Dana Milbank still obsessing about The Clenis

Hello Sweet Things. Yesterday, was a day when a president of infamy made a historic declaration. You’re probably thinking that it was Trump declaring the Divine Right of Kings to absolve himself of sins against the state.

You would be wrong.

It was former President Clinton on his book tour asserting that 20 years ago, the American people sided with him against the excesses of the Whitewater investigation and the Monica Lewinsky affair.

And he would be right. Clinton got away with an act of deception because in *his* mind, a blow job was not “sexual relations with that woman, Miss Lewinsky”. If you read the Starr Report in the NYTimes, and all of the salacious, tantalizing details involving a cigar, you were probably appalled. Ok, maybe not YOU personally. I guess it helps to be brought up in a cult where elders feel they have the right to question you on what you did in bed with whom and for long, what orifice, did you enjoy it. (I mean, I’ve heard all about these interrogations). So, I was appalled that a private act, no matter how wrong personally, could be a reason to impeach someone. And let’s be clear, Ken Starr did not have to release his report to the general public.

Well, anyway, Dana Milbank says the Clenis, a contraction of “Clinton” and “penis” (h/t Atrios), is responsible for Trump. That’s right, Milbank points his well manicured finger at Clinton and blames him for Trump being a well known liar, bankrupt, misogynistic, corrupt, lying, liar (it may sound redundant but it’s not) who ever decided to do whatever the f*ck he wanted in office without limit. This is all because Clenis refuses to resign or apologize or self flagellate or something. 🙄

Unlike Trump, Clinton publicly apologized — when caught. But he responded angrily when asked why he didn’t apologize privately to Lewinsky — prompting the previously silent Patterson to jump in: “It’s 20 years ago — come on!” he said, suggesting Melvin might as well be asking about John F. Kennedy’s or Lyndon B. Johnson’s affairs.

Clinton eagerly pursued this non sequitur: “You think President Kennedy should have resigned?” he asked Melvin. “Do you believe President Johnson should have resigned?”

Why does Clinton, 20 years later, still struggle with admitting fault? Perhaps he feels his behavior with Lewinsky is being unfairly equated to that of Harvey Weinstein or Trump. But #MeToo isn’t just about assault. Clinton did just fine after his fling with the intern. She never escaped it.

Melvin said that, off-camera, Clinton acknowledged standards had rightly changed since 1998. Why can’t he say so publicly? If a Democrat behaved today as Clinton did then, it wouldn’t be dismissed as “bimbo eruptions.” He’d be drummed out of office, as former senator Al Franken was for his behavior.

But this is larger than #MeToo. Back then, when Clinton disgraced the office with personal misconduct and lies, we didn’t pause to think what might happen if an utterly unscrupulous man were to attain that position someday.

Now we know.

I’m disappointed in Milbank. This piece of fatuous scribbling hinges all of the constitutional crisis, trade wars, separated children and every other decline in the American quality of life on whether Clinton apologized to Monica. And let me make this clear as a #metoo participant, Monica was not a victim here. We have got to be more selective on how we define abuse. These two people were attracted to each other. Monica made the first move when she flashed her thong. She was happy to dish with Lucianne Goldberg about her presidential trophy and her blue dress. Whatever came after was due to the reaction of the partisan fanaticism that was instigated by Newt Gingrich and his Language as a Mechanism Of Control. Dana knows this. Deep down inside, before he became one with the church of Broderism and brunches with Sally Quinn, Dana had an authentic self.

Anyway, Monica has a reason to be upset. So does Clinton. Some things shouldn’t be blabbed to a well known right wing gossip monger. Her age was a factor. She should have waited until he left office and then written a tell all complete with Blue Dress. Is nothing sacred?? I’m not saying she brought it on herself. I’m saying that there were people all over the place in Washington who wanted something on Clinton and they didn’t care if they ruined Lewinsky’s like in the process. But to blame Clinton for the Starr report is a stretch.

But that’s besides the point.

To put the blame on Clinton for the Trump excesses ignores some extremely relevant precedents in presidential behavior in the last 30 years. BTW, Dana, Johnson gave up the WH over Vietnam. That was a pretty hefty price to pay. And he was replaced with Nixon. Who lied about Cambodia. Just sayin’.

The first is the whole Iran-Contra debacle. I would have though that would bring down the president. But Reagan claimed he didn’t remember, which may have been the truth but certainly doesn’t mean he wasn’t aware at the time the convoluted deal took place. And there were plenty of indictments and congressional testimonies. So many in fact that Mueller has wisely taken a page from that book and decided to keep it all under wraps so that the investigations are not compromised. The misdeeds went to the top but Reagan and Bush skated away freely.

The second was the outing of Valerie Plame by Scooter Libby who took the fall for Dick Cheney. Well, there was that and the 9/11 thing. And the Iraq War thing where there weren’t any WMD’s and we started a land war in Asia for no good reason. The Kurds are still paying for that. And the Syrians. Ok, ok, let’s move on. It’s too distressing this early in the morning.

And what did we get out of the Plame Affair?

Nothing.

Shrub and Cheney were touchethed not.

I don’t remember either president Reagan or Bush apologizing for any of those executive overreaches and misdeeds.

So, to recap:

Republicans have given us, Watergate, Iran-Contra Gate, Valerie Plame Gate, Imaginary WMD’s and 9/11. There was one resignation for obvious reasons. The rest got off with nothing.

Democrats have given us a mutually consensual blow job.

And that’s pretty much it.

Who is Dana trying to convince here? I mean seriously. Trump is going to burn down the Reichtag and Dana is upset about Clinton apologizing to Monica? Shouldn’t Lucianne Goldberg, Newt Gingrich and Kenneth Starr be apologizing to Monica for ruining her reputations, shaming her and robbing her of her agency in sexual matters in order to take down someone who was presidenting while Democrat?

What about when Trump conspired with the Russians to interfere with the election of 2016? How much you want to bet that there’s something really really ugly that Mueller has that is going to shatter how we think of how robust our elections and system of government are?

But if that happens, we know who we can blame.

That’s right, The Clenis.

🙄