David Frum and Danielle Crittenden
Can I speak up for Rudy? Our endlessly repeated slogan, "It's not about sex, it's about perjury," is already fading away into the sepia trove of semi-forgotten American scandals, along with the little tin box of the Walker ring and Harry Truman's Five Percenters. That said, it's still true: None (well almost none) of the moralists in our circle was ever all that upset about Bill Clinton's philandering. We all said dozens of times that the poor bloke with the misfortune to be married to That Woman could easily be excused for seeking solace elsewhere. As I recall, our women friends were even more emphatic on this point than our men friends.
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StumbleUponIn fact, Hizzoner's behavior in this scandal points up one of the big differences between Our Guys and Their Guys. Our Guys have to begin from the presumption that the press will be inquisitive about and hostile to their foibles. That presumption isn't always right, but it has always to be made. So not only did the mayor refrain from forswearing himself to conceal his affair--he refused even to issue a ritualistic false denial. Their Guys, on the other hand, take for granted (again not always correctly, but correctly enough) the complaisance and indulgence of the press. And that emboldens them to do things like ... well like mastermind massive schemes of lawbreaking and obstruction of justice and then tell jokes about it at subsequent White House Correspondents' dinners. (You went; I didn't. So much for your disavowals of glamour.)
Still, as Jay Leno has observed, it's Clinton's method to distract our attention from one scandal with another scandal. Last year's Monica outrage has to be packed up and placed in the attic to make room for this year's Elián enormity. When the front page of the New York Post tells me that Rudy is sending heavily armed SWAT teams into unarmed homes in the early hours of the morning at the behest of Third World dictatorships, then I'll truly begin worrying about the parallels between Ours and Theirs.
Fly safely and call me tonight for a real talk.
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Reader Response from The Fray--to be read after the most recent entry:
It's early in the morning, yes, but I'm confused. If I read Ms Crittenden correctly, she is being a little bit pissy about Hillary Clinton using both her married name and her maiden name by referring to her as "Hillary Rodham-Not-Clinton". [Wednesday's entry] But of course Ms Clinton does use "Clinton," though, in her current Senate race, she is not making a big deal of it. Ms Crittenden, however, does not appear to use the name "Frum" at all. But she does--correct me if I am wrong here--advise other women to use their married names. Now, if I read her correctly, she is making fun of Hillary Clinton who does what Crittenden says women should do when, in fact, Crittenden does not. I'm sure there's an excellent explanation for this. Wouldn't now be an ideal time to let us in on the secret?
--Eric Alterman
(To reply, click here.)
(5/11)