I didn’t write anything at all yesterday about the reemergence of Monica Lewinsky on the public stage. Frankly, the entire spectacle fills me with a combination of boredom and loathing, specifically because the woman is probably one of the least sympathetic figures in modern American political history and feeding into her publicity whirlpool is counterproductive. But this story merits a lifting of the embargo because if there’s anyone that conservatives love more than the Clintons – or Lewinsky – it’s Rosie O’Donnell and the ladies of The View. (A show which I know all you good conservatives watch religiously for their fascinating, enlightened discourse on political and social issues.)
These two cultural icons intersect on yesterday’s edition of the show when Rosie decided to fire a broadside at The Big Dog.
On Tuesday, O’Donnell remarked on a public speech former White House intern Monica Lewinsky gave the day before regarding her role as the mistress in Clinton’s late-90s extramarital affair.
“You know, I love Monica,” O’Donnell said before recalling a time in 2002 when she snubbed Clinton at a public event because she thought he emerged from the sex scandal scar-free while Lewinsky’s reputation suffered.
“If it was a company like GE, he (Clinton) would have been prosecuted,” O’Donnell said. “Because you’re not allowed to have sex with–”
Co-host Whoopi Goldberg jumped in to correct O’Donnell. “He was prosecuted,” she said, referring to the House Republicans who successfully led the impeachment effort against Clinton. “Didn’t we– he was impeached.”
Actually, the only notable item from this episode was O’Donnell going after a Clinton. She’s clearly one of Hillary’s biggest fans, and is a supporter of the Clinton Global Initiative. It’s also yet another example of talk show hosts getting completely out of their depth on a subject which should be relatively simple for the average viewer to grasp, even if their total political education was derived from watching MTV. Clinton, of course, was not impeached for engaging in extramarital sex with Lewinsky. He was impeached for perjury and obstruction of justice. You can disapprove all you like of public officials acting like horn dogs and sneaking off on their wives to be with a young intern, but it’s still not an impeachable offense to the best of my knowledge.
But it does make you wonder. How many people are getting their public policy education from tuning in to The View every day? It might explain a lot of the puzzling polling data coming out of the elections every two years. And if that’s the case, you may want to start watching Doomsday Preppers instead and being stockpiling canned goods and ammo.
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