Now, where was I, as Bill Clinton said to a room full of interns. Yes, Slick Willy is back, promoting some ludicrous new book about what might happen should something nasty occur to the President of the United States. The Today programme on Monday thought it was a good idea to give this ex-President of the United States, or to give him his official title, Alleged Harasser-in-Chief, airtime to promote this tale of intrigue.
Former US president @BillClinton has written a thriller with @JP_Books about what it's like being the most powerful man in the world under extreme situations. @RebeccaJonesBBC finds out why they wrote it #r4today ? pic.twitter.com/HHbTdElDFC
— BBC Radio 4 Today (@BBCr4today) June 4, 2018
It is indeed intriguing that in this era of #MeToo, Slick Willy still thinks he has a place in public life. Has he no shame? Have the BBC no shame? And while I am at it, why am I the only one writing about this – where are the feminists? Have they no shame?
I have said this before and I shall say it again: Slick Willy made harassing junior employees acceptable. And when it comes to power imbalances, they don’t come much bigger than the President of the United States and Commander-in-Chief asking a 22-year-old intern into the Oval Office so he can show her his cigar collection.
And let us not forget, dear reader, because I never will, that when all this broke, when his unseemly, and to use a favourite feminist phrase these days, ‘inappropriate’ sexual conduct was exposed, and the Republicans and the rest of middle America declared their disgust, they were told in no uncertain terms to take a hike.
Middle America were the prudes, the old-timers who had a problem with sex. Bill Clinton was getting his, it all seemed consensual, so what was the problem? Slick Willy, 27 years older than Monica Lewinsky and running the entire country while wielding his cigar, wasn’t the problem that piqued the Leftist conscience – the prudes were. Do you know who donated to Clinton’s legal fund on this, by the way? Harvey Weinstein. Of course he did.
Now, 20 years later, the feminists are up in arms over Trump who was caught on a hot mic saying he grabbed women by the p***y. I am not defending this but it is absolute hypocrisy for the feminists to take umbrage at Trump when they defended to the death Slick Willy who ‘allegedly’ liked to grab a fair few women by the p***y himself.
But it was different then because Slick Willy, Harasser-in-Chief, was THEIR President and therefore he had the power. That is what lies at the bottom of this rather unseemly barrel of hypocrisy . . . power. The feminists care about power, not people, and don’t ever forget it. That is why Lewinsky was thrown under the feminist bus during the Clinton scandal: they had the power, they wanted to keep the power and no 22-year-old intern was going to jeopardise that.
Monica Lewinsky has never said this, but I will: Bill Clinton ruined her life. Wikipedia tells me that with the assistance of a family connection, Lewinsky got an unpaid summer White House internship in the office of White House Chief of Staff Leon Panetta. She moved to a paid position in the White House Office of Legislative Affairs in December 1995, whereupon Clinton made his move. In April 1996, Lewinsky’s superiors transferred her from the White House to the Pentagon because they felt she was spending too much time around Clinton. At the Pentagon, she worked as an assistant to chief Pentagon spokesperson Kenneth Bacon. Months later her life was blown open to the most incredible scrutiny anyone could possibly imagine. Soon she was selling handbags. There was no front cover of Time magazine for her.
Lewinsky went on to study social psychology at the London School of Economics and graduated with a Master of Science degree. But she obviously had a promising career in Washington DC and that was destroyed. She has never married or had children, and my bet is that Clinton played a big part in this too.
So please spare me Clinton, Harasser and Life Destroyer-in-Chief. Shame on him and shame on all the oily broadcasters who give him airtime. But most of all shame on the feminists for not calling out his sordid, unseemly, gross act of manipulation at the time – a disgusting abuse of power unworthy of the lowliest office manager, let alone the President of the United States.
