Salon | Letters to the editor

_______________ THE CLINTON CRISIS (01/22-23/98)

The litany of presidents in my lifetime reads like this: a dead president; a war criminal president; a paranoid-run-out-of-office president; an unelected president; an ineffectual president; a figurehead-for-the-fringe-right president; a lackluster rich boy president. Have I left anyone out? And now this: a president who gives a whole new meaning to the term "Tricky Dick." Richard Nixon may have handed them a sword. Clinton's sword has handed them his office.
While I doubt anyone in the White House has yet had courage to mention the word "resignation," surely the thought has already crossed the president's mind. By the time Monica Lewinsky testifies to their involvement, and Kenneth Starr corroborates it with subpoenaed records, President Clinton should have long since decided exactly how to phrase "I quit."
What's next? The Wooden Indian president? Vice President Gore might as well start rehearsing that oath of office right now.
Pretty sad, isn't it? Hard to believe that here at the end of the century, we are once again hearing the words "impeachment" and "resignation." I, for one, am resigned, though. I'm resigned to getting the hell out of this country while the getting's good. I've had about all of this I care for.
-- Doug Thacker
Perhaps Nixon's greatest legacy in his malfeasance was the creation of the "Tear Apart the President" game. Thank you, Dick. The fact that Congress has no time to consider treaties, confirm appointments or pass a budget on time seems to have no bearing on what our politicians do. Congress' job is to impeach the chief executive from the moment he is sworn in.
Perhaps when we stake him out on the Ellipse and his heart, liver and lungs are ripped to shreds by pit bulls while Newt and Trent paint their faces with his blood, Republicans be avenged. For the sin of being a boomer and beating at the polls clueless, spinless and out-of-touch Cold Warriors Bush and Dole (please release your dead grip from our country, the Cold War is over), Bill must be punished. Simply for being a Democrat (which I admit is a terrible thing), he must be punished. The audacity!
Perhaps Bill has wised up after five years and said enough is enough. Linda Tripp and Monica Lewinsky are play acting in an elaborate ruse to lead Kenneth Starr down the garden path and expose his total lack of ethics in his pursuit of any "high crimes or misdemeanors" involving the president, resorting to illegal taping just to get "something."
As Clinton intimated in interviews, it is not his position to comment on Starr's behavior but the Bar's. As the tapes and testimony fall apart ("was that really me? I don't think so"), Starr's zealousness to catch Clinton at anything at any cost will undermine all of his work. All of his charges become suspect in light of his charge to make a name for himself and a fat book contract for "Destruction of a Presidency -- How I Did It."
I did not vote for the man but I admired the Republicans' ability to make him look good in the last election cycle.
Where will it stop?
-- John LeCoeur
I'm glad Camille Paglia is a pornography advocate, because portions of her latest column, "Animal House," could have come straight from Penthouse Forum. As grateful as I am to Ms. Paglia for identifying the signs of a woman who's good at oral sex, I hardly think her analysis was scientific enough to take seriously. It seems that if anyone can be accused of having an "Animal House" mentality, it's the author herself.
-- Keith Welch
Bloomington, Ind.
Regarding Camille Paglia's "Animal House" interview and comments on the Doors song "Twentieth Century Fox":
I'm enjoy Ms. Paglia's columns, and certainly would cut her some slack if she wanted to bend the song to fit her literary tack. We all know the slang use of "box," but "plastic"? The sense of "compliant" was not the first that came to mind at the time of the (1967) song, when we were used to "plastic" being prefaced with "cheap"; perhaps "Japanese" got thrown into the middle of this queue of adjectives.
Ms. Paglia writes: "The first time I became aware of that was when I was in college listening to the great Doors song, '20th Century Fox': 'She's got the world locked up inside her plastic box.'"
Perhaps Ms. Paglia will remember other lines in this song: "No tears, no fears/No ruined years, no clocks!"
I thought it was generally accepted that the song was about the Pill.
It all seems so mundane today, so perhaps she will try EXTRA hard to re-create those times and what was going on in terms of a sexual revolution for her younger readers. An extra-long column on this subject would be great, especially if it mixed in some of the anti-Communist hysteria of the time -- and explained the tears/fears/ruined years/clocks.
Some of the best educational experiences seem to come when horrific events are cast in the form of role-playing games, and perhaps someone should try this in sex education sometime -- to take kids back to the '50s. An unplanned pregnancy WAS a BFD back then, and there were lots of impromptu Scandinavian "vacations." Also, there were lots of dead young women, victims of impromptu abortion attempts.
The advent of the birth-control pill was a tremendous revolution, and it well deserved a song. Any good literature, poem or song should have multiple levels of meaning, and I'm sure there's room for many more interpretations, but this is the one EVERYONE I knew was using at the time: Birth control pills came in a plastic box and they liberated women.
Well, maybe -- the early pill was a tad brutal, and as one woman told me: "It works just great. You take them, and you don't want to do ANYTHING!"
-- Brian Converse
Ahh! It's so nice to read the paranoid radical theories of Alex Cockburn again. But when is the inevitable shoe going to drop? When is he going to join forces with the far-right conspiracy theorists? His ideas are just as stupid and far-fetched as theirs.
-- Jim Philips
SALON | Jan. 26, 1998

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_______________ THE CLINTON CRISIS (01/22-23/98)
	The litany of presidents in my lifetime reads like this: a dead president; a war criminal president; a paranoid-run-out-of-office president; an unelected president; an ineffectual president; a figurehead-for-the-fringe-right president; a lackluster rich boy president. Have I left anyone out? And now this: a president who gives a whole new meaning to the term "Tricky Dick." Richard Nixon may have handed them a sword. Clinton's sword has handed them his office. While I doubt anyone in the White House has yet had courage to mention the word "resignation," surely the thought has already crossed the president's mind. By the time Monica Lewinsky testifies to their involvement, and Kenneth Starr corroborates it with subpoenaed records, President Clinton should have long since decided exactly how to phrase "I quit." What's next? The Wooden Indian president? Vice President Gore might as well start rehearsing that oath of office right now. Pretty sad, isn't it? Hard to believe that here at the end of the century, we are once again hearing the words "impeachment" and "resignation." I, for one, am resigned, though. I'm resigned to getting the hell out of this country while the getting's good. I've had about all of this I care for. -- Doug Thacker Perhaps Nixon's greatest legacy in his malfeasance was the creation of the "Tear Apart the President" game. Thank you, Dick. The fact that Congress has no time to consider treaties, confirm appointments or pass a budget on time seems to have no bearing on what our politicians do. Congress' job is to impeach the chief executive from the moment he is sworn in. Perhaps when we stake him out on the Ellipse and his heart, liver and lungs are ripped to shreds by pit bulls while Newt and Trent paint their faces with his blood, Republicans be avenged. For the sin of being a boomer and beating at the polls clueless, spinless and out-of-touch Cold Warriors Bush and Dole (please release your dead grip from our country, the Cold War is over), Bill must be punished. Simply for being a Democrat (which I admit is a terrible thing), he must be punished. The audacity! Perhaps Bill has wised up after five years and said enough is enough. Linda Tripp and Monica Lewinsky are play acting in an elaborate ruse to lead Kenneth Starr down the garden path and expose his total lack of ethics in his pursuit of any "high crimes or misdemeanors" involving the president, resorting to illegal taping just to get "something." As Clinton intimated in interviews, it is not his position to comment on Starr's behavior but the Bar's. As the tapes and testimony fall apart ("was that really me? I don't think so"), Starr's zealousness to catch Clinton at anything at any cost will undermine all of his work. All of his charges become suspect in light of his charge to make a name for himself and a fat book contract for "Destruction of a Presidency -- How I Did It." I did not vote for the man but I admired the Republicans' ability to make him look good in the last election cycle. Where will it stop? -- John LeCoeur I'm glad Camille Paglia is a pornography advocate, because portions of her latest column, "Animal House," could have come straight from Penthouse Forum. As grateful as I am to Ms. Paglia for identifying the signs of a woman who's good at oral sex, I hardly think her analysis was scientific enough to take seriously. It seems that if anyone can be accused of having an "Animal House" mentality, it's the author herself. -- Keith Welch Bloomington, Ind. Regarding Camille Paglia's "Animal House" interview and comments on the Doors song "Twentieth Century Fox": I'm enjoy Ms. Paglia's columns, and certainly would cut her some slack if she wanted to bend the song to fit her literary tack. We all know the slang use of "box," but "plastic"? The sense of "compliant" was not the first that came to mind at the time of the (1967) song, when we were used to "plastic" being prefaced with "cheap"; perhaps "Japanese" got thrown into the middle of this queue of adjectives. Ms. Paglia writes: "The first time I became aware of that was when I was in college listening to the great Doors song, '20th Century Fox': 'She's got the world locked up inside her plastic box.'" Perhaps Ms. Paglia will remember other lines in this song: "No tears, no fears/No ruined years, no clocks!" I thought it was generally accepted that the song was about the Pill. It all seems so mundane today, so perhaps she will try EXTRA hard to re-create those times and what was going on in terms of a sexual revolution for her younger readers. An extra-long column on this subject would be great, especially if it mixed in some of the anti-Communist hysteria of the time -- and explained the tears/fears/ruined years/clocks. Some of the best educational experiences seem to come when horrific events are cast in the form of role-playing games, and perhaps someone should try this in sex education sometime -- to take kids back to the '50s. An unplanned pregnancy WAS a BFD back then, and there were lots of impromptu Scandinavian "vacations." Also, there were lots of dead young women, victims of impromptu abortion attempts. The advent of the birth-control pill was a tremendous revolution, and it well deserved a song. Any good literature, poem or song should have multiple levels of meaning, and I'm sure there's room for many more interpretations, but this is the one EVERYONE I knew was using at the time: Birth control pills came in a plastic box and they liberated women. Well, maybe -- the early pill was a tad brutal, and as one woman told me: "It works just great. You take them, and you don't want to do ANYTHING!" -- Brian Converse Ahh! It's so nice to read the paranoid radical theories of Alex Cockburn again. But when is the inevitable shoe going to drop? When is he going to join forces with the far-right conspiracy theorists? His ideas are just as stupid and far-fetched as theirs. -- Jim Philips SALON \| Jan. 26, 1998