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Jewish World Review Feb. 6, 2001/ 13 Shevat, 5761
Marianne M. Jennings
http://www.jewishworldreview.com --
THE "LITE" rock radio personality, who knows the best margaritas in town
or how much to subtract from a weigh-in while wearing Doc Martens, found,
after years of Clinton adoration, Margaret Carlson's column in Time and her
road to Damascus. Carlson's list of the Clintons' parting assaults on
decency moved her to outrage: Marc Rich's pardon, (a fleeing felon with
renounced U.S. citizenship whose ex-wife, Denise, gave a million to the
Dems, $70,000 to Hillary's campaign and $7,375 in furniture to the Clintons),
$190,000 in dishes from Steven Spielburg and Ted Danson et al., $700,000 tab
for Bill's new Manhattan office digs, and stripping Air Force One down to the
Crest.
Enough already with the Clintons. We on the "extreme right" find these
antics but a 3 on Clinton Richter scandal scale. So Hil took $8 mil for a
book. And? Since the time of the 1992 New Hampshire primary I have written
that this man and his consigliore wife are crackers, white trash, tawdry,
tacky and unseemly. To my new comrades of punditry including Margaret, the
Washington Post, the New York Times and airhead DJs: Clinton shenanigans are
old news.
There are two lessons for them in their bends-producing reality descent.
First, there has been a comfortable disregard of facts via the "extreme
right" label. This facile dismissal is dangerous. Remember, the Waco
Wackos were right all along.
Paying tribute to facts is a good skill in opinion formulation. My daughter
took a women's studies course in which she was taught that women earned about
32 cents per hour if they dressed as concubines, 27 cents if they dressed
like Ellen DeGeneres. I gave her several studies that factored in education
level and work experience and found no gender wage gap. She shared them
privately with her professor who, although willing to produce handouts from
the NOW web site, refused to hand out the salary studies because "it would
send the wrong message." My daughter could, however, discuss them in class.
When she did, the aspiring feminists, stymied, queried, "Were these done by
someone of the extreme right?"
"Extreme right" means "idiots" or, for the more continental, "les
incompetent." Slap that label on and no further thought is needed. A Nexis
search of the past 60 days found 399 uses of the term "extreme right," mostly
in John Ashcroft stories, save for a story about a Swedish conference to
propose legislation against "the extreme right" for their oppression of
"homosexuals and religious minorities." Do the Swedes understand the extreme
right is the religious minority?
By contrast, NEXIS showed only 107 mentions of "far left" or "extreme
left," with "far" being more frequent than "extreme." Interestingly, the
"extreme right" uses were in the articles' texts. "Far left" mentions were
in quotes from folks such as Gary Bauer, head of the Family Research Council
think tank, and Larry Klayman, head of Judicial Watch, a Clinton litigation
nemesis.
The shock lefties presently experience is not, however, simply a function
of their dismissal of all that is "extreme right." There is one more lesson
for the crestfallen Clintonites. Never surrender principle for power or
integrity for victory.
Outrage from the left emerges now as the Clintons exit, with rock star
encores. Lefties have been silent lo these many years. It took flatware and
a $1,560 soup tureen to get their dander up. They belittled us for demanding
accountability for perjury and fraud. Now they toss plates about when no
harm can befall them!
Where were they when we discovered Hillary the novice commodities trader had
parleyed $1,000 into $100,000 through the slot machines of investment -
cattle futures? Where were they when Mr. Clinton had his way with an intern
and her cigar and lied about it? Where were they when Markie Post and Linda
Bloodworth-Thomason were photographed jumping on the bed in the Lincoln
Bedroom? Where were they when billing records under subpoena for two years
surfaced during Hillary's spring-cleaning?
They should have been with us for the ride while the train was moving.
We lost some passengers on that ride. Billy Dale was wrongfully prosecuted
for the travel office coup, Newt Gingrich was driven out of town on a rail,
along with Bob Livingston. Vince Foster succumbed to the pressure of
Whitewater, and Kathleen Willey and Juanita Broaddrick lost their reputations
and pets.
We appreciate the sentiment, but it's a tad late. The Clintons' parting
shots over the bow of decency will find their home in historians'
reflections. Out here in the extreme right we are exhausted. We need a
Clinton respite. No more Clinton bashing, no more weeping, wailing and
gnashing of teeth. The long national nightmare is over. While we appreciate
the distraction your outrage has provided, allowing John Ashcroft to slip
through and W to look positively regal next to the looting hicks, we wish to
move onward, and more importantly,
01/26/00: The challenge to be better than we have been
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