1. Colbert begins by talking about Bill Clinton's disastrous "Today" show interview. Colbert underplays it. He says he "noticed" that Bill didn't "enjoy" all of it, and asks Bill if he understands why people would call it "tone deaf" and whether he's learned something from the #MeToo movement. Clinton blames the editing (which he calls "distilling") for making what he said look as though he said he didn't apologize, so — as a viewer of that fake news (not that he called it "fake news") — he was "mad at me."
2. Clinton gives sad face as he tells us that what happened to him was painful and he's had to live with it, lo, these 20 years. And — as if he's not on the wrong side of it — he says #MeToo is "long overdue" and "we should all support it." He bites his lip, Clinton-style, at least twice, clears his throat, and shakes his head before sententiously opining that he likes thinking that "we're all getting better." He twitches and can't make eye contact, and here's that lip bite again!
3. James Patterson sweeps in uninvited to tell us that Clinton is "wonderful, wonderful, wonderful."
4. Colbert lectures Clinton on tone-deafness. In #MeToo times, we hold powerful men accountable for what they did, especially to young underlings, even if it happened long ago. Why should Clinton act "offended" that he was confronted when "your behavior was the most famous example of a powerful man sexually misbehaving in the workplace of my lifetime"? "Why are you surprised?" Clinton tries to make a special case out of the "Today" show confrontation because it began with an assertion that he hadn't apologized. But many viewers didn't know the facts, he said, so that's why he "seemed to be tone-deaf." Seemed.
5. The #MeToo stuff ends and there's a lot of chatter about the midterm elections. So I guess Bill Clinton got away with talking about other people getting the facts wrong and his having apologized. Which is really just one thing, since the facts that people supposedly got wrong were about whether he apologized. That shouldn't satisfy those of us who care about sexual harassment in the workplace!
6. What was different here than on the "Today" show? He basically repeated the same talking points, blaming others, seeking pity for his pain, and making it about apologies. He just didn't get visibly mad. I guess that lip-biting works.
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93 comments:
Shorter Clinton
"Hell, No, I'm not gonna apologize to that woman -- Miss Lewinsky; and furthermore, I already did!"
The guy was a bullshit artist in the 90s, and now he's an old, frail bullshit artist.
I reject #WeToo as enlightened. It's an estrogen cloud.
Ask him about rapes, not mutually advantageous affairs.
I thought the lip bite was the most famous tell that Billy is lying.
Women correctly do not fall for a guy saying he supports #MeToo.
It's like picking up babes at NOW meetings in the 70s.
Women get a thing from time to time and you have to feign interest until you tire of it, and hopefully they do too.
I'm not sure I can take more than two summations of that Arkie rat. You've got an iron stomach.
Drag a check for millions of dollars through a trailer park, you never know what you'll find.
All 3 men pretending that Monica was a one off.
Trying to figure out why Cosby is guilty and Clinton is a free man? Is it the political connections of being a top Democrat or the color of his skin? Power of And?
Monica wasn't harassment in the workplace.
The power imbalance was in Monica's favor.
"Monica wasn't harassment in the workplace."
I presume you just mean that she was a willing participant and just lost in love, but in the larger picture, the entire workplace is affected when access to power can be had for being sexually attractive and giving sex. You have to think of the other people in the workplace, the women and men who did not get that access. Monica was also subsequently helped in getting jobs, etc.
If you got it, use it.
More happened than Monica got ahead. Clinton came out ahead too. A win-win.
Nobody counted on the mob. That's a mob problem, not a workplace harassment problem.
We have that mob problem today too, thanks to estrogen fogs.
Clinton's problem is that he knows he didn't do anything wrong, but there's this screeching mob at the door. This is why there were castles and boiling oil.
And why didn't Bill make that argument: What I did with Monica Lewinsky — though it was wrong because I was unfaithful to my wife — was not sexual harassment. She was a willing and eager young playmate and I was a sexually aroused older man. We genuinely had some great times together, but it was selfish and unwise of me to take a break from all the hard work of the presidency to have a few minutes of simple, sexual fun. That's not what Americans expect of their President, and I wish I'd constrained myself to their idealistic image of an endlessly hardworking public servant. But I did work hard for the American people. I worked hard 99% of the time. I'd like to be forgiven for the 1% of sexual fun I had with that charming young lady, but I know the people are taking a very harsh view of sex right now. But go to Europe. Ask the Europeans. They'll tell you what I did was if bad at all, easily dismissed as a minimal offense against the wife.
But if we legalize prostitution then it'll all be just fine.
Clinton can have sex with his interns, as long as they agree on a price first.
Althouse thinks that the job should not go the sexually available babe but to a donor.
At the start of this book tour, no doubt Patterson was probably expecting to be immersed in the warm glow of praise and sycophancy for Clinton that various media figures have tradiionally bestowed upon him. This whole #metoo thing must've been a surprise.
That would be a good line, except omit the part about unwise to take a break from the hard work of the presidency. People expect mostly goofing off, like in their own jobs.
If Clinton took on the feminists about this, he'd get huge support.
You have to think of the other people in the workplace, the women and men who did not get that access. Monica was also subsequently helped in getting jobs, etc.
Althouse is absolutely right about this. There were other less attractive White House interns who didn't offer to blow the Prez, and, as a result, had less upward merit-based advancement.
Despite my crass characterization, I actually believe that is the state of law.
I want to be watching when someone asks Clinton the question that Laura Loomer stood in line for five hours to ask (but was escorted out from his book signing when she was getting close to the table).
She wanted to ask, "Are you concerned that you will ever be prosecuted for raping Juanita Broderick". But before she could even get to meet Mr. Clinton, she was targeted and removed by a Secret Service coordinated team of Barnes and Nobel security expert. (Apologies if it starts playing automatically. Not sure how to stop that.)
You don't even want merit-based advancement. That gives you the Peter Principle. You advance until you're incompetent.
If you have merit, stay where you are.
I should note for the record that concerned cock-holster Colbert didn't ask Clinton whether he denied the Juanita Broaddrick rape allegation.
If some crazy lady falsely accused me of rape, publicly and repeatedly, I'd sue her for defamation.
A hot sexually available boss is always a plus, too.
Althouse wants it both ways: Bill and Monica were insensitive to the others in the workplace. It was consensual but still wrong. OTOH, his perjury in his deposition was a minor thing, not worthy of impeachment. Holding two opposite thoughts about morality/legality is not easy but I see that it can be done.
If the gloves don't fit, you must acquit -- Johnnie Cochrane
If the facts don't fit, I'll bite my lip -- Billy Jeff Clinton
The more Bill Clinton is talking publicly about anything related to women, the more Hillary is talking publicly about anything related to the 2016 election, the more the odds swing towards a Trump re-election in 2020.
But I digress.
And why didn't Bill make that argument: What I did with Monica Lewinsky — though it was wrong because I was unfaithful to my wife — was not sexual harassment. She was a willing and eager young playmate and I was a sexually aroused older man. etc.
Actually not a bad idea, coupled with praise for Monica "We were in love but the impeachment tore us apart" "I gave up the one I loved in order to keep Chealsea' in a two parent family"
Make it a romance instead of an assault.
I read the Starr report. Monica believed they would be married eventually. Maybe Bill did also.
The left will never acquire enough self awareness to understand the phrase, 'hoist by his own petard.'
They keep setting the charge and can never figure out how they keep blowing themselves up.
"Me too" was supposed to sink those icky conservatives.
in order to keep Chealsea' in a two parent family
Clinton isn't thought to be the biological parent.
If he keeps biting that lip..he'll need to put some ice on it.
Althouse asks:
And why didn't Bill make that argument: What I did with Monica Lewinsky — though it was wrong because I was unfaithful to my wife — was not sexual harassment. She was a willing and eager young playmate and I was a sexually aroused older man. etc.
If loving you is wrong I don't wanna be right
If being right means being without you
I'd rather live a wrong doing life
Your mama and daddy say it's a shame
It's a downright disgrace
Long as I got you by my side
I don't care what your people say
Your friends tell you there's no future
In loving a married man
If I can't see you when I want to
I'll see you when I can
If loving you is wrong I don't wanna be right
If loving you is wrong I don't wanna be right
Am I wrong to fall so deeply in love with you
Knowing I got a wife and two little children
Depending on me too
And am I wrong to hunger
for the gentleness of your touch
knowing I got somebody else at home
who needs me just as much
And are you wrong to fall in love
With a married man
And am I wrong trying to hold on
To the best thing I ever had
If loving you is wrong I don't wanna be right
If loving you is wrong I don't wanna be right
"If Loving You is Wrong, I Don't Wanna Be Right", Luther Ingram (1972)
Wonder if he bites his lip during orgasm with a woman he doesn't respect? Could be a tell there, too.
Aren't lip biting, and downcast eyes classic tells for deceit?
Didn't he bite Jaunita Broderick on the lip??
I thought that the feminist orthodoxy was that a subordinate is unable to consent voluntarily to the sexual appeals of an superior.
Maybe, Hillary used to bite him on the lip.
I bit myself on the lip like that once.
I had to put some ice on it.
I guess if he got $30 Million from his previous books per wikipedia (plus a spoken word grammy) this one seemed like a good bet. It is a number one best seller.
Colbert offered Bill a do-over on the Today Show question.
Maybe American women want a do-over on the whole Bill Clinton question.
Clinton should thank you ma'am after the Wham Bam , but his argument is there was no wham bam , therefore no thanks necessary or apologize.
Guess I should have read the thread before I tossed that gem into the pool, eh?
Great minds... (walks away)
We genuinely had some great times together, but it was selfish and unwise of me to take a break from all the hard work of the presidency to have a few minutes of simple, sexual fun.
Let's not forget that he allowed the government to be shutdown so that he could have that break from all the hard work.
"That shouldn't satisfy those of us who care about sexual harassment in the workplace!"
What, all half dozen of you?
As "feminists" and Democrats made unmistakably clear in the Monica fiasco, they did not care about sexual harassment in the workplace.
They eagerly made excuses. They eagerly vilified Monica. They eagerly offered blow jobs to Billy Jeff.
They told us deplorables, clearly and explicitly, that they don't believe their own BS.
They "care about sexual harassment accusations in the workplace" strictly as a political tool, only to be used against the right people.
We learned useful lessons.
"Juanita lover that won't drive me crazy"
- John Cougar Mellencamp
It never ceases to amaze me that Colbert is getting away with being some esteemed arbiter of political correctness after his (funny/actually homophobic) role as the angry closeted history teacher in the very politically incorrect show, Strangers With Candy. A show that could never be made today, also his best work.
If Clinton had, on a subsequent occasion, taken Monica aside to some private, secluded spot and there offered her his apology, this private apology would also have been criticized. I can only imagine the paroxysms of outrage if he had met her down on the tarmac and invited her to board his private plane so they could hash out the matter. People are always weaving these elaborate conspiracy theories about the Clintons when they're acting for the public weal and with the best intentions.
Shouting Thomas makes the definitive point. There is no way, in an employment situation like this, that the subordinate can be thought to have any power at all, thus the senior is always wrong.
I used to like Bill. I thought he was a marvelous bullshitter and a pretty solid politician; really attuned to people. Apparently greed and living with the Wicked Witch of the West has finally done him in. I can't watch these interviews. It's just too painful to watch a guy embarrass himself so badly. Even Brett Favre learned that there was a time to get off the stage. Bill should take a lesson from him.
The Clintons will never be brought to a reckoning on their sexual misadventures. To do so would implicate far too many major players in the Democratic power structure, i.e. almost all of them.
That's why Colbert tries to get Clinton to try a little self-examination, & when it fails, he moves on. Colbert knows he cannot afford to paint Clinton into a corner, & Clinton knows that he is playing from a position of strength. So, the line of questioning dies.
If Clinton went on Hannity or Limbaugh, an interviewer who could only gain from taking on the Clinton machine, well, maybe something might be revealed. But, that's never going to happen. Never.
Clinton, like the Kennedys & LBJ, will never face any sort of justice for his sexual predations.
No one seems to have mentioned how old Clinton now seems, relative to Trump, who is only two months younger. He is like the President of Dorian Gray, or something.
The very first time Monica met Bill Clinton, she flashed her panties at him, Who does such a thing? Obviously you would hope the President of the United States would have sufficient decorum not to encourage groupies in the Oval Office, but Monica definitely shares some small but significant fraction of the blame for the encounter. Well, she's now achieved victim status. Maybe she can make that work.
That's a good point - why is he doing these interviews at all?
There must be some reason.
He must be messing around like this for some larger purpose.
And I don't think its money, or not directly as in being paid for appearances.
To get himself in "shape" (getting past Lewinsky/#metoo etc., at least as far as the MSM is concerned) for a Dem campaign role?
Bill Clinton cannot stand being irrelevant.
i can see where clinton's coming from:
he has Certainly paid the price for his actions.
Whenever a serial rapist has to pay for a lawyer; we, as a society say:
That's enough, this rapist has paid for his serial rapes: he had to hire a lawyer.
Right?
He's gonna need a bigger lip.
Remember, according to Inga its ONLY republicans who keep talking about the Clintons...
LOL
Clinton isn't thought to be the biological parent.
Which Clinton?
I guess that lip-biting works.
It's worked this long. Why should he change?
Remember, this was the guy responsible for "don't ask don't tell," NAFTA, letting Bin Ladin go, and given credit for an economic expansion that was fueled by the rapid growth of the personal computer industry.
As well as assaulting and otherwise sexually harassing women.
It took awhile, but that Teflon's finally starting to peel.
Heh. Now that Hillary lost the election, and Bill doesn't matter any more, the media and the left (but I repeat myself) have come to the realization he's something of a scumbag. Twenty years late, I guess, but welcome to the party.
@Bill,
Remember, this was the guy responsible for...
And you left out The Defense of Marriage Act & the Religious Freedom Restoration Act, both of which he not only didn't veto, he, like most of the Democratic horde, supported whole-heartedly.
Also left unremarked is how the Kyoto Protocols went down to incredibly ignominious defeat when the Senate in 1997 by the Byrd-Hagel Amendment voted 95 to 0 to say that there was no way in fucking hell that we're signing off on the Protocols as it looks like they're going to go. A legend was born that, using Bush's repudiation in 2001, that it was Bush that killed the US signing up. Actually, it was as bipartisan of a kill job as bipartisan can be, and it happened on Billy Boy's watch.
And why didn't Bill make that argument: What I did with Monica Lewinsky — though it was wrong because I was unfaithful to my wife — was not sexual harassment. She was a willing and eager young playmate and I was a sexually aroused older man.
Feminists have spent decades convincing people a power imbalance means the man is taking advantage of the woman and this is wrong, wrong, wrong, in all cases. He would be shellacked for taking this route.
The mistake he made was to apologize, because it's an admission of guilt. In today's climate, an apology is just a signal for the sharks to close in. "None of your damn business" would have been a perfectly serviceable reply, and he still had enough residual popularity Democrats would have shrugged and said "aw, it's just sex", like they did when he was president. But now that he's apologized he's going to be pushed to go into all the details - exactly what is the conduct for which he's apologizing, and to whom?
Despite my crass characterization, I actually believe that is the state of law.
Which Clinton signed into law.
One of his perjuries before the GJ was that the sex started after she got a paying job, not before as she claimed (which would have helped Paula's case, thus making the denial of sex in her lawsuit germane, i e perjury).
I don't remember any commentator pointing this out at the time.
buwaya puti said...
To get himself in "shape" (getting past Lewinsky/#metoo etc., at least as far as the MSM is concerned) for a Dem campaign role?
Steve Sailer opines that Obama & Co. turned the Democrats into the 'anti-white' party. Going forward, there is no way that Obama, Hillary, Harris, Booker, etc. are going to be able to walk that back and keep as many sides as possible happy. Bill Clinton may the only one who can. So, yes, I'd expect him to have some role in the 2020 campaign.
You know....he used to have thick skin. He's very defensive these days.
Althouse at 5:45 refutes her own contention that it was harassment. If it was a trade to the disadvantage of others it wasn’t harassment. It was an abuse of power, but BY Lewinsky (in concert with Clinton) not AGAINST her.
I agree Hardin misses the point about its effect on others. But Rose McGowan was not victimized by a $100,000.00 cheque; her competitors were, and other women were.
There is no publicly-traded corporation in the world that would allow its CEO to sexually engage with an intern. Transpose the POTUS with a less powerful CEO - say, of Exxon - and use your imagination how this would play out in the media, followed by the annual meeting. It's not about the age difference, it's about the shocking difference of station, status, and power within the hierarchy. It is simply awful business (first of all), and feminism has been set back for decades by the contemptible way the movement's leadership has behaved in this powerful case.
I am surprised this hasn't been mentioned here: The genuine surprise and outrage is a 'tell' that Bill Clinton is being warned about his vulnerability. With the elections getting closer, the Clintons are being instructed to shut the hell up and get out of the limelight, in no uncertain terms - or else they'll be looking up at the party bus chassis.
Steve Sailer opines that Obama & Co. turned the Democrats into the 'anti-white' party. Going forward, there is no way that Obama, Hillary, Harris, Booker, etc. are going to be able to walk that back and keep as many sides as possible happy. Bill Clinton may the only one who can. So, yes, I'd expect him to have some role in the 2020 campaign.
People in control of the party are happy with it being an anti-white party. They're not going to give him enough oxygen to lure back poor white people from the South and Midwest. This kind of sickness isn't going away:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ejlmr7zWpUE
I imagine this is precisely the sort of Clinton enabling tongue-bath cuck-holster interview that LLR Chuck would gladly have provided to Billy.
Actually, I think Colbert would be harder on Clinton than our LLR.
James Patterson must be regretting the decision to produce a book with Clinton (I'm thinking that his ghost-writers sat down with Clinton's and they got to look at a final edition while sitting for the jacket photos.) Patterson has a buttload of money and really didn't need to be the potted plant on this publicity tour.
Trump may have simultaneously ended the Bush and Clinton dynasties in one half term.
That's gotta be worth something, no?
The female chauvinists claimed two offenses: involuntary and superior exploitation. They're right, but they are notoriously selective, opportunistic, and politically congruent when it suits their purposes.
That said, why are they hunting Clinton now?
Is he no longer viable, profitable, or convenient?
So Bill blames others... hell Hillary does to! What a pair!
They need a go-fund-me site! Oh, right, that's called the Clinton Foundation.
These two cadavers have hit the road, and I can’t tell which one’s the salesman and which one’s the lot manager...
Billy Jeff should have to teach ethics, ponies and writing classes at a summer girls’ camp
Letch.
Back in the early days of the Clinton administration a scientist I was working with launched into a rant about how everyone should leave the Clintons alone and let him do his job. I wanted to respond by saying that no one needs to cry for the Clintons because they cry so much for themselves that the two of them and their enablers were practically walking, talking tear ducts.
But I bit my tongue because I needed the guy. The things you put up with when you are trying to get a working computer system out the door!
Still, you will never, as in N-E-V-E-R convince the tear duct to stop crying and man up. He has no idea how that works.
F the Clintons. All of them. Creepy gross money grubbing rapists and power whores. Lying liars who lie. Why on earth won't they go away? oh right. Money power and revenge. The sociopaths abide.
Bob Loblaw said...
People in control of the party are happy with it being an anti-white party. They're not going to give him enough oxygen to lure back poor white people from the South and Midwest. This kind of sickness isn't going away:
Oh, I don't think it will work. But I expect some of the 'older and wiser heads' in the party (Oxymoron, I know) are going to push for it. If any attempt is going to be made; Bill Clinton is the only one who can do it.
Bay Area Guy said...
"Juanita lover that won't drive me crazy"
- John Cougar Mellencamp
“I need a lover that won’t drive me crazy”
"Maybe, Hillary used to bite him on the lip.
No wonder the man was so pitifully desperate for fellatio. Hillary bit him somewhere else.
I doubt if Nina Burleigh, Inga and the usual mindless "feminists" would have bit him.
They still swallow his stuff.
Remember, Dems still pay good money to hear this man talk on his book tour.
And then they turn around and lecture us deplorables about "sexist" Trump.
It’s not too late to project Trump-rage onto Clinton. But skip over Obama if you want to stay a liberal.
Patterson carries himself in a manner from another time. It's a boring and overly self-assured, upper middle class, white guy style. Guys like that are not used to being challenged or interrupted by lessors. I'm glad it has mostly died off. Seeing Patterson exude it in these clips is like seeing a ghost from the late 1970s.
We need to see more Bill Clinton. It's good to see what a huge lying weasel he is instead of allowing him to have misty forgetful nostalgia surrounding him. It's good to see what horrible women those Feminists who excused him were, now having vapors over 'you look nice' when they pooh poohed him shoving stogies up a woman's humidor.
It's good to see the soft ball press, who asks no tough questions of the anointed Clintons.
It is good to see him faking authorship so he can get some additional millions in his bank account. It reminds the Little People exactly how rich and uncaring he actually is.
It is good this comes before election so people are reminded that the Democrats excused all this lying, corruption, and collusion that they dodged by not electing Hillary.
To focus only on Lewinsky is to ignore the history, and the pattern of abuse, that Clinton has.
MM It will be what history remembers him for.
That is actually apropos. Bill Clinton's legacy is a dick joke. I think he realizes that on some level. No wonder he is so angry.
Too bad about the 16 million dollars. Good thing he got paid 17 million Putin subsidized dollars for his part time gig at Clinton Foundation U as “chancellor”. How did he find to to do that kind of work AND work on a novel?
Juanita Broaddrick could tell you all about lip biting
I guess that lip-biting works.
Like Jedi mind tricks, it only works on the weak willed.
If BJ Clinton told the truth, it would go something like this: "If you had a choice between Monica and Hillary, you would have made the same decision that I did."
Clinton and Trump are both alike. Neither wants to fuck Hillary.
“More happened than Monica got ahead. Clinton came out ahead too. A win-win.”
They didn’t just defend him, they adulated him. Effectively making his misdeeds their own. Among men, that’s often worse than being the perpetrator. It’s one thing to be the Bad Guy, it’s quite another to be the simpering fool holding the Bad Guy’s horse.
He already looks like his own wax dummy. Madame Tussaad awaits.
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