It will be interesting to observe the Village black-balling of Taylor Branch’s new book about Bill Clinton. Evan Thomas sets the tone (bold mine):
Clinton was not wrong to be frustrated or to believe that the single greatest mistake of his administration (against the advice of the first lady) was to appoint a special prosecutor to look into Whitewater. He also had the canny insight that Whitewater served as a proxy for what really interested reporters: those rumors of “bimbo eruptions” floated by political enemies and less-than-reliable state troopers.
Given all that, how could Clinton have been so foolish as to take up with a White House intern just as he was turning back the tide of Gingrichism in the fall of 1995? The reader longs for some insight, some Shakespearean narrative to help explain Clinton’s self-destructive recklessness. But Branch does not deliver; he merely reports that Clinton said he “just cracked.” Branch seems almost too embarrassed to try to find out more. Partly because Clinton did not summon him for several months as the Lewinsky scandal was breaking in the winter of 1998, Branch skips past the drama of the darkest days, when Clinton’s presidency seemed to hang in the balance.
Shorter Evan Thomas: Taylor Branch should have asked more detailed questions about the blowjobs.
Start learning Mandarin, people.
Update. Commenter Martin thinks I’ve got it wrong:
It’s “Shorter Evan Thomas: Taylor Branch should have made shit up to deliver our Shakepearean narrative about the blowjobs.”
Midnight Marauder
I sense the makings of a new tag here…
BDeevDad
Ni Hao. Xie Xie.
DougJ
I sense the makings of a new tag here…
Yeah, I was thinking the same thing. But I think I might add “Policy is hard, let’s go teabagging” first.
Warren Terra
There’s a fair bit of overlap with the “We Are All Mayans Now” tag … both are significantly about our country being dragged down the plughole by a bunch of people in public life, with actual responsibilities, who don’t take their jobs (whether they’re governing, legislating, informing the public about the actual issues, or whatever) seriously.
LosGatosCA
Thinking can hurt your head
madmommy
Heh, I’m ahead of the curve on this one. My kid watches a cartoon show that teaches Mandarin every morning.
I now know several words, but they’re geared more towards the kindergarten set. Still, it’s a start, right?
Polish the Guillotines
I caught most of Fresh Air when Branch was on. Most definitely worth a listen. Here’s the link.
Funny they should key in on Lewinsky rather than, say, the fact that the GOP was less concerned with attacking Bin Laden and Al Queda than attacking Clinton.
Oh, wait — I forgot: Blow jobs are a direct threat to national security.
Martin
I think you misassess. It’s not “Shorter Evan Thomas: Taylor Branch should have asked more detailed questions about the blowjobs.”
It’s “Shorter Evan Thomas: Taylor Branch should have made shit up to deliver our Shakepearean narrative about the blowjobs.”
They still just want the juicy story, true or not.
BDeevDad
@madmommy: Ni Hao, Kai-Lan is a welcome respite from the Kindergarten Spanish of Dora the Explorer.
madmommy
@BDeevDad:
Ah, a fellow traveler!
He’ll watch Dora, but prefers Diego, being the manly kindergartener that he is.
Balconesfault
From a description of Victorian era journalists:
The Dangerman
My first time through the post, I read it as “the reader’s dong”; somehow, it fits.
+ ?
gocart mozart
No need to play the royalty card DougJ.
DougJ
No need to play the royalty card DougJ.
Fixed.
Nellcote
Blitzer was interviewing Branch today and all he asked about was Lewinsky. Sometimes you just want to reach through the teevee screen and shake them whilst screaming “WTF???”
Midnight Marauder
@Warren Terra:
True, but I think there’s a substantial enough difference between the two. The “Mayans” tag (at least IMHO) refers to the coming Wingnut Event Horizon apocalypse this country is being dragged towards more and more these days; whereas “Start learning Mandarin” is more focused on the waning last days of the USA as the preeminent superpower in the world today, and the supposed rise of the Chinese to fill that void.
Just my take.
+4
Warren Terra
Someone probably ought to point out to these jokers that the Wikipedia entry on Clinton’s Presidency contains more than 4000 words, of which fewer than 300 are about the Lewinsky scandal. Now, I’m sure that if the wingers figure that out, they’ll add a bunch more Lewinsky, but maybe – just maybe – the other 3700 words might contain something interesting to ask about.
Jason Bylinowski
In fairness to Thomas, I was kinda hoping for some insight into that period myself, but I have the sense to know that sometimes there just isn’t any grand rationale for things, whether right or wrong. As a matter of fact, it happens to me all the time. It just dawned on me the other day that I’ve been wasting the past nine months writing music when I should have been at least dividing that time up with my MCSE study time (this is a networking certification and a good one to have), but no, I sabotaged myself almost without even realizing it and now I have so much more to do before I can schedule the test. If I had stuick with the plan I’d be done by now, people. so what’s my grand excuse? Nada. I like to waste time and forget about my family goals, I guess. Oh well. Now I’m depressed but at least I’m on the wagon again.
Jason Bylinowski
@madmommy: Diego Luna
/non-sequitor
C Nelson Reilly
@Midnight Marauder:
You’re gonna miss the Rapture if you keep talkin’ like that
jl
People want Shakespearean narratives about Clinton’s trailer trash escapade? Huh? Then why not an in depth analysis of Jimmy Swaggart’s fall from grace.
Gawwd dang, I guess if you cross Faulkner and Mark Twain, that is about as close as you’ll get. But it got me to thinking about what sort of Shakespearean narrative would be appropriate for the Village Idiot audience. Here is what popped up first on a Yahoo Quotes for ‘Shakespeare, lechery”:
Quote:
“Lechery, lechery, still wars and lechery. Nothing else holds fashion.”
Author: Shakespeare, William
Categories: lechery; war
Attribution: William Shakespeare (1564–1616), British dramatist, poet. Thersites, in Troilus and Cressida, act 5, sc. 2, l. 194-5.
I think Troilus and Cressida, is a pretty darn good fit, if we could find a Basic English version. The whole rancid atmosphere fits those rancid retro snerds.
Ulysses’ speech on Fate/Fortune’s purse would do them good, to boot, except they probably would think it is very wise advice for moral boys with an eye on the main chance.
As to whether we need a serious in depth analysis of the episode, I for myself do not. Just like I do not particularly need one about Ike’s or Bush I’s or JFK’s or LBJ’s affairs. At least we do not have film of the President balling a meter maid in public, which was a Berlusconi prank. That one is easy: Falstaff getting dumped in the river in a basket.
Mike
Balconesfault
Speaking of blowjobs…
Splitting Image
Modern Republicans would probably find Titus Andronicus more their speed. It’s more violent, is based entirely on revenge, and involves a mixed-race baby being spirited off to safety, an uprising against a foreign usurper, and an evil Moor.
Also, oddly enough, pie.
TenguPhule
Every blowjob given to a Democrat is one that’s not being given to a Republican. And that is a crime of the highest order (to Republicans).
TenguPhule
The more things change….
TenguPhule
At this point, can Balloon Juice just combine these tags into “Asshole Media” to save space?
JackieBinAZ
@madmommy: My oldest son was born when I was stationed in Germany and German was his first language. At times, I needed the dictionary just to understand what he was saying. But by the time I left, I’d gotten to the point where I could speak it directly without translating from English in my head first. I lost it all really fast though. I don’t know if that’s a function of learning it the way babies do, or just from lack of use. My son can’t speak it any more either, but when he does accents, he can still nail the umlaut and gets the guttural sounds without sounding like he’s trying to hack up a loogie.
Napoleon
In case you think the media has just in the last 15 years lost their minds, last night I am reading Clarke’s book “The Last Campaign” about RFK’s run for the presidency in ’68. The part I am on is MLK, Jr being murdered in Memphis with RFK speaking that night to a largely black crowd in Indy, where no rioting occurred unlike any other major city (there were riots in nearly 120 cities that night). The next morning he has an interview with Jack Paar who ask Bobby “Do you think the White House is big enough for 10 children?”
RFK’s response “Do you think that is going to be my biggest problem?”
SiubhanDuinne
@Polish the Guillotines
I also heard that Fresh Air interview with Taylor Branch, and was riveted. Very luckily, I am going to meet/hear him in person in a week or so when he addresses an organization I belong to. The usual format is a prepared talk of 20-25 minutes followed by Q&A. It will be interesting to hear not only what TB selects to concentrate on but also what a roomful of (mostly) journalists thinks is important to ask him. Anything interesting emerges, I’ll post to BJ.
EnderWiggin
@SiubhanDuinne:
I also thought that interview was pretty good, but most of her’s are. I might try to get around to the book, but I currently (and always) have quite a backlog.
The question I would like asked is ‘Did Clinton seem concerned about terrorism, and in what way and to what degree?’.
SiubhanDuinne
@EnderWiggin: I will be glad to submit that question if Branch doesn’t cover it in his prepared remarks.
Agree with you about Fresh Air. Terry Gross is a wonderful interviewer. Even when the guest or subject matter is someone or something I would normally avoid or at least ignore, on FA it’s almost always worth hanging around.
Also, I hear you about the books piling up. I will be buying a copy of Branch’s book at the press club event on the 14th, which he will autograph. I’m genuinely looking forward to reading it but it’s just going to have to wait patiently in the TBR heap for a little while.
Balconesfault
I’d like to ask “did Clinton ever understand while as President how quickly all the gains we’d made as a nation under him could be pissed away?”
SiubhanDuinne
@Balconesfault: Well, IANTB but I have to think Clinton isn’t even capable of imagining how fast and thoroughly all the gains under his administration would be or could be undone. Why would he bother in the first place? I get (I think) that your comment was written with a degree of facetiousness but it’s a good, serious point. I’d love to hear an unguarded Clinton talk candidly about the way the Dubya-Darth years unfolded, or even better, contemporaneous comments or journals.
ironranger
@LosGatosCA:
Which is why most conservatives avoid it like the plague.
Fleem
@BDeevDad:
Hello, broccoli?
geg6
@SiubhanDuinne:
I’d like to know what ol’ Bubba can tell us about what they learned about domestic terrorism from the Oklahoma City bombing and whether he thinks we are better prepared for ferreting out these groups who hate America and Americans today. I believe, personally, that this is the greatest danger to the country right now. Well, that and our idiot media who enable them. In fact, I wonder if Bill sees a connection between the media and domestic terrorists since, IMHO, the media enables the creation of the nutjobs.
geg6
By the way, Alex Koppelman has a terrific profile of my new boyfriend, Alan Grayson, over at the War Room at Salon:
http://www.salon.com/politics/war_room/feature/2009/10/02/grayson/
WereBear
@geg6: A most excellent point!
I thought terrorism was our Priority One!
No matter who’s doin’ the “terrerizing.”
I think that now is the time to come down on those right wing groups and remind everyone what is the difference between principled dissent and terrorism.
SiubhanDuinne
@geg6: Another excellent and thought-provoking question. My guess (partly from the careful way he handled a couple of Terry Gross’ questions) is that Branch will be meticulous about NOT speculating or guessing what Clinton’s views are on any given subject, but will limit his comments to what Clinton said at the time. So if they talked about OKC and domestic terrorism, I think he’ll report those conversations. But (without having read the book yet, so I don’t know) Clinton’s views on the media enabling terrorists and extreme behaviour? — I kind of doubt it. I think he talked about the VRWC trying to take him down but maybe not much beyond that. Anyhow, it would be extremely interesting and insightful to know his thoughts on this.
I hadn’t really intended to serve as a conduit for a lot of questions — for one thing, I won’t have the opportunity to ask more than one and for another, there’s no guarantee I’ll even be selected to ask a question at all — but I will carefully compile all the issues BJ-ers mention as things they would like to find out about and see if there’s some way I can combine them in a portmanteau question.
The press club event isn’t until the 14th of October, so we have a little time.
SiubhanDuinne
@geg6: I wish the press club would bring Grayson as a guest soon! He hasn’t written a book AFAIK but he sure has been a newsmaker lately. I would go see him in a heartbeat.
geg6
@SiubhanDuinne:
I want Grayson on my teevee night and day. He is the first Dem I can remember in ages who talks the way I would if I were a congresscritter.
bellatrys
@Splitting Image:
You are EBOL. Have an internet!
Fleem
@geg6:
I like Alan Grayson a lot. We need more Dems to take his approach. Hyperbolic yet true soundbites rock.
However, that particular article pissed me off tremendously.
It treats Grayson’s hyperbole on the House floor as somehow equivalent to Joe Wilson yelling at the president. Blech blech blech blech. False equivalency much?
But those wacky lefty DFHs sure do think he’s nifty.
Joey Maloney
@Napoleon:
This is what I find most irritating – why don’t interviewees smack down the nonsense more often? Why do they treat stupid questions seriously? Politicians are so desperately afraid of getting on the wrong side of the Village, I guess, and outsiders are too often dazzled by the tv lights, literally or figuratively, but I can’t help feeling that the quality of journamalism would improve if its practitioners were called out right then and there when they said something stupid. Humiliation can be a spur to better performance.
Kirk Spencer
@madmommy: (late to the thread) Different things work for different people, but provided you’re willing to ignore the embarrassment the most generally effective technique is to get a lot of ‘read-along’ children’s books. Not just translations of favorites (because that gets you into traps where ‘this word doesn’t translate well’) but children’s stories from that culture.
Don’t worry about the meaning, not with the tales for toddlers. The pictures are plenty. Just read along till you’re comfortable – till you can read out loud without the audio playing. Then go to the early school books: kindergarten to maybe second grade. It’s harder to find such with audio so you’re going to have to work at figuring some of it out yourself. It’s no more (and equally as) difficult for you than it is for children of that age.
Once you’ve passed that, blast into children’s books for primary school – up to fifth grade or so. You’re brushing against Hardy Boys/Nancy Drew or Harry Potter by the time you’re done. (If you can find a series you like – at every stage – it will help due to consistency over the different tales. Intermittent reinforcement is a wonderful thing.)
Somewhere in here start picking up “old favorites” of adult reading. Whether it’s magazines you read every week/month or it’s favorite fiction you’ve read the print off of, or it’s non-fiction in which you have a SERIOUS interest (I often pick up cook-books, here), you’ll polish the understanding you’ve already gained.
But the really interesting thing is that you can get by extremely well with a 5th grade vocabulary.
The Grand Panjandrum
Shocking. A Villager wants to write about more blowjobs. Shockingly shocking …
linda
@geg6:
i don’t know how this guy wasn’t on my radar … lol:
Then, not long after he took office, he got some attention for telling a writer for the Huffington Post, “Rush Limbaugh is a has-been hypocrite loser, who craves attention. His right-wing lunacy sounds like Mikhail Gorbachev, extolling the virtues of communism. Limbaugh actually was more lucid when he was a drug addict. If America ever did 1% of what he wanted us to do, then we’d all need pain killers.”
geg6
@linda:
I know. He says stuff like that all the time. That’s why I fell in love with him.
ironranger
@geg6:
I followed the link to Grayson on birther Alex Jones show. Jones was quite laudatory when he introduced Grayson which surprised me a bit. Now I’m wondering how Jones’ regular listeners reacted to his praise of a Democrat going after contractors’ frauds of the gov’t.
Fulcanelli
@geg6: OT, but…
You should check Alan Grayson’s website if you haven’t yet. He’s a pistol, no doubt and I look forward to seeing who gets wet from the waves he’s making. He got one gag order lifted on war profiteer fraud and took Custer/Battles down and that’s whet his appetite, I’ll bet.
Apparently my congress critter Jim Langevin (D-Doormat) may be facing a Dem primary challenge here in RI, which I welcome enthusiastically. His biggest asset is that he’s not an R, other than that he’s like a squirrel foraging around for crumbs to fund little projects that endear the elderly and downtrodden to him, but he’s politically invisible on the big issues, like our Senator Reed.
The litmus test for this primary challenger is what she thinks of Grayson and what our Senator Whitehouse has done. If she balks, I’ll be telling her right to her face to stay on the porch with the other lap dogs, ’cause there’s enough Dem weenies in congress.
kay
I don’t think Clinton needs redemption or absolution by media. It isn’t offered here. The writer still isn’t satisfied. He wants another pound of flesh, apparently. He’s looking for some epic suffering, by Bill or (better!) Hillary Clinton.
I know media were absolutely riveted by Clinton’s affair with Monica Lewinsky, and have stubbornly refused to offer absolution for his monumental crime, but I think the country judged Clinton on the sum total of his work long ago without waiting for media to announce he was morally rehabilitated.
Clinton’s work has held up a lot better than media’s work, actually. Everyone now admits Whitewater was a whole bunch of nothing, and media pursued that, stupidly and inexplicably, for years, while Clinton’s work as President during that years-long witch hunt looks solid, in retrospect.
SiubhanDuinne
linda, geg6, Fleem: I’m with you, I could listen to him all day long. He personifies the phrase “speaking truth to power” and I find it wonderfully bracing.
Fulcanelli
@SiubhanDuinne: You should have a look at his story and the videos on his site if you haven’t yet.
Solid polished brass ones he has, no surprise he grew up a poor kid from Brooklyn. No surprise at all…
Fulcanelli
@SiubhanDuinne: Could this be the coming of… The Anti-Newt?
kay
@The Grand Panjandrum:
WTF do they want from the Clintons? If anyone is owed an explanation, shouldn’t it be coming from these morons to Americans, for getting Whitewater so completely wrong, and putting us all through that?
I just love how the writer coyly mentions that Whitewater might have been a tad overplayed, then immediately launches into blaming Bill Clinton for agreeing to a special prosecutor.
Where did the crazed ( and ultimately erroneous) speculation on Whitewater come from? From them. How did they think this was going to end? Knowing what we know about Republicans, they really thought it was going to end at an investigation into the land deal? Come on.
aimai
Martin’s point is so good it deserves to be said over and over again. He nails it–the interviewer wants Branch and Clinton to satisfy his prurient porn desires *and to do so* using the cover of a high art form so he (and we) can pretend it isn’t porn. Its the voyeur’s and frotteur’s equivalent of the porn actress saying that stripping was “authentic” and “artistically necessary” to the role. Yah, Shakespeare talked about a lot of stuff and used big words but, oddly enough, mere sexual frisson wasn’t the goal of Hamlet.
aimai
Citizen_X
Jeebus. We need new metaphors. This isn’t rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic, it’s continuing to interrogate people about the stolen strawberries on the Titanic.
asiangrrlMN
@madmommy: Considering the discourse in our media, I think you are ahead of the curve.
Wo ai ni! But, that’s not used very often in political discourse, so forget it. Wo bu hua shuo Zhongguo hua. Je pai say. That will work.
P.S. Clinton–she was an intern, and he did it in the Oval Office. Those two things bother me. Other than that, no, I don’t give a shit, and it wasn’t an impeachable offense.
aimai
57
Citizen_X
Even better!
SiubhanDuinne
@Fulcanelli 9:39 and 9:40 am
“The anti-Newt” — love it! FSM knows we need one, badly, and Grayson seems to be just the ticket.
Haven’t looked at his web site yet but I will. Thanks for the reminder.
Bullsmith
See Clinton sullied the dignity of the office. Bush, on the other hand, sullied the whole nation. So that’s okay.
Janet Strange
@SiubhanDuinne: Late to the thread, but if you check back – I second the suggestion of a question about terrorism. My impression is that Clinton was trying to get Congress to take the threat of terrorism more seriously, but was accused on “wagging the dog” on the issue to try to distract Congress from the truly important matter of impeachment over a blow job.
Didn’t Reno try to get Congress to authorize getting FISA warrants (quaint idea, getting warrants and all) on particular suspected terrorists rather than being limited to getting the warrant on a particular phone number since said suspected terrorists were thought to have figured that out and were possibly buying cheap cell phones and then buying another one (with a new phone number) frequently to avoid phone taps? And was denied that authority because of right-wing hysteria over FISA warrants being such a horrible abuse of our privacy?
Bob In Pacifica
Why didn’t the press ask more questions about Jeff Gannon’s blowjobs? Or his overnights at the White House?
gnomedad
@BDeevDad:
我也说一点儿中文.
MBunge
I’m sure when John Edwards reads this thread he will weep bitter tears and exclaim, “Why, oh why couldn’t I have cheated on my wife AFTER winning the Presidency?”
Mike
SiubhanDuinne
@Janet Strange
Yes, that’s my general recollection too — and I will definitely ask (at least, will be prepared to ask, if I am called on) the Terrorism Question. What I am not sure of is the extent to which Clinton discussed this with Taylor Branch, especially if there was a long hiatus in their conversations during much of the Lewinsky-impeachment period — and my sense of Branch is that he is not prepared to speak for Clinton or speculate about what Clinton thought about anything unless it was actually part of their conversations.
BTW for anyone in the Atlanta area, I heard fleetingly that Branch is also going to do a public appearance at the Atlanta History Center, I believe that evening (14 October) or maybe the night before. Not sure if it costs but I think I heard that reservations are required. The thing I’m going to (Atlanta Press Club) is membership and members’ guests.
bryan
But Branch does not deliver; he merely reports that Clinton said:
Blow, interns, and their cracked cheeks! bondage! blow!
You catamines and whores with cane, spout
Till you have drench’d our steeples, drown’d the cocks!
You sulphurous and cigar-lighting fires,
Vaunt-couriers to oak-cleaving penii,
Singe my silvery head! And thou, all-shaking rumpshaker,
Smite flat the thick rotundity o’ the backends of Monica!
Crack nature’s moulds, and semens spill at once,
That make me a grateful man!
which he couldn’t make heads or tails of, but only a bit of both.
Jay C
Not that I don’t agree wholeheartedly about most of the Bill Clinton “scandals” being composed mainly of reeking bullshit (which should have been apparent even at the time), and our media’s sick acquiescence in “pursuing” them; they weren’t totally founded on fantasy. Face it, Bill Clinton was, and had been for years, a notorious horndog; and moreover, one with a fairly lax record at keeping the “bimbo eruptions” out of the press. The main difference was, that as President, he was on a bigger – and more-widely-scrutinized – stage. After all, given the general attitude of the press in this country, what did he (or anyone) think would be the better hook for a readings/ratings-garnering story?
“President’s Role Examined in Arkansas Land Deal” or
“President Fucks Intern in White House” ?
We sensationalize, you decide….
Polish the Guillotines
@SiubhanDuinne: Wow, that’s cool. Please do report.
Mike G
Face it, Bill Clinton was, and had been for years, a notorious horndog
But why should this be news on any level outside the celebrity-scandal circuit?
These were consenting adults, nothing illegal (Larry Craig), no national security risk (Profumo), no manipulation of legislation or use of public money (Ensign) and he wasn’t neglecting his official duties (Sanford). Neither was there any hypocrisy angle versus his policies (Republican moralizing).
Not admirable conduct, but really of no more relevance than whoever Mel Gibson, Angelina Jolie or any other celebrity is banging in their private life.
This entire thing was a ginned up hit job by the Repig morality police, and their complicit media tools.
I’d like to hear just one Repig admit that the several years of dragging the country through this prudish manufactured bullshit impacted the Clinton Administration’s anti-terrorism efforts in the years before 9/11. We’ll never know if this would have made a difference.
They weren’t just playing their stupid, selfish political games, they were hurting the government’s ability to serve the country. They never gave a shit because for them, government is never supposed to serve the country, it’s just a vehicle to funnel money and contracts to their cronies and a tool of those in power.
tess
Branch is speaking at the Atlanta History Center on Tuesday, October 13, 8pm. Reservations required, $5 for members, $10 for non-members.
http://www.atlantahistorycenter.com/Page.asp?id=97&eventid=123
Scamp Dog
I tried posting this last night; let’s see if it takes this time.
I think Thomas deserves a small bit of credit for tiptoeing up to the media’s responsibility:
He loses out on full credit because of saying “seems excessive in retrospect” instead “was thoroughly irresponsible”.