The Flytrap Blame Game
One of the few truths
universally acknowledged about Flytrap is that presidential secretary Betty
Currie deserves our sympathy: an honest, loyal civil servant dragooned into a
scandal she had nothing to do with.
But does Currie deserve such
sanctification? After all, she knew Clinton's history when she took her job
then enabled Clinton's sleaziness anyway. She stood by while Clinton cuckolded
his wife and perhaps even helped him commit obstruction of justice. And did she
protest? Not as far as we have heard. Did she quit on principle? No. Currie may
not be Flytrap's chief malefactor, but nor is she the saintly innocent that the
American public believes her to be.
The
Currie case suggests that Flytrap needs a moral recalibration.
Monica Lewinsky, for example, has fantastically low
approval ratings, much lower than Clinton's. One poll I saw pegged her
favorability rating at 5 percent (even Newt Gingrich manages at least 25
percent). Now, Monica certainly isn't the heroine of Flytrap. She did seduce a
married man, damage the presidency for the sake of casual sex, lie frequently
and insouciantly, and blab her "secret" affair to anyone who'd listen. But she
was also sexually exploited by her older, sleazy boss; had her reputation
smeared by Clinton's lackeys; and was betrayed by her "friend" Linda Tripp. She
hardly deserves such universal contempt.
Others besides Currie have
benefited from the public's excessive generosity. George Stephanopoulos has
become a white knight of Flytrap, the former Clinton aide who had the courage
to turn on his boss. And bravo to George for chastising Clinton! But it smacks
of hypocrisy for Stephanopoulos to "discover" in 1998 that Clinton is a lying,
womanizing dog. He has, after all known this since 1992. Back then
Stephanopoulos himself helped quell bimbo eruptions and parroted Clinton's
lying denials. He has never shouldered blame for those deceptions. (Mickey Kaus
first noted Stephanopoulos' unbearable sanctimony in this "Chatterbox" item in January.) And while loyalty isn't a universal
good, it was opportunistic for Stephanopoulos to betray Clinton just at the
moment Clinton's stock was about to plunge.
(Sometimes, of course, the public's rating is dead on target. Linda Tripp's
allies--a group that includes her lawyers, Kenneth Starr, the Goldberg family,
and absolutely no one else as far as I can tell--have tried repeatedly to
improve her sorry public image. Jonah Goldberg tried right here in Slate. No sale.)
Below is
Slate
's entire
scorecard, which ranks 31 of Flytrap's key players: The scale runs from -10 to
+10. Anything less than zero means the player is a net miscreant. Anything
above zero rates a sympathy card. (This is not, of course, an exact science.
How, for example, do we judge Ann Lewis compared to other last ditch Clinton
defenders? Lewis is said to be more outraged by Clinton's misbehavior than The
Guys in the White House. Yet Lewis didn't quit in disgust. Is her outrage a
plus or a minus if she doesn't act on it? You decide.)
The
Scorecard
Bill
Clinton (The public's rating: -6 )
Minuses:
To recapitulate
a) Had an adulterous affair
with a young intern.
b) Lied about it to
everyone .
c) Probably perjured
himself.
d) Perhaps obstructed
justice.
e) Entangled allies and aides
in his web of deceit.
f) Humiliated his wife and
daughter.
g) Did not have the grace to
apologize to Lewinsky.
h)Tried to shift the blame
for his failures onto his accusers.
Pluses:
a) Had his private life
exposed to the world in a way no one's should be.
b) Has
been persecuted by enemies who won't be satisfied until he is destroyed.
Slate
rating-- He never asked for our sympathy, and he doesn't deserve it:
-9
Dick
Morris (The public's rating: -6 )
Minuses:
a) Encouraged Clinton's most
deplorable habits: lying and polling. (When Clinton revealed his adultery to
Morris, the political consultant immediately took a poll to see how America
would respond to a Clinton admission. When the results suggested Americans
would be angry if Clinton had perjured himself, Morris encouraged Clinton to
deny the affair.)
b) Further sullied the
Clintons with a revolting comment suggesting that Clinton cheats because
Hillary is a lesbian.
c) Not even loyal enough to
keep his mouth shut.
Pluses: I cannot think of
any.
Slate
rating: -7
Linda
Tripp (The public's rating: -7 )
Minuses:
a) Betrayed her
"friend."
b) Obsessively nosed into
the private lives of others.
c) Tried to score a book
deal off sex gossip and other people's distress.
d) Tattletale.
Pluses:
a) Whistleblower (see d
under Minuses): risked humiliation to expose something she believed was
wrong.
b)
Smeared mercilessly by Clinton allies, the media.
Slate
rating: -7
James
Carville (The public's rating: -1 )
Minuses:
a) Has known about Clinton's
woman problem since 1992.
b) Happily parroted
Clinton's denial despite knowing that Clinton was a deceitful womanizer.
c) Has not expressed the
slightest chagrin or disappointment since Clinton's apology.
d) Has not retreated from
vicious attacks on Starr, despite evidence of Clinton's lies.
Pluses:
a) Perfectly loyal.
b)
Consistent in attacks against Starr.
Slate
rating: -5
Bruce
Lindsey (The public's rating : To be determined )
Minuses:
a) Not yet known what he did
to protect Clinton from the Lewinsky affair. Early signs suggest he knew a lot
and helped clean it up.
Pluses:
a) Unquestionably loyal to
his boss.
b)
Silent.
Slate
rating-- Not enough information to make a clean guess: Approx -5
Vernon
Jordan (The public's rating: +3 )
Minuses:
a) May have known and must
have suspected that Lewinsky was a mistress (given that he and Clinton are
confidants, it's hard to believe that Jordan was totally in the dark about
her).
b) Protected too readily by
Washington establishment.
Pluses:
a) May
have helped Lewinsky simply because he's bighearted and generous not because
she was the president's lover.
Slate
rating: -4
Sidney
Blumenthal (The public's rating: -3 )
Minuses:
a) Spun the president's
denial for months without bothering to check if it was true.
b) Pushed for Clinton to be
aggressive rather than contrite during his speech.
c) Trumpeted Clinton's
denial but has not expressed chagrin now that Clinton has admitted his
lies.
Pluses:
a) Consistent in belief that
Starr is an ideologue and that the sex charges are political.
b)
Loyal.
Slate
rating: -3
Lanny
Davis (The public's rating: -1 )
Minuses:
a) Spun the president's
denial for months without bothering to check if it was true.
b) Said for seven months
that we'd have to "wait and see." Then, when Clinton finally admitted his lies,
Davis was hardly embarrassed or critical of the president.
Pluses:
a)
Loyalty to old boss.
Slate
rating: -3
George
Stephanopoulos (The public's rating: +4 )
Minuses:
a) Hypocritical for him to
"discover" in 1998 that Clinton is a lying dog. After all, he knew that Clinton
was a lech in 1992 and helped cover it up. Yet he has never shouldered
responsibility for the lies Clinton told then.
b) Disloyal to turn on old
boss as viciously as he has in past few weeks.
Pluses:
a) Had courage to turn on old
boss and criticize his moral lapses.
b) Urged
Clinton to be fully contrite.
Slate
rating: -2
Betty
Currie (The public's rating: +8 )
Minuses:
a) Abetted adulterous
affair.
b) May have abetted
obstruction of justice.
c) Knew what she was getting
into when she took the job so can't be excused on grounds of naiveté.
d) Did not quit on
principle.
Pluses:
a) Reputation for
honesty.
b)
Probably dragooned into cover-up against her will.
Slate
rating: -2
Paul
Begala (The public's rating: 0 )
Minuses:
a) Spun the president's
denial for months without bothering to check if it was true.
b) Did not quit on principle
after Clinton admitted lies.
Pluses:
a) Urged president to be
contrite and wrote excellent, sufficiently apologetic speech.
b)
Loyal.
Slate
rating: -2
Rahm
Emanuel (The public's rating: -1 )
Minuses and
Pluses:
Same as
Begala (except Emanuel didn't write the speech).
Slate
rating: -2
Ann
Lewis (The public's rating: -1 )
Minuses and
Pluses:
Same as
Emanuel, except Lewis seems more morally outraged with Clinton than other White
House aides.
Slate
rating: -2
Monica
Lewinsky (The public's rating: -9 )
Minuses:
a) Seduced a married man.
b) Damaged and endangered the
presidency for the sake of casual sex.
c) Has lied frequently.
d) Is a capable adult,
not--as her advocates claim--a naive child, defenseless against the president's
wiles.
e) Protected herself with
immunity when she needed to, even though her testimony would do enormous harm
to Clinton and the nation.
f) Blabbed her "secret"
affair to lots of people. (So, while she was dragged into the scandal against
her will, it was her own loquaciousness that made the dragging possible.)
Pluses:
a) Sexually exploited by her
older boss.
b) Had her reputation smeared
by Clintonistas and the media.
c) Betrayed by Linda
Tripp.
d) Dragged
into the scandal against her will.
Slate
rating: -2
Mike
McCurry (The public's rating: +2 )
Minuses:
a) Spun and spun and spun the
president's denial for months without bothering to check if it was true.
Pluses:
a) Was clearly dismayed by
the entire scandal and his role in it.
b) Is quitting the
administration (though not, apparently, on principle).
c)
Loyal.
Slate
rating: -1
David
Kendall (The public's rating: 0 )
Minuses:
a) Relied on iffy legalisms
to help Clinton escape trouble.
Pluses:
a) Relying on iffy legalisms
to help Clinton escape trouble is his job. He's a lawyer.
b)
Admirably reticent, compared to Robert Bennett.
Slate
rating: -1
The Rev.
Jesse Jackson (The public's rating: +2 )
Minuses:
a) Revealed Clinton family
troubles immediately after his pastoral visit.
b) Parlayed pastoral visit
into a week of self-promotion.
Pluses:
a) Graciously counseled a
political rival in time of need.
b) Did
not demand any political compensation in exchange.
Slate
rating: -1
Rep. Bob
Barr, R-Ga. (The public's rating: -5 )
Minuses:
a) Unapologetically vicious,
partisan, and unforgiving in his impeachment quest.
Pluses:
a)
Consistent throughout the scandal: He has been pushing impeachment since before
Monica materialized in January.
Slate
rating: 0
Kenneth
Starr (The public's rating: -9 )
Minuses:
a) Seems merciless toward
Clinton.
b) Has pursued investigation
into Clinton's private life with more zeal than seems appropriate.
c) Is too willing to provoke
constitutional standoffs for the sake of his investigation, seems indifferent
to the dignity of the presidency.
Pluses:
a) Was right about Clinton
and Lewinsky.
b) Is compelled by law to
investigate diligently and forcefully.
c) Has
been patient with the stonewalling, deceiving Clinton.
Slate
rating: +1
Paula
Jones (The public's rating: -5 )
Minuses:
a) Brought a legally dubious,
gold-digging lawsuit.
b) Resisted a settlement that
would have saved the nation much embarrassment.
c) Happily became a tool for
Clinton's enemies.
Pluses:
a) Is vindicated because
Clinton probably did it.
b) Forced Clinton's lechery
out in the open.
c)
Persisted in the face of ridicule and humiliation.
Slate
rating: +1
The
American People (The public's rating: +7 )
Minuses:
a) Hypocritically claim to
despise scandal, follow it breathlessly, then blame the media for obsessing
over it.
b) Are secretly fascinated
by the sleaziness of it.
Pluses:
a)
Magnanimous toward the president.
Slate
rating: +1
The
Media (The public's rating: -8 )
Minuses:
a) No sense of
proportionality. Coverage is wretchedly excessive even when it shouldn't
be.
b) Endlessly self-involved.
How many stories have you seen about the media and the scandal?
c) Unforgiving. The media
want the scandal to continue, hence won't ever be satisfied that Clinton has
suffered enough.
Pluses:
a) Worked hard to break a
very important story and investigated the hell out of it.
b)
Unfairly savaged by hypocritical American people (see above).
Slate
rating: +1
Leon
Panetta (The public's rating: +1 )
Minuses:
a) Slightly disloyal to old
boss.
b) May have known about
Clinton's extracurricular activities, yet turned a blind eye.
c) On television too
much.
Pluses:
a) Urged Clinton early on to
come clean.
b) Had
good sense to leave the White House before corrupting himself.
Slate
rating: +1
Hillary
Clinton (The public's rating: +4 )
Minuses:
a) Knew what a lech he was,
yet always protected him.
b) May have always known
truth about Lewinsky, yet still lied to protect Bill.
c) Chose aggressive,
political strategy over contrition.
Pluses:
a) Lied to, betrayed, and
cuckolded by husband.
b) Personally humiliated.
c) May
have disgraced her own good name by echoing his denials on the Today
show.
Slate
rating-- She made a Faustian bargain, but you still feel sorry for Faust:
+2
Al
Gore (The public's rating: +3 )
Minuses:
a) Did not (apparently) urge
the president to come clean with American people.
Pluses:
a) Stayed loyal.
b) Did
not take advantage of scandal to burnish his own image.
Slate
rating: +2
Kathleen
Willey (The public's rating: 0 )
Minuses:
a) Was in it for the money
(told her story partly in order to land a book contract).
Pluses:
a) Seems to have told story
honestly and forthrightly.
b) Reluctantly dragged into
scandal.
c) Was
victimized by Clinton.
Slate
rating: +2
The
Clinton Cabinet (The public's rating: +2 )
Minuses:
a) Spun his denials without
digging for the truth.
b) Did not quit on
principle.
Pluses:
a) Were conscripted
unwillingly into scandal defense. (Unlike political aides such as Begala, who
are expected to do political dirty work, the Cabinet members are public
servants who should be kept away from such sleaze.)
b) Were lied to by
Clinton.
c)
Loyal.
Slate
rating: +3
Erskine
Bowles (The public's rating: Doesn't care )
Minuses:
a) Refused to involve himself
in the critical issue of the presidency.
b) Stood aside while White
House was shanghaied by lawyers.
Pluses:
a) Stayed utterly silent
about the scandal, clearly disgusted by it all.
b) Kept the rest of the
administration focused on policy, thus preventing total executive
paralysis.
c) Did not
lie or spin for the president.
Slate
rating: +4
Rep.
Henry Hyde, R-Ill. (The public's rating: +4 )
Minuses:
There are none yet.
Pluses:
a)
(Mostly) kept his mouth shut and prevented the House Judiciary Committee from
jumping the gun on impeachment.
Slate
rating: +4
Secret
Service (The public's rating: +8 )
Minuses:
a) Fought Starr subpoena too
hard because it considers itself the Praetorian Guard.
Pluses:
a) Dragged unwillingly into
scandal by Clinton (unlike Currie or his political aides, the Secret Service
agents have no choice about being near the president).
b) Testified honestly but
unwillingly, as they should.
c) Did
not leak.
Slate
rating: +5
Chelsea
Clinton (The public's rating: +10 )
Minuses:
There are none.
Pluses:
a) Humiliated and
embarrassed by her father's misbehavior.
b) Had family problems
paraded before the world in a way they should not be.
c) Has been endlessly
psychologized by the media.
d) Had
her summer vacation ruined.
Slate
rating: +10
More Flytrap
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