I love this photo of President Clinton with Nelson Mandela. It's from a recent New Yorker magazine article. The two statesmen are visiting a pediatric care unit in a Johannesburg Hospital. Notice their hands. The former president clasps the Nobel Prize winning elder statesman with a firm and compassionate grip. You know that they are both in that moment. Real to each other on a level that transcends a mere photo op.
It makes me long for a day again when we as Americans will be led by a man or woman who's character aspires to the greater good, and who's character flaws don't translate into policies that breed fear and contempt among the nations of the world.
I understand that one of the leading conservative, Christian, right-wing activist, Representatives (from Florida), a Mr. Mark Foley, is in actuality a closeted Homosexual who has a thing for men who are 38 years his junior, below the age of legal consent, and apparently heterosexual! My, my, my.... What a surprise ---> NOT!
As a gay man living in the shadow of the capital, I can tell you he is probably NOT alone in his sexual duplicity as a Republican in the Congress. I've heard the rumors for years of at least one Republican Senator, and two Representatives of the Grand Ol' Party who like it doggy-style...And they are not the Top Dog! But "Daddy" Foley is the first hypocrite who would be better off living in the Netherlands, where the age of consent wouldn't impose upon his indiscretions the additional mantle of criminality.
Foley is a great poster child for the "sick" state of Republican leadership and his fall is particularly ironic in the shadow of the GOP's witch hunt against Clinton, which turned a consensual and LEGAL (however, immoral) act of fellatio -- which was by no means unique in the history of the presidency -- into a reason to malign the office of the Presidency and the national and collective sense of pride in our country.
Make no mistake about it. The GOP used the Lewinsky Affair to shame supporters of Clinton, and by extension, all Democrats into a place of silence and submission. We were fools for accepting this "scarlet letter", and our nation has been damaged profoundly by our lack of moral fortitude in light of this scandal.
So how much sweeter when the pendulum swings home? I, for one, hope that the Democrat Leadership will stop playing nice, stop placing their “Poly Anna” sense of the "national good" before petty party politics, and use this little situation to play "Pay Back Time" for all it's worth!
The Republican's have depended upon the Democrat Party to place principle above partisan advantage for too long now. And the Dems have done this believing that the high ground would translate into support for a political party that is above the fray. Makes sense, no? But it just doesn't work. The nation appears to be by and large trapped in a "Jerry Springer" mentality. They want a fight. And when it doesn't happen, they have no stomach for what they perceive as a "weakness" dressed up as moral turpitude.
Will the DNC figure this out? I'm not holding my breath....
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