WHO'S RUNNING FOR PRESIDENT, ANYWAY?

Just heard Lou Dobbs refer to Bush's position opposing reimportation of prescription drugs from Canada as "just as his predecessor, Bill Clinton." Who's running for president, anyway? I repeatedly hear comparisons between Bush and Clinton -- but Clinton isn't running for anything. This is a race between Bush and JOHN KERRY. Listening to the media you sometimes wonder (especially the right-wing whackos I can't resist listening to on the radio). What is it with this undying fascination with Bill and Hillary Clinton? How many jillions of dollars did the American taxpayers spend to prove that Bill and Hillary were guilty of nothing? Okay, okay, the Bill was indiscreet in his sexual encounter with Monica, and he MISLED the people (I won't say lie, because I know many, many men and women who don't count an unreturned fellatio as equal to "having sex" with that woman). Re Safire's op-ed today, this hardly equals the first JFK's record with women, or even Bush I's alleged infidelity (notice I say alleged). And it certainly doesn't come close to the peccadilloes of Newt Gingrich, Henry Hyde, et al, who were trying to impeach the man on that basis (HYPOCRISY THOU ART REPUBLICAN).

All I can figure is that Bill was just too-too a symbol of the sixties and seventies. He wore a beard, he admitted smoking pot (on a basis much more limited, I'm sure, than many in the current administration -- but it was OK for GWB to do coke!) when a student, he opposed the VietNam War and avoided the draft (at least he didn't sign up and then disappear, costing the nation approximately $1 million in training costs). He had no family connections or fortune to use in getting ahead, just his own merit. HOW DARE HE SUCCEED? And to top it all off, his wife didn't even use her married name!!!! We lived in Arkansas during a great deal of Clinton's governorship -- our county was the most Republican in the state. And do you know what disturbed our Repug friends the most? HILLARY USING HER MAIDEN NAME. Well, gosh, so did I at first. It WAS NOT UNCOMMON DURING THAT TIME.

I won't say let's get past this -- it's obvious the right wing won't allow it.