The man is an artist: He's not just 'Slick Willie' anymore [Free Republic]

FreeRepublic.com "A Conservative News Forum"

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.

The man is an artist: He's not just 'Slick Willie' anymore: Crime/Corruption Opinion (Published) Keywords: CLINTON STUPIDITY
Source: http://www.jewishworldreview.com
Published: July 21, 2000 /18 Tamuz, 5760 Author: Paul Greenberg
Posted on 07/22/2000 19:41:25 PDT by Mia T

July 21, 2000 /18 Tamuz, 5760

Paul Greenberg

The man is an artist: He's not

just 'Slick Willie' anymore

http://www.jewishworldreview.com --

WHAT A GUY. Bill Clinton took a few minutes off

from settling the affairs of the Middle East this week

to intervene in a real hot spot, the New York

Senate race. It seems somebody had put out a

story quoting Miss Hillary as doing the unthinkable

in a New York Senate race -- making an

anti-semitic reference a good quarter of a century

ago. The somebody is a former reporter for the

National Enquirer, which may tell you all you need

to know about this little contretemps.

But the president reacted like it was a nuclear alert.

Well, no, he acted faster. As soon as this

tell-all-and-more book surfaced about the Clintons'

madcap adventures in their youth, namely Bill's

congressional race up in the Arkansas hills back in

1974, the president called his card-playing buddy

at the New York Daily News, publisher Mort

Zuckerman, to set him right. Or should that be left?

Mr. Zuckerman in turn referred the president to

Michael Kramer, husband of Kimba Wood, whom

Bill Clinton was once going to appoint attorney

general. (And they say Arkansas is a small,

wonderful state where everybody has some

connection with everybody else. Heck, it's a small,

wonderfully inter-connected country.)

Anyway, what the Prez told Mr. Kramer is such a

classic example of Bill Clinton at his most

believable, his most effective and his most

clintonesque that it deserves quoting -- unlike the

name that a 26-year-old Hillary Clinton is supposed

to have called Bill's campaign manager in the heat

of defeat. (My own rule is that no candidate's

spouse should be held responsible for anything she

says or is supposed to have said within 24 hours

after an election has been lost.)

Miss Hillary is supposed to have called Bill's

campaign manager that year, Paul Fray, a

"(blankety-blank) Jew bastard.'' I'd believe the blankety-blank part and a

lot more of it from Miss Hillary -- she strikes me as one of those

innumerable people whose prose is so dull that they are reduced to using

equally prosaic cusswords. But not the

racial/ethnic/religious/tribal/whatever-we-Jews-are slur. (I think old

Walker Percy had us categorized right: We're witnesses to Something --

and we don't even seem to know it.) Anyway, whatever little I know

about the ever malleable Hillary Clinton tells me this is a bum rap. Miss

Hillary was politically correct before there was a term for it.

"I was there and she never said it,'' Bill

Clinton told Michael Kramer. It's a

wonder the things Bill Clinton can

remember from 1974 when, month

after month, he could scarcely

remember anything about ol'

what's-her-name, you know, the girl

who just delivered the occasional pizza

around the White House or, as he

referred to her in one particularly

solemn, finger-pointing, on-camera and,

alas, unforgettable moment, That

Woman. That was surely the unkindest

cut of all, and the creepiest. And of

course the president could never

remember whether he'd been drafted as

a young man, which really requires a monumental forgettery on the part

of an American male of his age.

So, no, the president's I-was-there testimony wasn't the artistic part of

his performance. This was:

"In 29 years,'' he told the Daily News' Michael Kramer, "my wife has

never, ever uttered an ethnic or racial slur against anybody, ever. She's

so straight on this, she squeaks.''

Perfect. I believe him. (Of course I've believed him before, or at least

before about 1991, which was about the time he finally tore it with me.)

What makes him so believable on this occasion is not his memory, which

is about as trustworthy as Alger Hiss' was, especially under oath, but that

final, pithy, masterful summation, direct and ringing as a wad of tobacco

into a spittoon:

She's so straight on this, she squeaks.

Why is that such a perfect close to this sale? In part, it's the

country-western metaphor, the good-ol-boy sound of it, the brevity and

informality that is the stamp of sincerity. But that's only part of it. The

clincher is that tiny little, two-word soupcon of a clinton clause. Did you

notice it? In other contexts, noticing the clinton clause in the president's

statements might raise doubts. In this sentence, it lends absolute

assurance: "She's so straight on this she squeaks.''

Without those two words, this president's testimony would be, well, just

this president's testimony. ("She's so straight, she squeaks.'') Who'd

believe that after Travelgate and the billing records and cattle futures and

all the rest? Not to mention the distaff Clinton's difficulty deciding just

who she is from year to year and campaign to campaign: Hillary Rodham,

Hillary Clinton, Hillary Rodham Clinton and now just (not-so) plain

Hillary!

Anybody who can't quite decide who she is, make-over after

make-over, might be acclaimed for many qualities -- flexibility, ambition,

persistence, acting ability -- but not for being square, for being on the

level, for being "so straight, she squeaks.''

But add those two little words -- on this -- and the qualifier, rather than

weakening the president's point, makes it. By silently, even

unconsciously, acknowledging that his spouse may not have been straight

on other matters that we know she hasn't been straight about, Bill

Clinton's credibility on this point is established. He becomes one of us,

occupying the same real rather than political world. We know just what

he means; we understand one another. The man is a natural at this kind of

just-between-you-and-me rhetoric. It not only wins elections but, more

relevant in this context, convinces.

On such occasions, Bill Clinton surpasses even himself; he's no longer

Slick Willie, but Slick William. For the truly great fake must have some

instinctive feel for the authentic in people in order to connect with it. Bill

Clinton has the master's sure touch. His artifice produces an innocence

that the truly innocent can seldom match. Here was a great moment in the

American theater, which now and for some time has been politics. It was

an instant to be savored, to be appreciated, to be applauded and later

lovingly dissected by any aficionado of the clintonian arts and sciences.

You just don't get this kind of rhetorical high point every day, even from

Bill Clinton.

The mere confidence man knows he can't cheat an honest man. But the

artist hooks our good faith, our mutual trust, our shared language and

values, all in a single metaphor with a twist of lemon: "She's so straight on

this, she squeaks.'' Beautiful. Bravissimo!

Back in the real world, I can't remember the words Hillary used to deny

this dubious, one-day story, which may tell you all you need to know

about the difference between her and her husband's political skills. I'll

probably even forget whatever it was she was denying, but not her

husband's way of denying it. That will stick in my mind, and admiration.

I not only believe Bill Clinton on this, as he would say, but I believe that

if he were eligible to run for a third term as president, he could start

writing his inaugural address right now. It would probably be as awful as

the first two, being a formal presentation and another gaseous concoction

of The Hon. William Jefferson, Esq., and his speechwriters. But by then it

would scarcely matter. He would have won the election with concise,

informal, personal, immediate, connecting rhetoric -- like this little gem.

("She's so straight on this, she squeaks.'') The man is an artist.

07-20-00

clinton: "In 29 years, my wife has never, ever uttered an ethnic or racial slur against anybody, ever. She's so straight on this, she squeaks.''

clinton comment clearly incriminates wife

Ergo comment demonstrates NOT clinton "artistry" but rather clinton utter stupidity


Stupid is as stupid does.

----Forrest Gump

P.R. is not I.Q.

----Mia T

Rumor has it William Jefferson Clinton himself is to recite Honest Abe's lines in this New Year's Eve pageant. Whoever writes these scripts has a natural talent for irony. For some irrepressible reason, one cannot help but think of that costume party in "The Manchurian Candidate,'' complete with Red Queen and Abe Lincoln in stovepipe hat and fake beard.
Hillary Clinton says it's a great opportunity to unite the nation. (The way she's united New York?) But the Clintons are never so polarizing as when they are intent on uniting us. How can that be? Maybe it's their perfectly fabricated authenticity. The Nineties have had much the same effect, stirring the same vague dissatisfactions -- and sparking sudden outbursts of temper. What was it that poor, embarrassed David Brinkley, thinking his mike was off, said after the president's victory speech in '96? "We all look forward with great pleasure to four years of wonderful, inspiring speeches, full of wit, poetry, music, love and affection, plus more goddam nonsense.''

Still not finished, Mr. Brinkley added that this president "has not a creative bone in his body. Therefore, he's a bore, and will always be a bore.'' Oh, dear. The commentator's unintentionally public thoughts were all the more embarrassing for being so widely shared by any Americans still sentient four years into the Age of Clinton. But it's one thing to notice such things, quite another to say them out loud. Why belabor the obvious?

Hey, what a party!

New Year's at the White House

Mindless rhinestone-studded-and-tented kleptocracy

by Mia T

John Podhoretz recently asked, "Whence comes hillary clinton's reputation for brilliance?" For the answer, he intuitively, rather brilliantly in fact, looked to her anatomy and noted,"This isn't the first time she's shot herself in the foot."

The above anatomical analysis supports the Podhoretz thesis. Notwithstanding The Pod's erroneous conclusions concerning ~~hillary~~ clinton's heart and nerve, he basically has it right. Anatomy is destiny...

Ian Hunter recently observed that our leaders are shrinking. "From a Churchill (or, for that matter, a Margaret Thatcher) to a Tony Blair; from Eisenhower to Clinton; from Diefenbaker to Joe Clark; from Trudeau to Chretien -- we seem destined to be governed by pygmies."

The pols understand their anatomical limitations well; they attempt to mitigate them with veneer. And so we suffer mindless alpha-beta-beelzebubba grotesquerie. . .

and rhinestone-studded-and-tented kleptocracy.

With all the media genuflecting before the press-conference podium of bill clinton, it bears remarking yet again that the clinton intellect (an oxymoron even more jarring than AlGoreRhythm and meant to encompass the cognitive ability of both clintons) is remarkable only for its utter ordinariness, its lack of creative spark, its lack of analytic precision, its lack of depth.

The clintons' fundamental error: They are too arrogant and dim-witted to understand that the demagogic process in this fiberoptic age isn't about counting spun heads; it's about not discounting circumambient brains.

Politicos and reporters are not rocket scientists . . .

Professions tend to be self-selected, intellectually homogeneous subgroups of Homo sapiens. Great intellects (especially these days) do not generally gravitate towards careers in the media or politics. Mediocre, power-obsessed types with poor self-images do.

Thus, clinton mediocrity goes undetected primarily because of media mediocrity. ("Mediocrity" and "media" don't come from the same Latin root (medius) for no reason.) Insofar as the clintons are concerned, the media confuse form with substance, smoothness with coherence, data-spewing with ratiocination, pre-programmed recitation with real-time analysis, an idiosyncratic degeneracy with creativity.

Jimmy Breslin agrees. In Hillary Is the 'Me-First' Lady, Breslin laments:

"At the end of all these years and years that are being celebrated this week, the national press of America consists of people with dried minds and weak backbones and the pack of them can't utter a new phrase for the language or show the least bit of anger at a business or profession or trade or whatever this business is that is dying of mediocrity."

Listen carefully to the clintons. You will hear a shallow parody of the class president. Not only do they say nothing; they say nothing with superfluous ineloquence. Their speeches are sophomoric, shopworn, shallow, specious. Platitudinous pandering piled atop p.c. cliché

In seven years, they have, collectively, uttered not one memorable word save, "It was a vast right-wing conspiracy," "I did not have sexual relations with that woman, Ms. Lewinsky,"and, "It all depends on what the meaning of 'is' is."

Even the clintons' attempts at alliteration fall flat. Compare Agnew's (Safire's) "nattering nabobs of negativism" with clinton's "preachers of pessimism," an impotent, one-dimensional, plagiaristic echo (its apt self-descriptiveness notwithstanding).

Before they destroy their backs along with their reputations, media gentry genuflecting at the altar of the clinton brain should consider Edith Efron's, Can the President Think?

A wasted brain is a terrible thing.
P.S.
hillary clinton's valedictorian ruse:

Don't lose

Your head

To gain a minute

You need your head

Your brains are in it.

--an old roadside ad, Pushme-Pullyou

DON'T ELECT CLINTON!

DON'T ELECT GORE!

INDICT THEM BOTH!

INDICT THEM ALL!

RICO!

1 Posted on 07/22/2000 19:41:25 PDT by Mia T
[ Reply | Private Reply | Top | Last ]

To: Mia T

"She's so straight...ON THIS... , she squeaks. (On everything else, She's as crooked as a corkscrew.)

2 Posted on 07/22/2000 19:53:52 PDT by OldAtlanta
[ Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | Top | Last ]

To: Mia T

They should both be in Marion.Il. They're bigger crooks than Pete Rose. Probably more people believe Pete than the Krintons.

3 Posted on 07/22/2000 20:19:59 PDT by Waco
[ Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | Top | Last ]

To: Mia T

Paul Greenburg has had both the Clitoon's numbers for a long, long time. He bestowed the original "Slick Willie" moniker on the First Rapist at a time when he was merely Guvner of Arkansaw (to give it the Arkansaw pronunciation). He now celebrates the artistry of the First Felon by modifying his title to "Slick William".

And Paul, ever the polite gentleman, has always addressed Hillareeeee! by the conventional southern title "Miss Hillary" (her last name is indefinite. It was 'Rodham', became 'Clinton' after she cost Willie an election, then changed to 'Rodham Clinton', and now has morphed to the inelegant "!" ). Greenburg is a master of satire!

So straight on this she squeaks! ROFLMAOAOAO!

4 Posted on 07/22/2000 20:38:28 PDT by Ole Okie
[ Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | Top | Last ]

To: Ole Okie

Nom de plummet: the timeline

hillary rodham: birth (such as it was) thru mock feminism-marriage phase

hillary clinton: loss of governorship phase thru theft of presidency phase

hillary rodham clinton: post-theft-of-presidency phase thru Moynihan-rangel-torricelli senatorial anointment phase

hillary ~~rodham~~ clinton: immediate post-anointment phase thru post-announcement of pre-announcement phase

hillary ~~rodham~~ ~~clinton~~ (aka HILLARY!): post-announcement phase (i.e., post-post-announcement of pre-announcement phase)

~~hillary rodham clinton~~: post-withdrawal, post-loss, post-indictment, postnuptial, post-boost (warheads or toadies) -- whichever phase comes first.

5 Posted on 07/22/2000 21:31:55 PDT by Mia T
[ Reply | Private Reply | To 4 | Top | Last ]

To: MORE ON (MORON?!) CLINTON STUPIDITY:

OFF THE RECORD:

AN OLD DOG NEEDS NEW

TRICKS

NY POST

RED-FACED senior campaign aides to Hillary

Clinton, reeling from their embarrassing Memogate

fiasco, tried to convince journalists that Karen Adler,

author of that "call the press, but keep us out of it"

advisory, is a young, low-ranking staffer who was

acting all on her own.

Nice try, guys 'n' gals.

Adler faxed a memo to members of the campaign's

"Jewish Advisory Group," urging them to phone

reporters and defend Mrs. Clinton, but stressed that

they should "not say that you are calling because the

campaign asked you to."

When the stuff - predictably - hit the fan, campaign

spin specialists tried to get clear by suggesting in

background calls that Adler was a youngster who

didn't know any better.

In fact, she's one of Hillary's closest political aides and

confidantes - and has been for years.

Salon magazine reported in June 1999, that Adler, "a

board member of the United Jewish Appeal

Federation, is said to be lined up to solidify [Hillary]

Clinton's ties to the huge Jewish community." And

Adler was one of only two people to accompany

Hillary to a closed meeting last December with

officials of the influential Union of Orthodox Jewish

Congregations (Connecticut Sen. Joseph

Lieberman, an Orthodox Jew, was the other).

Well-connected isn't necessarily synonymous with

smart, of course. But Adler's been tight with campaign

honcho - and key Clinton strategist - Harold Ickes

for years. So you'd think she'd know better. Right?

"Hillary's people are very bright," said a

well-connected Democrat yesterday. "But they think

everybody else is stupid."

Stupid is as stupid does, says Off the Record.

6 Posted on 07/22/2000 22:18:19 PDT by Mia T
[ Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | Top | Last ]

To: OldAtlanta, all

"In 29 years, my wife has never, ever uttered an ethnic or racial slur against anybody, ever."
The words and rhythm sound familiar, don't they?
"I didn't have sexual relations with that woman, Ms. Lewinsky. I never, ever asked anyone to lie. Never."

7 Posted on 07/22/2000 22:25:19 PDT by Mia T
[ Reply | Private Reply | To 2 | Top | Last ]