Bill Clinton's Encore Performance

This article first appeared in New English Review.

I vividly recall watching Bill Clinton walking through the bowels of the Staples Center in Los Angeles for what seemed an eternity (Perhaps, he was lost?) when he spoke at the DNC 2000 convention. As he made his way to the stage, head held high in a triumphant pose, captions informed us of all the great achievements of his presidency. Of course, there was no mention of the myriad of scandals involving him, his wife, or members of his cabinet, many of whom were under investigation by special prosecutors. Nor was mentioned the shadow of Monica Lewinsky, the affair that led to his impeachment. This is the man who pointed his finger at the TV cameras and told the American people that those stories about an affair, obstruction of justice, and telling other people to lie were FALSE. Watching as a career federal agent (DEA) and having seen many people lie, I thought to myself, “If he is lying, this is the greatest performance of lying I have ever seen”. And that’s just what it was.

One thing about the Clintons we have learned is that they never go away. Shame is not part of their makeup. They just dismiss all the scandals as the work of the “vast right-wing conspiracy”.

So we have had to endure the years-long quest for the presidency of his erstwhile wife, Hillary, her inability to accept her loss, and unwillingness to leave the stage. She produced yet another book (“What Happened”) blaming everybody in the world for her defeat. She is seemingly descending into mental illness. We have, indeed witnessed the signs for years.

Meanwhile, Bill has come out with another book. It’s called, “The President is Missing”. (Has anyone checked the interns’ offices?). Co-written with James Patterson, this one is a novel (much like the Clintons’ previous literary endeavors). It has something to do with a president who goes rogue to solve some dreadful conspiracy. So now, Bill and this guy Patterson are on a book tour promoting their thriller. That led Bill and Patterson to a “Today”  interview with Craig Melvin, which itself turned out to be pretty dreadful when Melvin asked Clinton whether he owed Ms Lewinsky an apology. That’s when Bill showed flashes of that famous temper of his. Rather than show some humility, he portrayed himself as the victim. Among other dreadful answers, Bill informed Melvin that when he left the White House, he and Hillary were $16 million in debt.

Of course, that was before the Clinton Foundation came along.

As to Lewinsky, there isn’t much to add to the above linked article by Fox News’ Lauren DeBellis. What I would like to stress is that during the impeachment investigation by Special Counsel Ken Starr, it was divulged that Clinton  was having phone sex with Lewinsky from the White House. There were also rumors floating around publicly that the Russian and Israeli intelligence services were monitoring Clinton’s phone at some point. Whether that second point is true I don’t know, but it is easy to imagine the implications for blackmail. Of course, we know that Bill is not the only Clinton who has no clue about how to use secure communication devices, don’t we?

In a sane society, the Clintons would be objects of universal scorn and derision. Only through a corrupted FBI and Justice Department, did Hillary escape criminal prosecution over her email scandal. (I am referring to the higher ups-not ordinary street agents, who do their job with dedication and integrity.)  One would think that normal people with the track record of the Clintons would disappear into obscurity, ashamed to face the public. Not these people. They still have their admirers, which enables them to go on TV and write more books. The word, I believe, is narcissism.