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from: Margo Howard

The Big He Being Downsized

Posted Thursday, Sept. 10, 1998, at 10:45 AM ET

I don't know, Beam. We seem to be heading for the denouement, and it's looking kind of circusy. The boxes of Starr's documents not only had guards but an audience of onlookers when they were delivered. What have been called "the Monica papers" had hundreds of tourist gawkers, just as did the real Monica's arrival at the courthouse a while back.

That President admitted in Florida that he let his family down, and his country. He made no mention of either his hair or his pants. More apologies "are scheduled." He is being spun so much that I fully expect to see yarn produced by the end of September. I get the feeling that he is being instructed to apologize, apologize, apologize, which obviously is the mirror image of deny, deny, deny. This is intended for PR purposes and it is uncomfortable. Salon fortifies this idea with a piece that says if Clinton's "good cop" approach (apologizing) doesn't work, then the White House will become the "bad cop" doling out "punishment:" "Washington had better prepare for the so-called Doomsday scenario--the dreaded sexual Armageddon in which personal peccadilloes of everyone--Republicans, Democrats, journalists--are exposed if Clinton's infidelities are dragged into the open." Maybe the toughest piece around right now is Ambrose Evans-Pritchard's in the London Telegraph...the one where he calls Monica "the junior concubine." He believes the President's goose is cooked, if not burned to a crisp. Reminder to Clinton: resigning keeps the pension and the perks intact. Impeachment takes everything away. Nixon is thought to have factored this into his decision.

On a much smaller scale, there is the marital-money mess with Betsy and Wilbur Ross. The New York Observer has a raaather dishy piece on it. She's a filbert, of course, so the whole thing is not all that surprising. "Page Six" this morning shoots down the sex angle that "Two handsome young staffers are falsely rumored to be having an affair with her."

And the Russian Parliament prevailed in re Yeltsin's choice for PM...again. As I said, those poor people are Duma'd. I tell you, world politics these days are seeming like an incipient train wreck. It is sad and surreal. If the world has the equivalent of a heart, I'm sure it is breaking.

xx Margo

the breakfast table
entries
12345678910111213141516171819202122232425262728293031323334353637383940414243
from: Margo Howard

The Big He Being Downsized

Posted Thursday, Sept. 10, 1998, at 10:45 AM ET
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Margo Howard is Slate's advice columnist. Alex Beam is a columnist for the Boston Globe.
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