Credit Where It's Due

As noted by Atrios yesterday, David Broder of The Washington Post is sticking by his belief that, somehow, details of the marriage between Bill and Hillary Clinton are fair game given the fact that the senator from New York may actually decide to run for president (personally, I don’t think that will happen based on everything she has said and done to date, but I’m not a well-compensated Beltway pundit, so what the hell do I know?). Broder is sticking to his belief on this despite the fact that he is quoted as saying (as noted by Media Matters for America) that he quite rightly is “getting killed” with Email over this.

I would expect such voyeurism from the likes of Chris Matthews, Tim Russert, or The New York Post (or Bob Guccione and Penthouse Magazine). However, I always gave Broder more credit than that in the past. I believed he was more typical of a vanishing breed of reporter who would actually go out, sit down and talk with REAL PEOPLE who lived REAL LIVES and dealt with REAL ISSUES. When I’d read his columns where he’d interviewed people from red states or “the heartland,” sometimes I’d think, “God, those are stupid opinions,” but I realized that, however much I disagreed with the story, Broder was reporting on their lives and not generating tripe as part of some privileged class of scribes who were looked up to for essentially imaginary reasons.

More fool me, I guess.

That being said, I’d like to point out that I feel a sense of obligation to the Clintons for providing a period of prosperity in this country the likes of which I had never seen before and will probably never see again which benefited me personally. As noted in this WIkipedia article:

During his tenure as president, his domestic priorities included efforts to create a universal healthcare system, improve education, increase local police forces, restrict handgun sales, balance the federal budget, strengthen environmental regulations, improve race relations, and protect the jobs of workers during pregnancy or medical emergency. He raised income taxes in 1993. His most dramatic domestic move was the radical reform of the welfare system in 1996 in cooperation with Republicans who had taken control of Congress.

The article also goes on to mention the Family Leave Act of 1993, the Brady Bill, and various other pieces of legislation signed into law under Clinton’s term.

Considering everything accomplished by the Clinton Presidency (and of course it will always be debated just how substantial a role Hillary played in all of this), it aggravates me more than a little bit to see this preoccupation with personal details in their lives that, aside from being intrusive, doesn’t matter considering the weight of the accomplishments in his two terms of office (and if anyone out there seriously tries to compare the Clinton Administration with the current misery we are enduring under two terms of Bushco, I’m going to laugh in that person’s face).

And consider this: all of this was achieved under the full, burning glare of a partisan media whose only goal was to utterly ruin them.

Well, then, you know what? Given all of this, I would say that there’s nothing for Broder, Matthews or their ilk to worry about anyway (again, assuming the Clinton’s marriage is their business, and it isn’t). I would say that their marriage is rock solid and actually something to be admired.

Personally, if it were me instead of “Slick Willie” (as opposed to “Dumbya” – yes I know, I can dream…), I would have given up at some point and not seen through my entire tenure in office. I would have said, the hell with this; this is WAY TOO MUCH AGGRAVATION and stress on my family. This relentless hounding just isn’t worth it, and I know the Repugs would have ended up winning their dirty game, but I just would not have been able to see it through. And while I can’t speak for my wife, I cannot imagine that she could have withstood it either (though I’m not trying to demean her many strengths). And yes, I know Clinton brought some of his misery upon himself, but he has OWED UP TO THAT MANY TIMES. I’ve often wondered WHAT IS THE QUOTA OF APOLOGIES THAT HE IS SUPPOSED TO EXPRESS BEFORE SOME PEOPLE GET THAT?

No, the Clintons saw it through, all the way until January 2001 and the beginning of “the dark time”. It wasn’t their fault that Dubya and the Repugs had put all of their pieces in place to make off with what would be an election decided by about 537 votes or so (the “official” tally), and it also wasn’t their fault that Al Gore listened to too many advisors and didn’t tell these people to leave him alone and let him stand and fall by himself (and it also wasn’t Clinton’s fault that Gore didn’t ask him to campaign with him in the “swing states,” a clear signal that Gore had turned on him despite his support of Clinton during the impeachment farce).

So, to the Clintons, here’s to you for your success (including raising Chelsea, a lovely young woman who is primed for accomplishment in her chosen profession). Let the Beltway media prattle on as per usual about you, because their disgusting behavior is manifest of envy compared to their own efforts, which are laughable.