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Jewish World Review July 20, 1999/ 7 Av 5759

Marianne M. Jennings

Marianne M. Jennings
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"Why me?" How about "Why us?"


http://www.jewishworldreview.com -- ON JULY 7, 1999, Mrs. Hillary Rodham Yankee Clinton, much to the glee of her political advisers, Katie Couric and Dan Rather, announced formation of her exploratory committee for seeking funds for the possibility of considering an unopposed primary run with the notion of maybe becoming the U.S. Senator from New York. Either that or she went up to Oneonta to give Senator Patrick Moynihan the most awkward couple moment captured on camera since the bulimia days of the Charles and Diana farce.

Moynihan's gangly figure reflected reticence but he did mumble, "I hope she goes all the way, and I'll go all the way with her." Moynihan's getting up there — it's her lout of a husband who goes all the way, depending on how you define "all the way."

The first lady's thoughts in Oneonta began with the question, "Why me?" It's the same question I have for the good of the whole -- Why us? Both Clintons, their soap opera lives, nonsensical claims, and political ideologies exhaust me. Further, they have reduced me to talking to appliances. Transparently corrupt and simultaneously shallow, they induce frustration in the thinking man and woman for their willingness to take political advantage of the uneducated, the very folks they claim to shelter with government programs from cradle, well, delivery, to grave.

Nothing, from adultery to snagged FBI files to rented-out Lincoln bedrooms to the dispatch of nuclear secrets, has brought about their demise, but we were hanging on for January 2001 and their departure. Now there will be a Senate race complete with Geraldo minute-by-minute. America, stand in unison, face Oneonta and shout, "We can't take it anymore! Have mercy on us! We'll put together some kind of vacation time-share deal so you can migrate year-round to millionaires' estates for two weeks at a time: Aspen, Martha's Vineyard, Malibu — all for a pledge of no political office or appointment, Chelsea included."

This odd nomadic quality of the Clintons is itself irksome. The term "carpetbagger" has been bandied about, owing to the fact that Mrs. Clinton and her erstwhile love, do not now reside nor have they ever lived in New York. Carpetbagger is charitable. Mr. and Mrs. Clinton are grifters. They move from friends' homes to political donors' mansions, scamming as they go. These two rootless grifters have, for the past seven years, lectured us on taxes, raising children, medical care and poverty and yet never had a home or a mortgage anywhere. Why are New Yorkers so huffy?

The Clinton post-presidency plan fits the pattern. They enter an area, inflict their totalitarianism programs with classic Clinton credentialism, and then move on before the pain they will never feel sets in. An SEC official once explained how con artists are able to move from state to state with the same fraud, "Because there are new idiots in every state."

What won't she do?
The Clintons cannot return to their now-inhospitable Arkansas for the state legislature refused funding for his presidential library and the sign for its location is filled with bullet holes. But these two Ivy League grifters have found suckers born in both Manhattan and upstate.

Neither Clinton grifter has the fiber for the day-to-day grind of non-spotlight work. Highly overrated and largely unchallenged in their claims of deeds, caring and work, the Clintons are big talkers, not big workers. Much is made of Mrs. Clinton's work for children. What "work" is that? Would that be the near devastation of the test scores in Arkansas after she reformed education there? There is Mrs. Clinton's alleged integrity. Would that be found in the willy nilly termination and subsequent defamation of the travel office employees? Or could it be found in her Whitewater dealings for which she has escaped indictment only by vilification of Mr. Starr? Then there is Mrs. Clinton's willingness to listen. Was an example her health care plan developed without input from physicians or hospital administrators?

Until the Oneonta circus, Mrs. Clinton's one endearing quality was her arrogance. She spoke her mind and didn't give a rat's behind what others thought. Unlike her husband's Sheriff Andy act, Mrs. Clinton gave her views on everything from baking cookies to the formation of a Palestinian state. She wore her opinions on her Tammy Wynette sleeve. She reminded me of a line from The In-laws when Peter Falk described a South American government official to Alan Arkin, "They're all corrupt. This one don't make any bones about it."

But, in Oneonta, Mrs. Clinton morphed into Mr. Bill — saying whatever it takes to get what you want which is a new place sponsored by donors and voters. A no-lifting-required job with lots of perks and accolades and little accountability. Where do you go after you've held the highest office in the land and still have no home? Wifey goes to New York and runs for the Senate, with the goal of landing back in the big rent-free house you're vacating only temporarily. Why me? Why us?


JWR contributor Marianne M. Jennings is a professor of legal and ethical studies at Arizona State University. Send your comments to her by clicking here.

Up

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06/22/99: Dems and the Creator coup
06/17/99: True courage is more than just admitting troubles

©1999, Marianne M. Jennings