Posted on 06/24/2003 3:23:02 AM PDT by Liz
Sidney Blumenthal titles his account of his White House days "The Clinton Wars," but it could just as easily be called "The Blumenthal Wars." Reviewers have called him a Clinton "courtier," "Sid Vicious," a "lady-in-waiting" and, by the strongest of implications, a liar.
Yet to actually read the book brings another term to mind: "mad." This is what Washington was during the Clinton years.
I do not mean all of Washington. After all, many Democrats fought valiantly for Bill Clinton -- or, if not for him, then against Ken Starr, the moralistic prig of a special prosecutor. Ditto some members of the press, who realized that no matter what Clinton did, what was being done to him -- and the presidency -- was far, far worse.
But you would get little of that from most of the reviews. Barely mentioned are the censorious comments of Samuel Dash, Starr's ethics counselor, who, in the book, characterizes the special prosecutor as a morally obsessed inquisitor. "He lacked a lot of judgment," Dash told Blumenthal. "Starr didn't see the difference between a sin and a crime. His judgments were distorted." Dash says that Starr could have ended his investigation much earlier than he did. He had, really, nothing.
--SNIP--
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...
Starr's only error was using trained, conscientous thinking. Most upholders of the law would think that a person who was elected president had a conscience, a sense of shame, and adhered to universal moral values, and that a president would never want to do aything to hurt the institution of the office.
Starr (and many Americans) had no concept of the cunning and conniving Clintons whose focus was not the well-being of a Nation, or the integrity of the presidency, but how to further their own ambitions and who never let things like laws stand in their way.
The only decent critiques were found on FR (but then I'm hoplessly biased).
uh,.......Janet Reno??
Except for the perjury, obstruction of justice, witness-tampering, the criminal misuse of the FBI files and the suborning of the IRS to attack the political enemies of the Clintons.
We have to remember that Cohen is a partisan, and this column is merely partisan cover for his guy (and gal).
But now, all these years later, it is hard to recall just what these scandals were about. That's hardly the case, say, with Watergate. To this day I can tell you it was about abuse of power by the Nixon White House -- and White House aides went to jail.
It's not hard for me to recall "what these scandals were all about": The death of the American justice system, killed by the Clintons and the Democrats. I will never hear of a ruling from a federal judge and be impressed with the gravitas of "the law" again.
Law is for the little people, like Devon Spurgeon, right, Richie Cohen? It doesn't apply to you, Big Bill or Hilla the Dread.
Under the conniving Clintons, there was no such thing as laws, or crimes. With GWB in the WH comes an awareness that the US indeed does have laws, and people who break the laws get nailed....ask Martha.
Well, that sure as hell isn't saying much.The difference Mr. Cohen, you Washington insider you, was that Richard Nixons fellow Republicans realized that he had made grievous errors and misjudgements and they told him he didn't have their support any longer.That is having scruples and taking an honorable action for the countries sake.Unlike you and your sycophantic freaky Liberal friends,who believed any act by 2 Dumbocratic Co-Presidents was allowed to occur, unchallenged. You Mr. Cohen are the true definition of a Partisan hack. On a regular basis,for years, Billy Jeff Blythe consciously chose not to meet w/ Mr. Freeh and could've 'marginalized' him at any time w/ the media's blessing, that is a fact.I can't fathom how much worse the Terrorist Act against America could've been, had he been replaced 5 years earlier, by someone who Bill could actually have manipulated.You and ALL Dumbocrats will wear 9/11 as the permanent stain on your sleeves as long as I draw breath.
Good post, Liz. It is my firm belief those two grifters have killed people to further their own ambitions. It is also my firm belief, that if the oppurtunity presented itself, the Clintons would have had him [starr] whacked.
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