Clinton’s
“Mistake”
December 16, 1999
The
time-honored custom of killing the bearer of bad news has been
slightly modified by modern civilization. So though the Democrats
can’t take Linda Tripp out and lynch her, they are doing the next
best thing: Maryland’s Democratic state prosecutor, Stephen
Montanarelli, is prosecuting her for illegally taping her phone calls with
Monica Lewinsky.
Thanks to Mrs. Tripp, we know that Bill
Clinton not only got his jollies in the Oval Office but committed and
encouraged perjury to cover up the fact, which would otherwise have
become evidence in Paula Jones’s sexual harassment suit. This
revelation led to others, as Kathleen Willey reluctantly testified that
Clinton had also groped her in the Oval Office and Juanita Broaddrick, in
obvious anguish, told an interviewer that Clinton, as attorney general of
Arkansas, had raped her.
Clinton’s allies —
Democrats, liberals, feminists — are the sort of people who consider
sexual harassment endemic in American society, a problem so grave and
urgent that it must be fought with all the resources of government. They
also assume that the culprits are most likely to be their ideological
opponents, so they were ready to credit Anita Hill’s charges against
Clarence Thomas. Hillary Clinton even praised Miss Hill for raising the
nation’s consciousness about the problem.
So the Clintonites were caught
off-balance when their own man was accused. Instead of adhering to their own
teaching that harassers and rapists can be found anywhere, and that
women who bring charges deserve to be taken seriously, they switched to
an ad hoc pro-Clinton line: Paula Jones was “trailer trash,”
seeking only money. And when the Monica story exploded, they were still
willing to accept Clinton’s denials.
Thanks to the infamous dress, Clinton was forced to make a vague
retraction of his denials, referring even questions about the rape charge
to his lawyers. His supporters could no longer deny that he committed
such deeds; there is no such thing as a character witness for Bill Clinton,
unless you count the corpulent cretin Larry Flynt. They merely said, in
chorus, that sexual crimes and perjury about them didn’t
“rise to the level” of impeachable offenses. Nor did they
repudiate such Clinton hatchet men as James Carville and Bob Bennett,
who were clearly following the boss’s instructions.
The moral indignation that Clinton
escaped was redirected, with vindictive fury, to Linda Tripp and Kenneth
Starr. It was forgivable to commit Clinton’s crimes and betrayals,
but unforgivable to expose them. Linda Tripp had “stabbed her friend
in the back,” as Clinton himself put it, after stabbing that same
friend in the back by circulating the shameless lie that she was a
“stalker.”
Even Monica seems to want to avenge
herself on Mrs. Tripp for betraying confidences rather than on the
contemptible rat who tried to scapegoat her with slanders. Clinton also
betrayed his family and those among his supporters who were gullible
enough to believe his facile denials.
Forgiveness? As Shakespeare says,
“May one be pardoned and retain the offense?” Clinton still
enjoys the fruits of his crimes, chiefly the presidency. And his circle of
friends hasn’t shrunk appreciably; as soon as he partially admitted
that his behavior with Miss Lewinsky was “not appropriate,”
with a few other glib gestures of contrition, those Democrats who had
previously professed to believe in his innocence instantly extended mercy
and plenary indulgence. Forgiving Tripp and Starr was another matter.
So now the Maryland state prosecutor has
made himself one more accessory after the fact to Clinton’s crimes
by bringing the majesty of the law to bear against Linda Tripp. If only she
had informed on a Republican!
Is there no justice? Yes, there is.
Clinton’s presidency will be remembered as the apotheosis of white
trash — an unprecedented defilement of the nation’s highest
office. He is still struggling to leave a “legacy” that will
supersede the memory of his character, but it can’t be done. Instead
of acknowledging that character, he speaks of having made “a
mistake” — clearly hoping to equate a long record of treachery
and public corruption with a single, isolated act.
Asked whether he believes Clinton raped
Mrs. Broaddrick, Vice President Gore could only stammer about
“mistakes made in his personal life.” Even he thinks Clinton
is capable of such a “mistake.”
Joseph Sobran
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