Clinton should be treated like normal citizen, sent to prison

Tuesday, October 6, 1998

Clinton should be treated like normal citizen,

sent to prison

RESPECT: Adulterer, liar cannot be trusted with office any
longer

By David Miller

My girlfriend and I have an agreement: if I cheat on her, I get
neutered.

It’s an agreement that seems pretty one-sided, but I’m good with
it because I understand how important trust is. I understand how
important it is to protect and not hurt the ones you love.

I also understand that intimate relationships, even as intimate
as marriage, don’t confine people. And I know that in my
relationship, I at least owe it to her to let her know when I’m
being tempted by the fruit of another.

It seems horrible enough to take action to hurt a friend, or
even just an acquaintance, but I think it really takes a special
guy to deliberately hurt the woman he loves.

This brings me to Bill Clinton, our fine nation’s leader, and a
question I’ve been asking myself quite often lately. If Clinton
cares so little for Hillary that he would violate her trust,
dignity, ego and respect for him, then what would it take for him
to do the same to a bunch of strangers like the American
people?

Think of this: would you rather stab your wife or your boss in
the back? If Clinton is so quick to screw over Hillary, then I
can’t think of anything that would stop me from thinking he would
screw me over just as quickly to get what he wants.

This is a major aspect of the crisis that no one seems to
notice. If Clinton doesn’t have the good judgement to treat Hillary
with respect, then why should he respect me, a lowly student with
no breasts or Washington internship hopes?

What upsets me is that people get caught up in trying to defend
him because it’s a good challenge to try and twist the law and
Clinton’s words – but they don’t realize that Clinton is really not
worth defending. So, in rebuttal:

To those who say "He never actually lied": in the civil case
versus Paula Jones, "sexual relations" was understood by Clinton to
include the touching of genitals or bare breasts. In that trial,
under penalty of perjury, Clinton said he never had "sexual
relations" with Monica Lewinsky.

No matter how technical you get, even if you didn’t smoke
marijuana if you didn’t inhale, Clinton still had "sexual
relations" with Monica – even if she didn’t exhale. The man who
says that he didn’t have sex with Lewinsky and never smoked pot is
the same man that doesn’t have the balls to say that bombing a
small pharmacy in Afghanistan is war. He is the same man that goes
above the Congress and the Constitution and goes to war without the
appropriate declaration.

To those who say this happens all the time in Southern Europe,
and they laugh at us because we care so much that a president
commits adultery: just because other countries can accept decrepit
leaders does not mean that we can afford to tolerate leaders like
Bill Clinton. Italy just celebrated a record 705 straight days of
public service under a single government, a record that took 30
years to break. And how long has the latest French constitution
lasted?

To those who say that Clinton should not be impeached: I agree,
for now. First, he should go to jail. Under penalty of perjury,
Clinton said that he never had "sexual relations" with Ms.
Lewinsky, nor did he ever ask anyone to lie. We all know that Bill
had an "inappropriate relationship" with Lewinsky.

To anyone who says that this was not a "sexual relationship":
the sane portions of the world endorse a giant "Oh, please."
Several other parties have also come forward claiming that Bill
asked them to lie.

For any other citizen of the United States, what Clinton did
would be perjury, and it certainly fits the bill for "high crimes
and misdemeanors"; but if Congress doesn’t think so, I suppose Bill
could run the office of the chief executive from a posh jail
cell.

If I did what Clinton has done under oath, I would be put in
jail. I don’t care if what he lied about didn’t have to do with the
presidency. That’s the beauty of our justice system, when under
oath, you must divulge only the truth to every question that is
asked of you without a sustained objection. Does Clinton’s office
put him above the law? No, he is a citizen, not a monarch.

On that note, to those who say that Clinton’s private life does
and should not interfere with his job as president: "That’s just
nat true," as Clinton himself would say.

The reason that we don’t have a prime minister and a queen is
because we combine both jobs into one office. The president is not
only our political leader, but also our moral figurehead. Sadly
enough, Bill Clinton is currently the nation’s chief human symbol
of America.

Clinton had a lapse of judgement not once, but at least 10
times, and it wasn’t as though he just had a bad judgement week –
that would be understandable. I mean, who doesn’t have a week when
they forget who belongs in their pants? But Clinton had bad
judgement over a period spanning several months, then it seemed as
though his judgement was regained, only to be lost again seven
months later.

Americans deserve more than a president with judgement like
that. This from is the same man that makes important policy
decisions every day, and I don’t want him to have lapses of
judgement while deciding if the American people consists mostly of
"cat people" or "dog people." (Personally, I think he had another
lapse of judgement, as I would like to see more of Socks in the
public eye.)

To those who say that Lewinsky was out to get him: there are
thousands of people "out to get" the president. That’s why we have
federal employees whose sole work is to protect the president. If
tax payers have to foot the bill for a personal protection army for
the president, why can’t he have the will to keep a young White
House intern from destroying his office?

The president was in control of the entire situation, Bill was
never sexually harassed. He pursued her as much, if not more than
she pursued him. There are a thousand Monicas in the world – women
who would like nothing more than to become intimate with the
president. If she didn’t step up and save a little forensic
evidence, then the next Paula or Linda would have.

Clinton only fessed up because he was caught – for seven months
he tried to deceive all his employers. That tells me there is a
good chance that Clinton did inhale (which I think is better than
taking a joint and pretending to inhale so that you can be gnarly
in front of your friends) and then lied about it. The same can be
said about Whitewater, Linda, Paula, Asian campaign donations and
who knows what else.

Clinton seems to me like the kind of guy who doesn’t want to
drink, but doesn’t have the balls to be sober when everyone wants
him to drink, so he just holds a beer and acts buzzed (to put it in
Bruin terms).

This guy is a farce, and so is his presidency. The reason that
public opinion is high right now is because people still have jobs.
What people don’t realize is that they should be thanking Alan
Greenspan and Adam Smith, not Will(less) Clinton. Clinton has less
to do with the economy than the Asian Student Union selling Thai
food on Bruin Walk.

As long as people have money in their wallets, they’ll like
anyone in the White House, so let’s do the legal, moral and sound
thing to do in this situation – get Gore in the Oval Office (even
though he scares myself and fellow Republicans more than Clinton
does).

Most people must find a hotel that rents by the hour for the
perks that Clinton got; Clinton gets to have tax payers pay the
bill for his brothel (office).

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© 1998 ASUCLA Communications Board