Forgive me, but grown men who hide behind their religious beliefs… (You and I have a friend who does this–heavy philandering, and then a very high-profile trip to the choir stall for some Bible-thumping and “repentance.”) I am referring, of course, to the First Blubberer at this morning White House Prayer breakfast. Unsurprisingly, religion has become the Great Enabler in the post pop psychology era. The Wall Street Journal this morning quotes Dietrich Bonhoffer on the subject of “cheap grace,” which I find Clinton actively soliciting here. I put Clinton begging for forgiveness in the same folder as Notre Dame praying to Touchdown Jesus for that crucial 2-point conversion with seconds left.
But perhaps I am not a very nice person.
“I fear for the Republic,” my friend said to me this morning, right after switching off the NPR newscast. Heck, I replied, if I were listening to NPR I’d fear for the Republic, too. I think the Republic will pull through just fine. How individual citizens pull through may be another matter.
Yes, Margo, I know you see those bombs falling…at first far away: Dan Burton, Helen Chenoweth, then closer to home. It’s trench warfare, baby. Starr, Newt and Mr. Hyde have pushed through a huge salient; they will definitely be able to hold it another week or ten days. Then those pesky bombs will start dropping on GOP headquarters–watch for op-eds “wondering out loud” if Newt Gingrich, no stranger to the temptations of the flesh, is the right man to sit in judgment over Mr. Bill.
But for now, of course, we want to read…It. It–the Starr report–looks about as long as the Stephen King novel, It, but with many more “good parts,” if you know what I mean. The Boston Globe says it hopes to publish the Starr report tomorrow, adding, “The paper will not edit the report for offensive content.”
Thank God!
