Sunday 17 April 2011

Midnight President


There is no justice; life is just so unfair. I know that, you know that, but sometimes it frustrates me so, looking at things from a historical perspective. I wrote recently about Richard Nixon, a man I consider to be one of the most intelligent presidents that America has ever had, inspirational and imaginative. Yet his presidency was systematically destroyed on the flimsiest basis of all.

Now, I turn to Bill Clinton, one of the worst, a man who degraded the office – literally – of president, a chief executive tainted by moral depravity, a proven liar who still managed to survive two full terms in office. He’s a Democrat and I generally find Democrats no more appealing than the British Labour Party, but as a representative of this socialist party he represents the nadir, worse even that that priapic hypocrite JFK, and that really is something.

He’s now pushing on a bit; I guess I should try to be a little more charitable to ex-President Clinton, who, in his dotage, has taken to remembering the good old times in Times Square, remembering just how ‘romantic’ it was before New York’s most famous thoroughfare was cleaned up.

Those where the days alright, the days of Clinton’s youth, the days of pimps, hookers and druggies; a fascinating time. There he was up from Arkansas, a kind of political version of the Midnight Cowboy, watching as a prostitute approached a man in a grey flannel suit, loving the downbeat seediness of it all.

Seediness, yes, that was the leitmotiv of the whole Clinton presidency, a man who turned the Oval Office into his own version of Times Square, a place of blue dresses and stains, a place where he did not have sex with that woman, another insight into this man’s topsy-turvy world. It’s such a pity that he did not invite Dustin Hoffman to join his administration, just to complete the picture, in the guise of Enrico “Ratso” Rizzo, of course, perhaps as Secretary of State.

I shall finish with a Clinton joke, one told to me by a good friend of mine from Georgia. It goes like this:-

Hilary –sadly – has died and gone to heaven. There she is in Saint Peter’s office, the man at his desk. Behind him, reaching out to infinity are clocks, clocks and clocks.

“What are they for?”, she asks.

“Well, Saint Peter replies, “for every human soul there is a clock, set at twelve noon at birth. The hands only ever move if a person tells a lie. See, here is Mother Teresa’s, still at twelve; she’s never told a lie in her life. There is George Washington’s, standing at five after; he’s hardly ever told a lie.”

“Where’s Bill’s clock?,” she asks.

“Oh, that’s in Jesus' office; he’s using it as a fan.”

18 comments:

  1. there's a typo in the punchline fyi.

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  2. Procopius would feel quite at home in Washington DC or London or Brussels of the past few decades.

    If you ever wish to remind yourself of the details of Bill's seamier side (or, indeed, many of America's other major political figures) visit Sam Smith's Progressive Review. Sam was a close observer of the Washington scene from the early 1960s on and has a great memory for the closet skeletons and interred corpses most of the media happily forget every change of season.

    http://www.prorev.com/

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  3. Now Bill is an admirer of George Bush the elder(He loves the man now). They are all in the NWO together, Hillary and Obama too. Bill and Monica should have rented a room somewhere, possibly at the watergate hotel? On moral depravity, that is subjective is it not?

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  4. Calvin, I will. I take it you've read Procupius' The Secret History?

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  5. Anthony, I'm no prude and Bill and Monica can do as the please. But for the nation's Chief Executive to have oral in the Oval is not quite the thing. :-))

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  6. What, with Lincoln looking on as well!

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  7. The Secret History? Sure. Who could resist a title like that? It left me wishing more of the official history of the Eastern Empire had survived. It also made me wonder how many "Kiss & Tell - But Wait Until I'm Dead" biographies are hidden away in the libraries of every government since.

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  8. Old Abe probably got his share as well, have you ever seen a picture of Mrs. Lincoln ?

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  9. You hit on the proper word to describe him, ANA--seedy.

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  10. Have you seen the film The Special Relationship? I may even have been led to watch it through your blog, I can't remember!

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  11. Calvin, oh, if we could only have future revelations in the style of Procopius!

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  12. Anthony, poor Mary, as short as Abe was long! Mind you, he was no picture.

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  13. Rehan, I don't think so. If I did it did not make much of an impression! I would recommend Primary Colours though.

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  14. It is generally not necessary that men be all that attractive as rich and powerfull will usually suffice.

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