nothing to do with his job; but a lot of people don't separate the man from the office. It's nothing new, either. Look at all the attacks on Mary Todd Lincoln. An astute politician like Clinton should have known that he was risking his Presidency for a few minutes pleasure.

[RobinA]

123. I Agree About

him giving them the weapon, but who's this "we" who thought he was wagging the dog? A lot of people thought he was wagging the dog, but that theory was by no means universal. Of course, nowadays saying you thought Clinton was just bombing an aspirin factory is about as common as people who admitted to voting for Nixon, but never-the-less....

[Rosco T.]

39. NO.. the WITCH HUNT of Clinton's BJ interfered with his duties..

had they left his PERSONAL LIFE alone, we would have never noticed.

[Lex]

41. Exactly! Clinton getting a BJ was never any of their concern

until they took it upon themselves to investigate it, which was RIDICULOUS in the first place.

[BootinUp]

40. Bush's years of drug abuse are far worse. Besides the Repuglicans

are the ones who spent 70 million and countless hours of hearings tieing up our whole government over a bj. I've heard people try to justify digging into Clintons personal life with a federal investigation before, but the effort always falls ridiculously flat as if Presidents are not human and all Presidents have not had some personal issues to deal with during their service.

[leftofthedial]

42. what saved you from unapologetic freeperhood?

[Name removed]

43. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[Connie_Corleone]

50. LOL!!

:rofl:

[buddhamama]

52. Oh My Deities

You fucking Rule! :loveya:

[ProdigalJunkMail]

55. no, but if you were busy trying to hide it from the whole world

it might distract you a little...whether you like to admit it or not. All he needed to do is say, "Hell yes I got blown in the Oval Office. But that is between Hillary, Monica and myself. Now, bugger off!" He DID try to cover it up...

sP

[CatWoman]

58. yeah, you're right

especially if I was trying to smoke a cigarette afterward.

Which is also no one else's business.

I guess my point is your point does not compute.

[ProdigalJunkMail]

65. no...my point computes just fine

if he had just said, "Yep...now bugger off," no one could say anything else about it. But he tried to hide it...and just like EVERYONE in politics, when you try to hide something, people dig...and then you just have to cover even more...

But hey, if you want to believe that episode wasn't a distraction...go ahead. I am not saying he should have been confronted about it...but when he was...it was the cover-up that became the issue...not the blow-job itself.

sP

[buddhamama]

62. it was nobody's business to begin with...

The President doesn't become Celibate on entering the Whitehouse.

The whole affair was a witch-hunt, a very expensive, distracting, witch-hunt.

[ProdigalJunkMail]

68. and he could have avoided the whole thing

had he just admitted it and told the world it was none of their business...which I agree it was not.

sP

[CatWoman]

71. hmmmmmmmmm

I thought I recognized that voice

[ProdigalJunkMail]

74. wow...in the face of facts this is your retort...

I expected better from you...oh well, I guess some people are blinded by party lines...

sP

[CatWoman]

76. yup

I'm sorry, but reading your posts, all I could envision was the Church Lady.

All that was missing was the wagging finger.

Sorry.

What can I say? :shrug:

[ProdigalJunkMail]

118. you could simply admit that it was partly his fault too

but worship at the church of Bill Clinton apparently rules over logic in your world...I had to put it in terms you could understand with all this talk of the church lady. I never said it was anyone's business but his...until he lied about it...

sP

[JuniperLea]

78. Right, like you weren't sippin' the ol' Kool Aid...

Whatever Clinton did or did not do, the RWNutJobs would have bitched. Even before they had the BJ to moan about, they were causing him extreme grief.

Back...


Away...


From...


The Kool Aid

[ProdigalJunkMail]

119. i am speaking of nothing but the blowjob...

he got one from someone that wasn't his wife...someone found out...they told two friends and so on and so on and good ole Bill just had to lie about it...and lie he did.

sP

[JuniperLea]

120. Natural Male Response... lie first... no biggie

No one died... and as per usual, the Wrongies made too big a deal about it.

[ProdigalJunkMail]

122. no...lie first is not a typical response...when you

have NO chance of affectively denying what happened... oh well.. no one here gets that

[buddhamama]

75. lmao

:rofl:

[JuniperLea]

80. That is HIGH LARIOUS!!!

:rofl:

[tenshi816]

144. I do so wish he had done just that.

I wish he had said "this is between me and my wife and that's all I'm going to say on the subject". Instead he instinctively went into CYA mode, exactly like most people do when they get caught out "playing away from home". Unfortunately, Clinton had to do it on the world's stage.

If everyone in a position of power in the world had to resign because of infidelity to a partner, then businesses would be run by the guys in the mailroom. I'm not saying cheating is a good thing because obviously it isn't, but if someone is doing a job well, then his/her personal life shouldn't be a subject for discussion.

I wish the Big Dog hadn't gone into defensive mode, particularly considering the activities of some of his main accusers.

Edited for clarity.

[TahitiNut]

84. (Be still, my heart!!)

:rofl: :rofl: :rofl:

:loveya: :yourock: :hug:

[Parche]

45. sudan

No, that didnt affect him, he launched those missiles on the sperm of the moment

[Cookie wookie]

46. As if the personal sex life of Bill Clinton had anything to do with

9/11.

Reading Richard Clark's "Against All Enemies" and Bob Graham's "Intelligence Matters" might be a good place to start to get some facts.

[JackBeck]

47. I hate to post something inflammatory 25 minutes ago and run...

But hedgehog, didn't Clinton's administration find and prosecute those responsible for bombing the WTC?

Can Bush, Jr., whose family has been in business with the bin Laden's for decades, claim the same?

[orpupilofnature57]

48. Just his image ,his performance as a Manager, was stellar. Infidelity

is a human flaw ,shared even by brilliant men ,being a spoiled megalomaniac has impeded Shrub from ever having a duty.

[sandnsea]

49. Well you figured wrong then, didn't you

If you figured he was exaggerating the terrorist threat, then you bought into the right wing spin and you were obviously wrong. Hasn't 9/11 proven that to you?? Maybe you should have taken some cold showers to get the blood flowing to your brain so you could think straight.

[City Lights]

51. How so?

The pukes are still attacking him. They started attacking him while he was Governor. If Monica never happened, they would have found something else.

Imagine how they would have attacked Bill if he did the things the chimp has done.

[w4rma]

53. Getting blow jobs don't interfere with my duties. I doubt they interfered

with Clinton's duties, either. In fact, I **highly** doubt it.

[CatWoman]

60. hmmmmmmmm

tell us more about your blowjobs :D

[w4rma]

81. LOL! I had better not say any more. :-) (nt)

[buddhamama]

66. but you would recommend them, right?

:D

[CatWoman]

69. 4 out of 5 dentists do

:hi:

[buddhamama]

72. 1 out 1 buddhamamas do too

:hi:

[TahitiNut]

89. Hell, my job performance went sky-high when I was getting my pole waxed

... while lunching at the "Y"! Keeeerist! She and I BOTH whistled while we worked! The company never got better 'bang' for their buck!

We occasionally suffered from rug burns (damned commercial carpeting!) but our work got done better than ever.

(Ahhh... nostagia. Decades ago, when I had a libido. Talk about reciprocal "boat floating"! Yeow!)

[buddhamama]

90. heehee

thanks for sharing! it was enlightening to say the least. :)

[TahitiNut]

93. Well, to be fair .. those were the days I smoked. It was allowed at work.

:evilgrin: :smoke: :smoke:

I still remember those days (months) with tremendous fondness. She was very dear to me ... and HOT, HOT, HOT. (As I was, apparently, to her. It was electric. Yeow.)

[CatWoman]

95. Now I'm jealous

:D

[TahitiNut]

100. No need to be. Warm up the Sanders Hot Fudge and I'll be right down!

:rofl: :rofl:

Nobody can EVER come before my favorite melon licker liqueur! :loveya: :yourock:

[Solly Mack]

54. I'm looking for treasure

[SmokingJacket]

56. I dunno. I find sex clears the mind rather.... nt

[Jamastiene]

59. That argument is debatable.

George Bush hasn't exactly been known for getting BJs in the White House, but he hasn't gotten Osama bin Laden either. What's his excuse?

Maybe your argument that he left himself open for attack should make you stop and think. The Republicans hold us to a much higher standard than they themselves can achieve. We take brow beating day after day from them and do nothing to hold them accountable for their own major flaws. Maybe we should start doing something about their immorality and sticking to it to get them impeached as well. If we do not start standing up to them, it will be this way forever and ever. They will brow beat us over morality forver and get away with mass murder again and again. It's time we take this country back from those self righteous jerks and point out their sins as well.

[Vinnie From Indy]

61. What a perfectly ridiculous post!

eom

[CatWoman]

63. yeah

why does hedgehog hate America, er, blowjobs?

:hi:

[tocqueville]

96. I know how they copulate

but not the BJ joke. Is there any BTW ?

[retread]

67. Clinton got a blow job?? n/t

[Kingshakabobo]

70. "I figured that he was exaggerating the terrorist threat "

You were wrong then and you are wrong now. Its a shame 2 years on DU hasn't smartened you up a little more.

I have to ask - did all the other, so called scandals also distract Clinton?

IRS Gate
File gate
Whitewatergate
Chinagate
Elian Gonzales gate
Vince Foster
Christmas card gate

Did it ever occur to you that they would have and DID hound him for everything under the sun?.....and he STILL managed to do a heckuva job.

How did he manage?

[hedgehog]

94. A president has to be able to lead

I just want to remind people that a lot of us were pretty disgusted by what we thought Clinton was doing; ie not the blow jobs but what looked like a deliberate exaggeration of the terrorist threat to divert people from his personal life. Imagine if an officer in the Army Corps of Engineers had been arrested for speeding and had stood up and said to the judge "Oh, by the way, those levees around New Orleans are going to fail." Do you think the judge or anyone else would have listened?

Bill Clinton was right about the terrorists and did his damnedest to stop 9/11. At the time, a lot of us thought he was using terrorism to divert attention. At the time, I think he was in no position to replace the head of the FBI with someone who might have paid attention to the reports coming in from the field offices. What if Clinton had been able to campaign for Gore without the shadow of Monica hanging over him?If Gore hadn't had to take the hit for people's disapproval of Clinton's personal life, it might have made the difference in the election. Remember, one reason Lieberman was on the ticket was to distance Gore from Clinton. What if Clinton had been able to campaign for Gore without the shadow of Monica hanging over him? Would/could Gore have stopped 9/11? Maybe. Would he have dragged us into this war? No way.

[countingbluecars]

109. So Clinton is responsible

for everything bad that has happened post BJ???

[tenshi816]

143. Why do you still seem disgusted despite

the fact that Clinton was right?

As far as Gore is concerned, he probably would have won 2000 by a comfortable margin if he had embraced Clinton's campaigning for him rather than distancing himself. He misjudged how much people blamed Clinton for Monica - remember that on the day Clinton was impeached, he still had approval ratings above 60%.

[newspeak]

151. well, maybe our "liberal" media decides what little seamy tidbits

they wish to acknowledge, as Larry Flynt exposed. A bunch of hypocrites, one and all? Let's see, what other President's might have had an affair, but the media wasn't into attacking them?

[tenshi816]

141. Too true - and think what a job he could have done

if he hadn't been hounded relentlessly for 8 years by unpatriotic Republicans who were more interested in scoring political points than working for the good of the country.

That's the way I've starting framing it when I get the snark from my family. The Republicans are the unpatriotic ones because they always, always put party before country.

[Orangepeel]

83. so you thought he was exaggerating. who says you were right?

your argument seems to be "it did interfere because I thought so at the time!"

Maybe you are/were right, but maybe you are/were not.

[NashVegas]

86. Getting Blow Jobs Kept the Man Calm and Relaxed

It was the RW media frenzy that interfered - if anything did interfere - with his admininstrative performance.

[blogslut]

87. It was called Operation Infinite Reach

And Clinton did it in response to bomb attacks on two US embassies that killed 224 people. Oh yeah, and Osama was involved with one of the targets.

Remember that? They all cried: "Wag the dog!" Exactly who was wagging who?

[hedgehog]

105. That's what I'm saying.

They all said "Wag the Dog" and as I remember it, a lot of "They" were people on the Left, not just the Republicans.

Presidential power can be based on very stupid things. Could George have dragged us into this war 9/10/01? Not likely. Before 9/11 he was a joke and fading fast. The American people gave him that power after 9/11 when they decided that they had to support the only President we had. What could Clinton have done if he had that kind of support during his last term?

[Jacobin]

88. Not right at all. In fact totally wrong

The RW's pursuit of Clinton's sex life distracted the country and the administration and congress from doing work that should have been done. It was/is none of their fucking business

The RW doesn't give a shit about anything except getting and maintaing absolute power for their own personal gain.

[gkhouston]

108. yup. What I remember was that the RW was OBSESSED with

"getting" Clinton. It was like that was all they ever thought about. They didn't give a rat's ass about the business of running the country, all they wanted to do was ruin Clinton and control, control, control. I didn't have strong feelings against the right before then, but watching them act like a bunch of complete idiots sure did the trick.

[XOKCowboy]

91. The question is how did you get sucked in by the corporate media.

It was so fucking obvious that the Newtites were doing all that they could to manipulate not only the Congress but also the corporate media. It was a total witchhunt.

I'm hoping that you're a little more more enlightened now.

[buddhamama]

92. uh, nice pun

[XOKCowboy]

97. LOL OH I get it!!

Unfortunately an UNINTENTIONAL pun! Come on though. Even though in those days I was a lackadaisical Democrat (I was enjoying the prosperity of the Clinton years) I could see what was happening.

[tocqueville]

98. If something was wagged, it was the tail, not the dog....

or do you mean the Big Dog ?

[Hamlette]

103. in was 1998 and we have since learned those attacks

put a final stop to Saddam's weapons plans.

Of course, we didn't learn how throughly the attacks destroyed Saddam's plans, we learned after we invaded. But we could have figured it out if we'd let the weapons inspectors finish their job.

Read Fiasco. He makes a pretty confincing case.

[devilgrrl]

104. If you say so....

:eyes::eyes::eyes::eyes:

[devilgrrl]

107. Let's see you say that to Hugh Hefner...

you'd wonder where he had time to build his fortune.

[Catchawave]

111. Nope, the GOP obsession with impeachment

was the distraction...where were their "checks and balances" while impeaching the Clenis?

Remember, they were in control of the Congress then.

[QuestionAll...]

113. bullshit.

that travesty was not Clinton's doing, but it was in the Starrs. What a waste of effort and money (more money than the 911 investigation for fucks sake).

So he likes to play around, big deal ( and he has lost my respect for that, where Monika is the predator and he the innocent one chuckling away at the jokes, but that's an aside that should Never have been so costly to America).

Bill can go to hell, imo, but a cooler one than that mass murderer Bush that gets away with sucking the life out of everyone.

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

116. His response to the media was the problem.

He should have told them that his personal life was his business and he wouldn't answer quesions about it. Instead he weasled, lied, and tried to cover it up.

After the bungled cover-up attempt was exposed he should have resigned.

[OzarkDem]

121. You're kidding, right?

:rofl:

[nomatrix]

124. The movie Wag The Dog is

based on the book American Hero by Larry Beinhart

"Publishers Weekly
Conspiracy theories of the George Bush presidency get a Hollywood twist in this satirical thriller purporting to tell the real story behind Operation Desert Storm. From his deathbed, controversial GOP chairman Lee Atwater conceives a wildly cynical plan to ensure Bush's re-election: if the President's campaign falters, Washington and Hollywood must orchestrate a war that will bolster his popular support. L.A. gumshoe Joe Broz has two jobs: movie star Magdalena Lazlo (soon to be his lover) wants him to find out why celebrated director John Beagle pulled out of a project she'd been working on; meanwhile his employer, mega-corporation Universal Security, has assigned him to the team protecting Beagle's mysterious new project. Which, of course, is the Atwater scheme, which Bush has entrusted to a major Hollywood producer. Beinhart's ( No One Rides for Free ) way-out plot is somewhat confused by a mix of first- and third-person narrative, and his extensive footnotes, sometimes dead-serious sourcing, sometimes saucily satirical, are a controversial touch that may throw some readers. But his imaginary conversations between Bush and Secretary of State Baker, his insights into the way Washington and Hollywood heavies operate and his constant offbeat asides, are often delightfully on target. And perhaps the best tribute one can pay the book is that, wacky as the thesis seems, it makes more sense than the actual war itself, as a lengthy epilogue reminds us."


http://search.barnesandnoble.com/booksearch/isbninquiry.asp?z=y&isbn=0345366638

[Generator]

125. No the Republicans caused Bin Laden to go free

by worrying about Clinton's sex life. If they weren't such DEATH LOVERS instead of LOVE LOVERS, 9/11 would have never happened. It's all the puritan, Republican, right wingers fault. Every one that died that day is the responsibility of those that pursued Clinton. I guess some could say Barbara Olson got her "just deserts." Enough. WE have had enough propaganda from the other side without getting it from our own.

And I am not a big Bill Clinton fan. I think he dead weaken himself. But the one thing he did DO well and that Bush were and are total SHIT at is fighting terrorism. Your post has no place on Democratic Underground.

[LaPera]

128. GET REAL!!! When has a simple blow job EVER interfered in ones life

and decisions?

Yours?

Clinton was/is a brilliant man and politician on task...A five-ten minute blow job wasn't going to keep him from task...No matter how much republican rhetoric you read and believe...Get fucking real and come back into the universe. No amount of republican bullshit can convince any sane person otherwise...It was politics to distort & destroy the Democratic Clinton, yet, the master was NOT going to allow it to interfere with our nations priorities.

And he did not! All the more reason why the republicans despise him.

Cuz now they are down to using & lying about Osama.............

[Bluebear]

129. Yes, this is CRUCIAL to point out now, before the elections and all. nt

[MiniMe]

130. Um, no. The BJ didn't interfere, the impeachment didn't even really

interfere. Clinton told them to not worry about him and to go after the terrorists. What the problem was is that his actions were touted by the usual cast of characters as being about Monica instead of terror.

[LaPera]

137. So common............

STILL, it's the big "R" - Rhetoric!

[LaPera]

131. .......and using and lying, knowing there' always scapegoat Clinton....

To blame & hate and hold their fascist (do nothing but fuck over the workers) majority in November. FEAR!

The same disgusting, lying, greedy, evil Republicans we all know and .........................................

FEAR! FEAR! FEAR!

[upi402]

132. give me a blow job

over 'war for-profit' anyday...

[Trajan]

133. I was very angry ...

About how careless he was with OUR future ....

We had so much to lose by his philandering .... He placed OUR goals in jeopardy .. selfishly ....

By the same token : It was the selfrighteous condemnation by hypocritical rightists that interfered with the WH with their ridiculous bloviating about White Water and the like ....

Nevertheless ... Clinton COULD (and should) have waited .....

[Malikshah]

134. Wow---as if no other politician has ever had illicit relations....

Sorry--this dog won't hunt.

The GOP smear and witch hunt are what wasted our time and hampered Clinton's efforts.

Try again.

[fujiyama]

136. If you thought the bombing of Afghanistan and Sudan under Clinton

were "Wag the Dog" scenerios, then you really weren't on top of the news at that time.

The bombings were a direct result of the embassy bombings in Kenya and Tanzania. Bin Laden soon issued threats to kill other Americans soon after the bombings as well. It's funny to hear republicans talk about Dems "politicizing the war on terror", because at the time the sexually repressed fuckers cared only about Clinton's cock. Terrorism was "exagerrated by the administration".

The bombing of Iraq and "Desert Fox" could arguably have been called a distraction the day he was testifying. I personally think Clinton has been wrong about Iraq all along, including during his own presidency, but this idea that him getting blowjobs somehow distracted him from real issues is ridiculous.

The only thing that was a distraction was the republicans and their ability to squander 40 million dollars on investigating his penis and its actions. Of course, at the same time, after 9/11, we have less than a fourth of that allocated to investigating it.

[hedgehog]

156. Again, the problem is not that Clinton did the right thing for the

right reason. In retrospect, we can all see that he was on the right track. The problem is that because he was under attack every day by self righteous hypocrites over something he did, a lot of people thought he was doing the wrong thing for the wrong reasons. If nothing else, he gave the right wing a story that they dragged out for years. I doubt very many people remember his actions against terrorism, but everybody remembers Monica! Instead of talking about terrorism or global warming during the 2000 campaign, the MSM was discussing whether Gore had distanced himself enough from Clinton. Yes, it was absolutely stupid and meaningless, but Bill is the one who gave them the story.

[WinkyDink]

139. And Bush's IQ interferes with HIS.

You thought it was "Wag the Dog"?

You've taken a wrong turn. This board is for Democrats.

[KingFlorez]

145. There's a place where you can go with that nonsense

And it's not here

[Cleita]

146. I don't think Monica was distracting him but the investigation

was because he had to work on his defense, meeting with lawyers, etc., time he should have used for governing the country. However, those who were attacking him were working full time on bringing him down and not working at what they were elected to do. I think Clinton showed amazing grace under pressure even if he did lie about it.

[newspeak]

149. I hate to say it

but those in the Republican Congress did everything they could to make Clinton ineffectual. I have my beef with some of the bills Clinton passed, but I do know a "wag the dog" when I see it. They left no stone unturned to oust him--come on, 24/7 media blitz on a BJ? Starr used our taxpaying money to find any kind of dirt he could find or create. Remember the woman who was put in jail because she refused to lie--they attempted to coerce her, to make up lies on Clinton. Remember the cops in Arkansas who were bribed? And, the media was complicit all the way!!! I hate to say it but it was a "con job" from the get go.

[notadmblnd]

150. if clinton had told people it was none of their business

that it was between him and his wife, he wouldn't have left himself open for attack. Lying about it it was what got him into trouble. As for the exaggerated terrorist threat, what do you think about it now?

[MUSTANG_2004]

152. Not an option

It was when he was giving evidence for the Paula Jones trial that he was asked about it. "It's none of your business" wasn't one of his possible choices.

[newspeak]

153. Let's see in that time period with a repuke congress

attacking Clinton on anything, anything they could find to make him ineffectual. Clinton sent to Congress legislation to tighten airport security, voted down; sent legislation to track terrorist funding, voted down; sent legislation to track explosives used by terrorists, voted down. Gee, the congress must have voted down all those bills because of Clinton's BJ. The Republican Congress with a complicit media was looking for anything, I believe even if they had to create it, to make Clinton ineffectual. Who cares about the fekkin BJ, even if he was forced to lie about it (it shouldn't have gotten that far); we have an administration that lies to us all of the time now, and the lies they have told us have left dead bodies in the wake. So tell me, whose lies have been more damaging, Clinton's or this administration's?

[notadmblnd]

154. I know he was blocked, so he can't be blamed for that.

This is what we need to keep reminding these people of. That congress was controlled by that Newt creature at the time and republicans didn't think investing resources in the fight against terrorism was worth their time. Remember, in their minds the threat was exaggerated.

[hedgehog]

157. He was blocked again and again and again.

I always thought he folded faster than a wet tissue, but I'm willing to set that aside for this discussion. Think of a quarterback who gets suspended for being at a party where drinking was going on. The quarterback wasn't drinking, so he didn't do anything wrong. He can't help his team though, because he's been benched. Fidelity to marital vows may be a personal thing, but it is a fact of current American life that it's an unwritten requirement for high office. That may be stupid, but there it is. Nelson Rockefeller and Gary Hart both took themselves out of the running because they did something and they got caught. Clinton knew he was being hunted, he knew he had barely gotten through the primaries because of accusations of sexual improprieties, he did something stupid, he got caught and then he lied about it. When he needed to be able to speak to the country about a growing danger, no one could hear him over the background noise of the right wing.

[notadmblnd]

158. but that's my point, Clinton didnt' create the hubub.

If it hadn't been the Monica thing, it would have been something else. Hell, if they had caught bill having sex with Hillary, they'd have found a way to demean that. Remember the story where they took a vacation and the published photos of them dancing on the beach? As I recall that was demeaned by the repubs too. He was damned either way if he refused to go along with their program. I believe the Monica incident was his punishment for not going along with the PNAC. If he had done as he was told, no one would know the name to this day. I also think the only reason they allowed him to win the election to begin with was because he promised them NAFTA

[hedgehog]

159. When you're already in a fight, that's not the time to tie your

hands behind your back. I think too many of us have defended Clinton so long from baseless and/or stupid attacks that we never noticed the things he was going along with like NAFTA and Welfare Reform. If a Republican had pushed those items through, we would have been screaming. For me, Monica was the last straw. I didn't care about his personal life, I still don't. What I care about is that he handed something to the Republicans that they are still hitting us over the head with. Whitewater never mattered a bit. People's eyes glazed over whenever someone tried to explain what he supposedly did. But sex is something even teenagers understand! It's as if Clinton left the keys in a car that the Republicans stole and crashed. Yeah, they're the ones at fault but it wouldn't have happened if he'd been more responsible.

[B Calm]

161. President Clinton’s Legacy: A brave man that

wouldn’t resign, but instead stood up and stared into the face of vindictive, corrupt, hypocritical, political, right-wing smear mongers who tried and failed to undermine democracy.