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Katha Pollitt and Andrew Sullivan

Andrew,

Without weighing in on Clinton's moral-metaphysical status, I do wonder how you distinguish his failure to take responsibility from that of other presidents. Like Reagan--not to repeat things said last week, but did he ever even admit knowing about Iran-Contra? Apologize for inventing anecdotes about killer trees, welfare "queens" buying vodka with food stamps (not possible) and claiming to have fought in WW2? Not for nothing was he called the Teflon President!

I suspect that Clinton's Teflon tendencies drive you so wild because you already hate him. But in any case, the things you hate him for--Bosnia, insufficient gay-friendliness--can't account for other conservatives' hatred, since they don't give a hoot about Bosnia and are even less gay-friendly than Bill. Could it be Hillary? Maybe it's a psychosexual thing--Bill as the non-authoritarian husband who actually seems to respect his wife's intellect and so forth, which must be very frustrating for sexist curmudgeons of all ages. Bill's not macho, but he gets all the girls!

Cheers,
Katha

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