Spare me the sudden discovery that bad behavior was normalized during the Clinton years.
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There is a special place in hell reserved for all those defenders of Bill Clinton as women came forward with their stories of his abuse and intimidation. From the time Bill Clinton ran for president until only recently, critics were told it was only sex. No big deal, right? Besides, those women are liars anyway.
I would argue the special place in hell would also house those who defended Hillary Clinton as she trashed the women, allowed the “nuts and sluts” remarks to continue and supported her claims of a “vast right-wing conspiracy” that aimed to bring her man down.
In Hillary’s case, we now know that she rode the coattails of her politically successful husband with the intention of pursuing her own political career. Her reward for standing by her man – something sheboasted that she didn’t do – was a seat in the U.S. Senate. I still remember her smug expression as she strode across the lawn to the gathering of Democrats assembled to applaud the Senate punting and not voting to impeach Bill after the House voted for it.
Now that it is politically expedient, some Democrat women politicians are giving statements to the press and in interviews saying that Bill Clinton should have been held accountable for his bad behavior in office. The Clinton era is finally coming to an end and now the two of them are not so useful to Democrats running for office. It is particularly unseemly that Senator Kristin Gillibrand has had a change of opinion, as Allahpundit wrote about. And, predictably, Gillibrand is insulted when a Clinton ally notes her hypocrisy, as John Sexton noted. The latest hypocrite is former Secretary of Health and Human Services, Kathleen Sebelius. She agrees that Hillary behaved badly, too.
Not only did people look the other way, but they went after the women who came forward and accused him,” says Kathleen Sebelius, the former secretary of Health and Human Services and Kansas governor. “And so it doubled down on not only bad behavior but abusive behavior. And then people attacked the victims.”
Sebelius extended her criticism to Hillary Clinton, and the Clinton White House for what she called a strategy of dismissing and besmirching the women who stepped forward—a pattern she said is being repeated today by alleged perpetrators of sexual assault—saying that the criticism of the former first lady and Secretary of State was “absolutely” fair. Sebelius noted that the Clinton Administration’s response was being imitated, adding that “you can watch that same pattern repeat, It needs to end. It needs to be over.
Bless her heart. Excuse me as I puke.
Women in journalism were as bad as the rest of the Clinton fans. You may remember Nina Burleigh in 1998 when she unabashedly stated, “I would be happy to give him a blowjob just to thank him for keeping abortion legal. I think American women should be lining up with their Presidential kneepads on to show their gratitude for keeping the theocracy off our backs.” Not only did feminism die in the 1990s but the Clinton era normalized bad behavior in the Oval Office as never seen before. The old days of the press ignoring sexual indiscretions, like in the days of JFK’s presidency, were long gone and Clinton’s critics were mocked for daring to speak up. An American hero, Senator Bob Dole ran for president in 1996 and was as frustrated as any conservative as he said, “Where’s the outrage in America?”
I remember picking up my very young son at school and having to find an appropriate answer to a question no six-year-old should be asking. He settled into his seat and asked, “Mom, what is oral sex?” Apparently, he heard some chatter at school that day about current events in the news. I’ve not forgotten that moment and I haven’t forgiven Bill Clinton, either.
Times may be changing. Donald Trump is in the Oval Office now and he has his own baggage. That is the problem with normalizing unacceptable behavior – it now cuts both ways. It used to be that Republicans were held to a higher standard and a candidate with Trump’s baggage would never survive the GOP primary. We just may have reached a point that even Democrats will be forced to answer to accusations, too.
TAGS:BILL CLINTONHILLARY CLINTONKATHLEEN SEBELIUSKRISTIN GILLIBRAND