The sex scandal issue isn’t really central, since Americans have a long record of voting for the candidates they think can deliver, regardless of private peccadilloes. And Donald Trump has a history of boorish public behavior that could even overshadow the marital baggage Hillary has to tote. However, she’d be in a much stronger position if she was toting on her own.The private/public distinction there is pretty subtle, but you see the argument. What Trump has done to women — e.g., referring metaphorically to Megyn Kelly's blood, calling Rosie O'Donnell fat — happened in public, but Bill Clinton's woman problems arose out of incidents in which the women was sequestered in a hotel room or the Oval Office. I don't think the private/public distinction cuts in favor of the man who physically imposed himself on vulnerable women in private and against the man who used crass language against powerful female celebrities as part of the public debate.
The phrase "the personal is political" means something important in the fight for women's equality. No one who cares about that fight should call the accusations against Bill Clinton "private peccadilloes." A "peccadillo" is: "A minor fault or sin; a trivial offence." That's the OED definition. Here's one of the illustrative quotes: "What the boy does almost proudly, as a manly peccadillo, the girl will shudder at as a debasing vice." Robert Louis Stevenson, Virginibus Puerisque.
From the testimony of Paula Jones:
You know what? This is the Governor we're talking about. I had just met the man. A state trooper sitting outside the door with a gun. I know that. I'm terrified. And so what I'm thinking next is what was happening here and what am I going to do next to get out of this room? Is he going to stop here?... And I was talking to him about Hillary and she was working with children's things or something, children's schools at the time, and I remember I was complimenting her on how she was really good with children. And... he came over by the wingback chair close to where I was at. Then it's like he wasn't even paying attention to what I was saying to him. Then he goes, "Oh, I love the way your hair flows down your back. And I was watching you," and stuff like that. Downstairs. And then he did it again. Then he started -- he pulled me over to him while he was leaning up against the wingback chair and he took his hands and was running them up my culottes. And they were long. They were down to my knees. They were long, dressy culottes. And he had his hand up, going up to my middle pelvic area, and he was kissing me on the neck, you know, and trying to kiss me on the lips and I wouldn't let him. And then I backed back. I said, "Stop it. You know, I'm not this kind of girl." I mean. And it still -- and then I ran right over to where the couch was. I thought what am I going to do? I was trying to collect my thoughts. I did not know what to do. I was trying to collect my thoughts. I did not know what to do. After the second time -- after the first time, I had rebuffed him. And then when I got over there and I kind of sat right there by the end of the couch on the -- seemed like on the armchair part. And the next thing you know it, I turn around because he was kind of back over here, and he come over there, pulled his pants down, sat down and asked me to perform oral sex.... He asked me would I kiss it. He goes -- you know, I can see the look on his face right now. He asked me, "Would you kiss it for me?" I mean, it was disgusting.As Jones was leaving, Clinton said, according to Jones, "You're a smart girl. Let's keep this between ourselves." But she brought a lawsuit, a lawsuit that involved Bill Clinton in lying under oath and that Bill Clinton paid $850,000 to settle.
Private peccadillo. Really, Gail Collins, what do you think the young women of today — women who know sexual harassment and sexual assault are extremely serious — are going to think of your using that word peccadillo?
ADDED: Deja vu. Here I am last January, confronting Glenn Loury about the very same application of the word "peccadillo":
Posts
89 comments:
Hey, it used to be: don't be an asshole.
It's still early but I'm pretty sure the typo about Hillary giving Bill a "major roll" is going to be the funniest line I'll read today.
But, but, but. H's for legal abortion !
Isn't Collins one of the girls who offered a blowjob to him for keeping abortion "legal" as if that was his role ?
Cstanley,
"Roll, roll, roll in ze hay!!"
Gotta break some eggs to make an omelette. Bill Clinton could have tied Paula Jones up and ass fucked her and the left wouldn't care.
The disconnect between feminist rhetoric and the sickening pass they give to Clinton is vast. They never came to terms with the fact that Clinton was credibly accused of things far more serious than the Lewinsky matter (which they laugh off as "consensual adult blow jobs"). Jones, if her story is true, was subject to sexual harassment and her job suffered as a result. Broaddrick, if her story is true, was actually raped. Are feminists certain that both women flat out lied? If so, why are they so certain that all their usual talk of "believe the accuser" and "don't be quick to dismiss the victim, it is like victimizing them all over again" gets thrown out the window?
And why sell their souls for Bill Clinton, a man who (along with his wife, don't forget) never failed to sell out the Left when it was convenient for him? Their loyalty seems misplaced.
Collins of course is doing her part as a good soldier in the Clinton propaganda machine known as the Times. Reading her stories on Clinton are about as instructive as reading Breitbart on Trump, or Pravda in the old days if you wanted to learn about the Politburo.
Next up, 26 trips for Bill on the Lolita Express courtesy of convicted, wrist-slapped pedophile Jeffrey Epstein, trafficker in under-age girls.
If the Clintons would stay in private life, this would be private business, no matter how vile...right until the FBI raid nabbed him. As it is...
"It's still early but I'm pretty sure the typo about Hillary giving Bill a "major roll" is going to be the funniest line I'll read today."
LOL.
Fixed the typo though.
You've got Meade doing his Teri Garr imitation.
Shorter OP-Ed - I'm a democrat
I excuse corruption with the D.
a. She's really clueless about Bubba.
b. She's a practicing propagandist.
c. She's a progressive scribe to the D party line.
d. All of the above.
So please tell me what other things are "okay" if done in private? Child molesting? Murder? Using a private e-mail server for official government business? Making corrupt deals with foreign governments while serving as Secretary of State? Receiving large sum of money for "speaking" to Wall Street bankers?
I'd like to know where Hillary supporters would draw the line, but I think I already know the answer to that.
Thanks for posting the Jones transcript.
Everything is relative to the post modern Left based upon their political beliefs. Sexual assault by Bill Clinton is okay because the Left likes him on other issues. Being mean to Rosie is unacceptable because the Left hates Trump on other issues.
Same deal with science. The Left loves science when it comes to CAGW but hates it when it comes to GMO food or bugs.
Feminism took off its mask to show the world the hideousness of what lay beneath over Bill Clinton's predations a generation ago. Why would they put the mask back on over Bill Clinton's predations now, when most people only vaguely remember?
"The personal is political" is proving to be one of the most disastrous mottoes for civil society since "workers of the world, unite!"
"If it wasn't for double standards, they would not have any standards at all."
//Instapundit
i wonder if Gail Collins and her cohort are trying to put up a firewall- they all must know about the pedophilia allegations, so I wonder if they're tryong to publicly warn the Clintons that they've reached a limit of the cover that the media can provide. The language about private peccadillos might be code for. "We've used up most of our integrity defending blow jobs from interns but when it comes to the crime of molesting children we won't be able to pretend it's just a private affair anymore, so you'd better lock up Bill in the hopes that we won't have to go there."
So how should intelligent women measure a man's pecker dilloes? Small, medium or large maybe.
Stand up comedians like Trump does say the worst things. His Dean Martin Celebrity Roasts of the Democrats must be stopped. They are shameful. Shameful, I tell you.
I guess rape and sexual assault when committed by a democrat politician don't merit the belief of the women accusing them of these crimes. Just boys being boys, eh?
Gail is on her knees for Bubba---and for the Hildebeest too, if it came to that.
Whoa, Althouse gives Collins a big ouchie.
That's gonna leave a mark.
The disconnect between the feminists' response to what Bill Clinton ACTUALLY did and the vicious treatment of young college men over what they hypothetically might do is astounding.
Bill sexually harasses and actually physically rapes women and Hillary proceeds to destroy those who complain about his behavior, in essence psychically raping them all over again. But, that's OK because it is Bill and Hillary and they are the fabulous Clintons and Democrats as well.
College men are subjected to tolerance training, told they are pigs and rapists about to happen without any substantiation or without having done anything at all. Normal dating and normal social interaction has become a mine field, to the point that they don't even want to be around a woman. Say the wrong word, accidentally touch someone???.....their lives are ruined, expelled from schools, harassed all over the internet, chased down by a demented woman with a mattress. Hounded for life.
The disconnect between the pass that the feminist give Bill, who is an actual rapist, who used his powerful condition to sexually abuse MANY women and the viciousness directed at normal young men makes me realize that the feminists just really don't mean a word that they are saying. Hypocrites to the max.
I meant powerful position instead of condition, but I guess both might be correct :-)
Rasmussen has it Trump 42 Clinton 37 today.
Rasmussen has been favoring Trump for a month now, but this is consistent with other recent polls.
I'd say give it two weeks and someone may decide to let loose the FBI.
"Private peccadilloes" is like a mantra to upper middle class Clintonistas. I recall hearing it repeatedly in the Clinton impeachment era.
Must be one of those poll-tested terms. It has a fusty Victorian flavor that must subconsciously work by suggesting that Republicans or anyone unduly interested in the Paula Jones/Lewinski/Broaddrick narratives is hopelessly unsophisticated.
Will that really work today? Hell would it've worked then, if Republicans had had a spokesman as willing as Trump to "go there"?
Professor Althouse, I believe you meant using the word peccadillo, not suing it.
If Hillary had divorced Bill in 2001, she wouldn't have the baggage now. But she held on because she thought that she would need him to get her in the White House. My God that woman has terrible judgment.
The young women of today are going to see the letter 'D" after Bill Clinton's name and forgive him his sins and pardon his crimes.
"Blogger CStanley said...
i wonder if Gail Collins and her cohort are trying to put up a firewall- they all must know about the pedophilia allegations . . ."
I don't know for certain, of course, but I bet Bill recognized Epstein as a grifter and didn't do anything he could be blackmailed for.
Also from that article, because every article in the Times has to slam Trump a bit:
And Donald Trump has a history of boorish public behavior that could even overshadow the marital baggage Hillary has to tote
Boorish behavior does not in any way (except in the Editorial Room of the Times) equate with (probable) Rape and (definite) Sexual Harassment, two things that Bill Clinton has done. For all their digging, the Times has found nothing in Trump's past to equal Clinton's slimy behavior towards woman.
Let me put this another way: I would have no qualms about my daughter working for Trump. I would be leary of her working for Clinton.
What kind of lamp will Hillary throw at Bubba once she realizes his private peccadillos have ruined her coronation?
Didn't the fellow travelers at HBO just recently resurrect the Clarence Thomas matter? He was falsely accused of unsuccessfully trying to have a private peccadillo - but that was different to lefties because...
It is a peccadillo if a Democrat does it.
It is a high crime and misdemeanor if a Republican does it.
Gail Collins might be one of those ugly women offended by Trump's sexist remarks.
Sexist remarks are never peccadilloes.
Bill's sexual harrassment and sexual attacks of women who are nobodies are definitely peccadilloes because
at this point WHAT DIFFERENCE DOES IT MAKE!
the man who used crass language against powerful female celebrities
It's not crass language. It's women playing at having delicate ears. They deserve to have that act mocked.
If it was revealed a CEO got a blowjob from an intern in the xerox room near his office, he wouldn't be CEO for long.
Tl;dr version of Althouse, "Your Jedi mind tricks won't work on me."
I still can't figure out how Collins keeps her job, but who else is so willing to comfort the powerful? Not MoDo.
Crooked Hillary and Rapist Bill.
Had I done to my employees what Bill had done to one of his at work in the White House, I would have been fired. Similarly, had I done with my emails and electronic media what Hillary had done with hers, I would have been imprisoned.
Bill Clinton's acts were NOT "private peccadillos." What he did was analogous to a company CEO preying on women who works for him. It's sexual harassment, using his position of power for his own sexual gratification, plain and simple, and if any ordinary Joe had done it in the private sector, he'd be shamed and fired.
So perjury and obstruction of justice are "private pecadillos" now? Thanks, Dems!
Everyone knows that Paula Jones is trailer trash and was just looking for a pay day.
Lil Lena Dunham will have the last word.
Has Dilbert opined on Bill's genius?
Ah the Times is what it is. It's a political propaganda organ. Everyone knows that.
The thing is Trump can smash through the MSM firewall that protects democrats and he will draw the Clinton's unsavouriness out into the light for all to see and there ain't a damn thing they can do about it.
The only question is whether Hillary will make it to the nomination or not, and if not who will be the nominee.
This is why they are so reluctant to expose college students to alternative points of view, they could never palm this stuff off on anybody trained in the traditions of the Enlightenment.
Amadeus 48 said,
"If the Clintons would stay in private life, this would be private business, no matter how vile...right until the FBI raid nabbed him. As it is..."
That's what I've always thought. With all of the immoral, criminal things they have done in their lives, you would think they would keep a low profile and enjoy their ill-gotten wealth in a comfortable retirement. It's absolutely mind-boggling that she is insisting on becoming president. The hubris is almost beyond belief, that she thinks their crimes will be ignored and covered up because they are Clintons. But I guess she rationalizes that they always have been, so why would it stop now?
But I think it's going to stop. I hope so, anyway.
We (which mostly means my partner) watch a lot of L&O SVU. Last night, the guy who played Robert in Everyone Loves Raymond played a Riker's Island corrections officer (CO) who preyed on, and raped inmates and their families. All were, of course, private peccadilloes. And so it goes with the series - arresting and trying miscreants who sometimes do less bad things to women than did Clinton. But somehow, they built a long running series out of prosecuting private peccadilloes. One difference though with real life is that on the show, the rich, famous, and powerful get taken down, though often it takes more work to do so (which is why you see so many episodes where this is a factor - and the episode last night is a two parter at least partially because it pits the CO Union against the SVU unit). Too bad this doesn't work in real life.
Changing directions a bit - the connection between Clinton and Epstein, and his Lolita Express should be interesting. It is apparently a federal crime to travel out of the country to engage in sex with underaged girls. And that was the purpose of Epstein's private jet and the 20+ excursions Bill took with him. At least once, Clinton took a team of maybe 10 Secret Service with him. On other trips, he apparently ditched them. In any case, when they were along, they essentially probably watched him commit a federal felony. Which may be why he ditched them. This was figured out by reviewing flight manifests, so the names of these agents are known. Too bad they can't (and won't under Obama or his wife) be compelled to testify. Still, it is amusing imagining both the Clintons in federal prison as a result of their flagrant law breaking.
When Hillary first hinted at raising the sex card at Trump directly, he shot her down in a tweet. So now the agents surrounding her begin to work their dark arts on her behalf culminating this past weekend in the NY Times hit piece. Normally, this would have been enough to destroy the candidate.
But then came Trump. The man is unlike anything this generation of Democrats (and Republicans, for that matter) has seen. He is shining a light on rot everywhere. He is invulnerable just as Obama was in 2008. The difference is, Obama's charm was his claim as first black president. Trump's is his fearlessness.
This election is over. Trump now leads +3 in Fox, +5 in Rasmussen as Hillary disintegrates. I honestly believe he will be so far ahead after the R convention he will be unstoppable.
Maybe you should coin the word "PECKERDILLO" to describe Clinton's conduct more fully and accurately.
I wonder about Bill Clinton. He really does have something wrong with him. All this is high risk foolishness, a danger to his interests, his alliances, his daughters future status.
I can understand the sex problem with his wife, but the ancient solution of a discreet mistress is safe. And it seems he did, or does still, have several long term discreet mistresses, out of which have come no scandals. Why interns and clerks and pleasure-islands and assaulting women? It doesn't seem to be about the sex, strictly speaking.
"Why does NYT columnist Gail Collins call Bill Clinton's sexual misdeeds "private peccadilloes"?" Ann "why-oh-why" Althouse. Why the why?
Bill Clinton is, I think, a bit of the Don Giovanni in Da Ponte's libretto, which is much better literature than most operas. Don G isnt just an evil man, he is obsessed, possessed, and everyone around him just seems to start behaving badly. He can't help himself, and they can't either. It's as if some demon is pulling their strings.
So with Clinton.
This is one of the reasons why this election is so scarifying to women.
Bill Clinton's behavior, as described by multiple individuals, would not be accepted by these people if it were attributed to any other individual. Why he gets a pass I don't know.
I do not like the precedent; I do not like those who believe they can justify this; I do not like the woman who was covering for him. Because Hillary KNEW. She had to know. She lied; she implied; she was an enabler of all this.
So I DO NOT WANT TO HEAR about how Hillary's candidacy is a step forward for women. It is not. It is a regression.
La ci darem la mano, that sweet duet, is really about an instant seduction and betrayal, just the sort of thing Bill Clinton seems to be able to do, and inspire others to do. And just like Mozart and Da Ponte put it across as the most natural thing in the world, almost as innocent as breathing, so does Bill Clinton, somehow.
Andiam, andiam mio bene
A ristorar le pene
D'un innocente amor
When it's people they like peccadillos are suddenly private peccadillos to liberals. And rape becomes not "rape rape" we have to believe rape accusers until we don't. All depending on who the aggressor is. When it's Donald trump, his private peccadillos are front page news. When it's the governor who is popular he can tell a woman to kiss his penis. But when it's a republican.i an senator who hits on people applying for jobs he needs to be driven from office.
I'm so sick of libErals double standards.
Say it with me: They are Democrat operatives with by-lines.
See? So much starts making sense when you start from that point of view.
Gail Collins is giving Hillary! sound advice to distance herself from Bill and stand on her own.
If only Hillary! we're able to do anything without Bill propping her up.....
The Clintons need each other—Bill does the heavy creative thinking and charisma thing and Hillary covers up for his peckerdilloes.
(hat tip Jim Sweeney)
I'm skeptical of Paula Jones' story. I suspect that she gave Bill Clinton the blow job voluntarily but later became upset when she was mentioned in American Spectator's "Troopergate" article.
However, Clinton had plenty of opportunities to tell his own side. He even had an opportunity to defend himself in a trial, but he preferred to settle out of court.
Clinton's problems with Jones began not because Jones complained. Rather, his problems began because his state troopers talked to journalist David Brock, who then wrote the Troopergate article.
I think that one reason Clinton gets a pass about Jones from many feminists is that they do not believe Jones.
Just a little sexual harassment and sexual assault between friends, what's the big deal? If you didn't see it yourself, you don't have a right to object. Maybe they weren't both consenting, but they were both adults, so that's halfway there.
Sure, he perjured himself, but it was perjury about sex and everyone knows that doesn't count.
Private matter! Old news! What difference, at this point, does it make?!
It's not just a matter of turning a blind eye out of political interest. Many others in the same position have fallen with no such defenders. Bill Clinton has the strange charisma that makes them recategorize objective facts.
Yeah Mike, she is just one of a long line of lying nuts and sluts, Tell us about Juanita now.
BTW, Clinton Scold Ken Starr is in the news again. He is accused, yet again, of ignoring allegations of sexual misconduct at Pharisee U. Waco PD is also accused of making certain police reports disappear if they involved football players at said Christian institution.
My issue is that an unpaid volunteer intern who was "cute" and who "pleased" the boss wound up with a GS-9 civil job at the Pentagon, while other unpaid volunteers etc ... but either not cute or not willing to favor the boss with extra services outside the job description were sent home to peruse the "help wanted" ads. I think it's called "quid pro quo". I think it's against the law. And it has nothing to do with the private behavior of either, but everything to do with the abuse of authority and discretion in making hiring decisions about matters affecting national defense.
My other issue is that the person who "leveraged" the GS-9 job was unhappy and decided to ask for more leverage in getting a higher-paid, easier, job in the fashion / cosmetic industry. ("Help me, Vernon Jordan, you're my only hope..." It's easy to imagine a parallel case where the unpaid cute and pleasing volunteer was after something other than a job -- state secrets, maybe? A favorable regulatory ruling for a multi-national corporation? Does the expression "honey pot" ring a bell?
I went to the Clinton library a couple summers ago. They had one small kiosk dedicated to his impeachment. The villains depicted were, predictably, Ken Starr and Newt Gingrich. No mention of Monica Lewinsiy (that I recall). Also, no blue dress, the one artifact of the Clinton years that would have generated real interest. The rest of the museum was a bunch of letters from celebrities.
Ironically, the entire museum looks like either 1) a giant glistening trailer or 2) a giant glistening penis. Apt symbols, if inadvertent.
Celebricunt might bring out media women trading on being women.
It might be useful to consider the emotional, financial, and intellectual investment many Boomer and post-Boomer folks have in notions of steady change and expanding freedoms for the better, themselves included. It's practically a 'living-room truth' and Gail Collins (a pedestrian and muddle-headed writer) will probably never sort it all out.
The Clintons have come to represent such notions in many minds, but this being politics, they are also a fairly seamy power couple lawyering past their pecadilloes to ever higher office.
Bill's vision for the party really has been Statesmanlike, and his charisma worth noting. The man could give a speech.
But he's also a fatherless Bubba via Oxford, who can't keep it in his pants. Who knows when the womanizing began in earnest and how well he's lied even to himself about his own importance, justifying the behavior?
His wife is a profoundly ambitious, proto-feminist of moderate natural political talent known for various ethical lapses in the quest for ever more political power. All the dependency and bad personal judgment, mild competence and ruthless ambition is always someone else's fault.
Clinton or Trump...apparently this is what America has chosen at the moment...on with it.
Bill Clinton idolized JFK. 'Nuff said.
MSM once again in full protection mode.
Pretty soon they are going to start calling us prudes about sex and telling us it's private, none of our business.
@Clayton Hennesey
Thanks.
Fixed.
Hillary didn't just stand by Bill, she actively participated in making sure that these women's stories were never revealed. She did this as the person who dealt with the "Bimbo Eruptions" for her husband. When she learned of one of Bill's "peccadillos" she would hire a private investigator to investigate the woman in question and then use the information to persuade, bribe or threaten the woman into silence. This is mob-like behavior directed by Hillary herself.
To discuss the choice of words, my suspicion is "peccadilloes" was selected for one of two reasons, perhaps both. First, "peccadilloes" is one of those big, fancy words that makes the author seem more intelligent. It is quite possible that she has no idea what the word actually means, other than some vague "negative activity" concept. Second, it is possible that she realizes the definition of "peccadillo" is of a minor sin, perhaps in polite company its connotation is different. "Peccadillo" may have climbed upon James Taranto's "euphemism treadmill" and is now used for any sin including horrible ones. There may be an ironic component here.
As to the "private" modifier, I was thinking that "private peccadilloes" may be a stock phrase which the author used unconsciously. I've heard "private peccadillo" before but "public peccadillo" has escaped my memory. Usually when a sin is public, it is not minor. However, a Google search does not back up this claim as neither phrase is all that common. (In fact, your post is the first hit for "private peccadillo" on Google.) It is possible it is a stock phrase among some people such as NYC elites or pseudo-intellectuals or some such.
Mike Sylwester said...
I think that one reason Clinton gets a pass about Jones from many feminists is that they do not believe Jones.
I think you have the causal relationship backward. These are after all people who believe Jackie from UVA and Emma Sulkowicz among many others.
And Billy Jeff went down for perjury, not his "pecadillos" - private or public.
Of course, now we have the U.S. Attorney General calmly discussing directing his employees to commit perjury before a selected complaisant U.S. judge on national TV news, and it is not even commented on.
Why would anything peck at a 'dillo? They've got that armor shell--pecking seems like a bad strategy.
It's even crazier, in my opinion, to arm a 'dillo. I'm a big 2nd Amendment supporter but I don't think it's appropriate to allow wild nuisance mammals with terrible eyesight to be armed. No thank you.
Peckerdildo?
That is the first time I have ever seen Paula Jones' testimony. Pretty damning.
It is pretty damning that that is the first time you have seen it. Damning of the whole media complex that is whoring for the Clintons.
I think Trump has her bracketed, and it won't belong before he scores the hit that even the New York Times can't ignore. Then maybe we can stop talking about this forever, leave it to historians to whitewash it all for the Clintons.
It is pretty damning that that is the first time you have seen it. Damning of the whole media complex that is whoring for the Clintons.
Yes, especially when you consider how much more prevalent the Anita Hill accusations were reported. Those I'm very familiar with, and that was just bad jokes about things like pubic hair on Coke cans.
@Althouse, for the benefit of those of us who aren't lawyers what is the difference between "lying under oath" (your term) and "perjury"?
When you get yourself elected to the office of president of the United States and you swore to protect and defend the constitution of same then you're on the job 24/7 until your term is over. When you're horndogging around you're not doing your job.
You never, never , never fuck anybody off the books that has less to lose than you do.
Not only poor self control, but poor taste as well.
Their closets are a treasure trove of foreign and domestic special and peculiar interests.
It's been a while since Democrats played defense. I think the people are pleased. They will need to increase the opiate (e.g. redistributive change, class diversity activism) dosage if they hope to remain in power.
If a school principal had gotten blowjobs from a student teacher, he'd be fired so quick, it'll make your head spin.
Of course, we do have higher standards for school principals than we do for Democratic presidents.
Re the Paula Jones incident: I always thought it was interesting that Slick Willy had a hotel room above the Little Rock convention center where he found Ms Jones. The governor's mansion was not that far away. SOP for BJC
CNN busts the The New York TImes for its bad journalism.
They had a narrative, they went looking for facts that would support their narrative, and when they didn't find any facts, they went forward with their narrative anyway. Propaganda, pure and simple. I almost feel sorry for them. That's a really embarrassing interview.
Interesting that the NYT reporters use the word "debase." It means "reduce in quality or value; degrade." They define Rowanne Brewer Lane as a degraded woman. And after they define her this way, they treat her as a woman who needs to be told what to think.
It's so weird that feminism defines sexual interest from a man as debasing. But what's even stranger is that feminism accepts that these women are now inferior. You are defiled by your association with a man! You like men and you like to have sex with men, and this marks you as an inferior woman. Ergo, we will now define you as a little person and put words in your mouth.
She is right to be outraged.
It's an interesting play on the word "private," as well:
Clinton was the state Governor, and he sent State Troopers to bring a state employee to a hotel room being paid for by the state, in connection with a state function. Just because the door was closed does *not* mean it's not a part of his official public life.
As with many Clinton scandals, the Paula Jones case is somehow controversial despite not having any actual facts in dispute. It's all true, it's just controversial to notice.
I almost feel sorry for them. That's a really embarrassing interview.
5/19/16, 8:55 PM
If the Ivy League were more than a shadow of its old self, they wouldn't be putting out graduates like these, who then go on to work at elite institutions like the New York Times, but haven't the slightest clue how to think a situation through.
I'd have a lot more respect for Loury if he had the balls to admit he was wrong and was now changing his mind. But instead of "You've made good points and you've convinced me this matters," he whines, "You've beaten me into submission," casting Althouse not as a lawyer with a well-reasoned argument but as a domineering shrew who wore him out so he'll wave the white flag and now let's move on.
Agree that "you convinced me" is more gracious than "beaten me into submission", but he's awarding her a win and if he feels a need for a playful "I'm still a man" tease that's fine. Too-high standards kill fun and discovery.
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