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Caldwell and Shulevitz

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from: Judith Shulevitz

Faustian Bargains

Posted Wednesday, Nov. 18, 1998, at 11:55 AM ET

Dear Chris,

Not so fast! You don't get off that easily! You're bored with Lewinsky and Starr and the whole cast of characters? You want this albatross off your back? Like any good late 1998 politician, you're making a mad rush for the middle. I'll join you there, pointing out that I too have argued for rethinking the feminist position on sexual harassment law and the Clarence Thomas-Anita Hill affair. (See my piece making this point in Slate.) But coming when it does, the weary shrug of the Weekly Standard writer--his likeability and centrist cred nothwithstanding--smacks of convenience, rather than principle. Next you'll be telling me that improving Social Security is the key issue of the day. But what publication has argued consistently for seeing this thing through to its conclusion? Who has demanded Clinton's head all along? Just because the head that rolled was Newt's--and the next one may be Starr's--doesn't mean you get to pack up your guillotine and go home now. You have much to answer for!

I mean you generically, of course, as a representative of the evil media whose impeachment Michael Wolff demands in the current New York. What a lousy article to have to agree with. It's shrill, messy, badly argued, clearly dashed off in under a day. Still, he gets the basics right--the insularity of the Washington press corps, the way it gets so tangled up in its own weird internal logic it doesn't see when it has passed over into Kafkaesque lunacy. Wolff was on target enough to send Maureen Dowd into a Quinnish pout in the Times today. She stomped her little heels, declared sulkily that "reporters have a duty to dig for the truth, whatever the public thinks," and had the nerve to cite Vietnam, Watergate, and Iran-contra. As if!

Wolff's most interesting claim, though, goes to the heart of our "Breakfast Table," since he seems to be saying that what's really behind America's support for Clinton is his Falstaffian sex drive: "Surprise: That's an attractive quality. We're drawn--women especially are drawn--to guys who want you to love them. It's certainly more exciting than the other kind of guy." True enough, though I wonder whether that's really what America's voting for, or rather what we're choosing to overlook. Wolff and Michael Tomasky, the other New York reporter in the package, seem to want it both ways--they argue the electorate's support for Clinton is both a vote against the media (Do we really matter that much? More than, say, education policy?) and a vote for throbbing masculinity. Who do they think we are, Tom Wolfe? What would your Uncle Charlie or Aunt Mabel or even your own one-person focus group have to say to this: "That sizable portion of America seems to be moving to embrace Bill Clinton in an altogether new relationship of fascination, equanimity, and friendship--out of which might even come a legacy of greatness"?

To quickly answer your question about Macbeth and Faust: That would make Hillary Lady Macbeth, of course. I don't buy that--whom did she have Bill kill? I think that in fact she's the Faust figure here. Her devil is, of course, her husband, for whom she gave up a thriving career because, aside from loving him, which I think she did, she also presumably calculated that his charisma would get her closer to power than would her own impressive intellect. Instead, she got trapped in the role of the little wifey, in which she cuts a tragically comical figure.

Best,

Judith

the breakfast table
entries
123456789101112131415
from: Judith Shulevitz

Faustian Bargains

Posted Wednesday, Nov. 18, 1998, at 11:55 AM ET
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Christopher Caldwell is a senior writer at the Weekly Standard. Judith Shulevitz is the New York editor of Slate.
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