The Journal of the Rantings of a Midwestern Madman
being more sane than what one usually sees in print
This will be in a journal format. That is to say, I’ll simply add to it from time to time as the muse moves me. It seems that the older I get, the stodgier I become, and while the more opinionated for the added years, I nonetheless become less easily moved by the Muse. Perhaps one day I will become the legendary unmovable object. Not yet.
December 11, 1998—Re William J. Clinton, said by some to be the President of the United States
I listen with alternating disinterest and disdain to the proceedings in the House of Representatives regarding the possible (ha!) impeachment of Clinton. Everyone’s barking up the wrong tree, in my allegedly humble opinion. If Clinton has violated the law, if he has committed perjury, then, by all means, bring to bear the full weight of the law and the judicial system against him. Bring criminal charges, those who have the balls to do so. If proceedings cannot presently be brought because he is the President of the United States, then those charges can be brought once he becomes a private citizen again. For those concerned about statute of limitations problems, be assured that when an action cannot be brought because of a disability, because of the accused’s high office, the statute is tolled until he no longer occupies that office. Impeachment of a president is not about punishing him. (Either let me represent both genders by use of “him” or forgive me a grammatical blunder by my substituted use of “them.”) Impeachment does not punish the person or property of the president. It merely is about removing him from office. That’s all. Personally, as a US taxpayer, I resent that the GOP has seen fit to deprive me of the benefits (such as they are) of my federal government for a greatly protracted period in this misguided attempt to punish the person of Bill Clinton by attempting to remove a president—my president—from office. If Bill Clinton screwed up by breaking a law, grill him. If he is using the presidency to undermine government, then remove him from office so that he cannot continue to destroy the country. (By that standard, we could perhaps toss out Congress, as well...) If his transgressions do not undermine government in a continuing way, however, then leave him in office, let some work get done, and then hit him with the same sort of criminal process that the rest of use would be subject to.
December 17, 1998——Re the “Blizzard Babies”
Those of us who live in the American midwest—especially near Chicago—may remember the great blizzard of March 9, 1998. That blizzard, I’d wager, undid many a plan, many a relationship, many a business. On the other hand, it also started many a new life. (Not in my own household, to be sure, but in many others.) That blizzard was nine months ago. Local hospital maternity wards are just getting over a blizzard of new births. When the snow hit and imprisoned people where they were, folks just turned to each other. This little blip will show up in local demographics for decades and decades, and old codgers like me will drawl, “Ah, yes, the blizzard of ’98, I remember it well...”
December 20, 1998
*Bows deeply & doffs hat*
A Merry Christmas and a deservedly happy New Year.
December 20, 1998——Re “Stuff,” my Favorite Topic
I, perhaps almost alone among people in my area, will not pretend that I am behind Clinton on the latest Iraq attacks. On the other hand, I find it hard to believe that Clinton ordered them even in part to derail the impeachment proceedings. (For that matter, I also found it hard to believe that he didn’t inhale, but that’s another matter.) Why do I think that wasn’t Clinton’s motivation? Because, quite frankly, Clinton’s too politically astute for that. Clinton is nothing if not politically smart. He must surely have realized that the attacks, far from derailing the impeachment proceedings, would have galvanized against him any house members whom he might have counted on his own side. He must have known that the attacks would have become political fodder for use against him. Finally, I’ll toss out another idea for which I’ll be laughed at. While Americans, both here and abroad, are stereotyped as inveterate sword-rattlers who back military action by their presidents, I tell you that that image just doesn’t hold water. Vietnam is not what Kennedy is remembered for (by Democrats, anyway), and it undid Johnson, even back in the ’60’s. Reagan got no assist from actions in Panama, Grenada or elsewhere. (Another aside—one exception in the Panama  campaign was the gleeful love of Gen-X’ers for the military’s then most recent tactic: Placing giant speakers and portable amplifiers in strategic positions to blare rock music at high decibels upon the poor enemy around the clock to wear down their will to fight.) Clinton would surely not have forgotten the irony in the words of Bush’s campaign advisers at the successful conclusion of the Gulf War. “I just can’t wait for [the election of] 1992!”

On the impeachment process, to paraphrase a friend who e-mailed me on this, what couldn’t the country have accomplished, but for this misbegotten impeachment proceeding, dripping with hypocrisy? Look at the money wasted, to say nothing of congressional time and attention squandered, in all of this.

In much of what I listened to about Clinton, I felt many of the same emotions others have felt. I am myself human, and not without faults. (“Gee whiz, what a revelation....”) To weigh in against  Clinton on something, however, I will add this: Whatever Monica Lewinski’s faults, I do find it really dishonorable that Clinton, at one point, attempted to shift all blame for his affair onto Lewinski’s head... saying she  chased him, she  wanted sex with him, she  wouldn’t leave him alone. Gawd, man. For all the talk about how common, how perhaps understandable it might be that one might wish to cover up the evidence of an affair, that kind of fingerpointing has never been tolerated in any quarter. That’s really beyond the pale. The President of the United States cannot protect himself from Monica Lewinski?

Whom do I feel sorry for in all of this? Hillary. (Is she running for President...? ) Chelsea, big-time.  Me. Me?  Yeah, me, and all quarter billion (or whatever it is) of my fellow citizens. The Congress robbed us of the benefits of our federal tax dollars.

 
December 22, 1998——Is something wrong with that deal?
There has been some discussion of a “deal” to be hatched between the Congress and Clinton. Ex-Presidents Ford and Carter, among others, have urged such a deal. As part of the deal, Clinton would admit to having made misleading statements, or even to having committed perjury. As part of that deal, it’s said, Clinton would get immunity from prosecution. Let’s forget for the moment that Clinton has unequivocally said he wouldn’t admit such a thing. (From history, we all know, of course, that when a President says “Read my lips!” he means it...) The federal government could, of course, grant immunity from prosecution, but only from prosecution by the federal government. This may sound strange to those from most English-speaking, common-law countries, but recall that the US has a federal system. We have not just one sovereign, we have at least 51——the federal government and fifty states. The state is a separate sovereign in American jurisprudence from the entity called “the United States.” The federal government, as the embodiment of the federal sovereign, can grant immunity from prosecution by that sovereign, that is, by the federal government. That does not, however, bind a state. One act of [alleged] perjury can give rise to a federal crime, and also to a state crime. What happens if Clinton is promised immunity by the federal government, and he makes the requisite ritual kowtow of admissions, and then, once he leaves office (in whatever manner), he gets targeted by a state prosecutor with an agenda of personal political gain? I myself don’t have to deal with conflicting immunity grants in my own work, so if an attorney (presumably a prosecutor or criminal defense attorney) out there has to deal with this on a day to day basis and might enlighten me on this... feel free. Click here. Knock yourself out.