RUSH: Camille Paglia is headlined on the Drudge Report page. She writes: “Right from the start, when the Bill Cosby scandal surfaced, I knew it was not going to bode well for HillaryÂ’s campaign, because young women today have a much lower threshold for tolerance of these matters. The horrible truth is that the feminist establishment in the US, led by Gloria Steinem, did in fact apply a double standard to Bill Clinton’s behavior because he was a Democrat. The Democratic president and administration supported abortion rights, and therefore it didnÂ’t matter what his personal behavior was,” and back then, American’s femiinists went the way of Steinem.
She writes, “But weÂ’re living in a different time right now, and young women have absolutely no memory of Bill Clinton.” This is a point, by the way, that we have made. Early on, advised these Republican presidential guys just go after Hillary, ’cause the young have a totally jaundiced… It’s not that. They have an inflated view of the Clintons based on media. They have no idea who these people really are. They don’t know anything about Linda Tripp. They don’t know anything about Monica Lewinsky
Well, they may not know a little bit about that, but they don’t know the truth of it. It’s all been white-washed. Even in their textbooks in grade school, middle school, and high school, the Clintons have been written by as great guns, great guys, great people wonderful Democrats and all that. There’s a whole generation of people that wasn’t either old enough or alive paying attention back then don’t know the truth. That’s why this previous caller (impression), “Why don’t we have the stories about cattle futures trading and Whitewater?”
The media thinks we’ve been there, done that, and Hillary has survived it. Paglia makes the point here that “we’re living in a different time right now, and young women have absolutely no memory of Bill Clinton. It’s like ancient history for them; thereÂ’s no reservoir of accumulated good will. And the actual facts of the matter are that Bill Clinton was a serial abuser of working-class women. He had exploited that power differential even in Arkansas,” when he was governor. “And then in the case of Monica Lewinsky — I mean, the failure on the part of Gloria Steinem and company to protect her was an absolute disgrace in feminist history!
“What bigger power differential could there be than between the president of the United States and this poor, innocent girl? Not only an intern but” whose life was ruined by this, and Clinton is made a hero to women? Now, I added that. Paglia, those are not her words. But it’s the meaning here. “Not only an intern but clearly a girl who had a kind of pleading, open look to her–somebody who was looking for a father figure. … A cigar and the intern is certainly the opposite of sophisticated.
“Absolutely! It was frat house stuff! And Monica got nothing out of it. Bill Clinton used her. Hillary was away or inattentive, and he used Monica in the White House — and in the suite of the Oval Office, of all places.” I’ll tell you people a little story. Some of you have heard this because you are lifers here. But it was just a couple of months after George W. Bush was elected in 2000, so this would have been March of 2001, and I somehow was invited to a dinner at the White House featuring noted baseball stars.
You know, Bush was former owner of the Texas Rangers. No, I’m just kidding. I know why I was there. I actually first met Bush when he was the owner of Texas Rangers and I was there as his guest when George Brett finished his career, which happened to be in Dallas at Arlington. So, anyway, I was invited saying Joe Torre was there, and Cal Ripken, his wife, and Tom Glavine, Don Baylor. What a great guy, Don Baylor is. I met Don Baylor there. What a great, great guy he is. After dinner, Bush gave us a tour. It was the most amazing thing.
We went to the Oval Office, and do you know who everybody wanted to see? They wanted to see the little room off the Oval Office where Clinton and Lewinsky went. When I saw that, I just made a note of it. Here we are in the Oval Office, and granted the Clinton presidency was just recently over, just months prior, and it was fresh in everybody’s mind. But of all the things that have happened in the Oval Office? By the way, don’t misunderstand. They didn’t ask Bush. They were whispering among themselves.
It’s not, “Mr. President, would you show us?” It wasn’t that. Don’t misunderstand. It’s (whispering), “Where did it happen? Where did Clinton take Lewinsky? Where was it?” I, of course, happened to know. It’s just a little room. In the Oval Office suite, there’s a study, there’s a dining room, and a little bathroom. I just thought, “It’s incredible that there is what everybody wanted to see.” It spoke volumes about what Clinton was going to be remembered for. I don’t care. You can do all the foundations and all the libraries and massage parlors and charity and all that stuff, but he’s never changing that.
His post-presidency with all that charitable stuff and the foundations has been designed to overcome the Lewinsky heritage and legend and memory. But he’s not gonna be able to, and Bill Cosby being around is not helping. That’s Camille Paglia’s point. She writes, “He couldnÂ’t have taken her on some fancy trip? She never got the perks of being a mistress; she was there solely to service him. And her life was completely destroyed by the publicity that followed. The ClintonÂ’s are responsible for the destruction of Monica Lewinsky!
“They probably hoped that she would just go on and have a job, get married, have children, and disappear, but instead sheÂ’s like this walking ghoul. … Hillary has a lot to answer for, because she took an antagonistic and demeaning position toward her husbandÂ’s accusers.” This is the point. Hillary was part of the “bimbo eruptions” team that was there to destroy the women who came forward to accuse her husband. That’s why Kathleen Willey has started a website: “If you’ve been abused by Bill Clinton, let us know.”
It’s an attempt to recreate what has been learned about Bill Cosby. Paglia writes, “So itÂ’s hard for me to understand how the generation of Lena Dunham would or could tolerate the actual facts of Hillary’s history.” Camille… There’s more to her piece here. But the answer is what it’s always been: Liberals… This is simplistic, but liberals are liberals first, and then whatever their cause is next. In this case, feminism. It was never about feminism. It’s always about liberalism, and Clinton was the king of it, or Democrat Party-ism, however you want to characterize it.
BREAK TRANSCRIPT
RUSH: Of curse I’m gonna finish it. There’s just a paragraph to go, and I’m gonna move on. You know, there are still… (chuckles) There are still people who don’t think I know what I’m doing here. Let that be a lesson to all of you climbing the ladder of success: When you reach the top rung, there will be all kinds of people who think you don’t know what to do there. Greetings. (laughing) It’s funny. So Camille Paglia finishes here with her piece on similarities between Bill Cosby and Bill Clinton, and the impact on Hillary:
“So have the times and standards changed enough that Clinton would be seen as Cosby, if he was president today? Oh, yes!” she writes. Paglia says, “There’s absolutely no doubt, especially in this age of instant social media… So I say there is a big parallel between Bill Cosby and Bill Clinton — aside from their initials! Young feminists need to understand that this abusive behavior by powerful men signifies their sense that female power is much bigger than they are! These two people, Clinton and Cosby, are emotionally infantile — they’re engaged in a war with female power.
Anyway, she was a domineering woman, supposedly, when Clinton was a kid. So what Paglia… (interruption) I knew it! See? Even when I think I’m wrong, I’m right. That’s how right I am. Virginia Kelly. Anyway, Paglia is saying here that Bill Clinton was smothered by female power, and his resulting adult behavior — pathetic, abusive, and criminal — is the result of being inadequate. In other words, the inadequacy is rooted in the fact that a woman had to run his life, a woman had to make his decisions.
A woman had to control him because he was not capable of doing it himself. I mean, that’s the modern interpretation this kind of stuff. I just wanted to finish the story.
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