Every day, and for the rest of his life

Have you ever worked on a political campaign? It bonds you to your candidate. By donating your time, your money and your heart, you're invested in their successes and feel a sense of responsibility for their missteps. 

Bill Clinton's was the first campaign I ever really threw myself into. I believed in him, with all my heart. Then he broke it.

His behavior in the Lewinsky scandal was ugly and cowardly. I knew it as I was watching it unfold in real time. I know it now. For while I am a loyal Democrat and a devoted Clintonista,* I am also a woman.

As Bill Clinton promoted his new book on The Today Show, I was surprised and saddened by how tone deaf his responses were when (inevitably) asked about Ms. Lewinsky and the #MeToo movement. Here's what he said to Stephen Colbert:

From RealClear Politics

I can't speak for Hillary or Chelsea Clinton or for Monica Lewinsky, but as The Gal Herself I can say:
STILL NOT ENOUGH.

I want Bill Clinton to apologize to me personally. I want him to lock eyes with me when I tell him what a profound disappointment he is ... that I appreciate he's a good man who has done good things for us all, but he could have been a great man. Instead he squandered it for no better reason than he couldn't keep it in his pants. I want him to tell the Secret Service it's okay after I slap him across the face. (He deserves a slap across the face, specifically, for referring to Monica Lewinsky as "that woman" -- as in "I never had sexual relations with that woman.")

None of this, though, excuses the pig who resides in the Oval Office right now. He needs to own the way he treated, and continues to treat, women. Trump lawyer Rudy Giuliani recently dissed Stormy Daniels for being a porn star, while placing no judgement on the President for having sex with her. (And yes, we all know he did. Otherwise you'd have to believe he paid her more than $100,000 because they didn't have sex. Did you receive a check for not having sex with Donald Trump?)

But this isn't about equivalency. It's about hurt and atonement and healing. Bill Clinton has an opportunity to save his legacy -- which matters to us lowly campaign workers who helped put him in office -- and to finally be a great man. He has to stop being defensive. He has to acknowledge what he did to "that woman" -- who is now 44 years old and has lived more than half her life as a punchline to a dirty joke because of this scandal. Monica Lewinsky is the victim here, not President Clinton. He needs to say that. He needs to apologize every day, to all of us, and for the rest of his life.

I hope he will. I hope he doesn't disappoint me again.

*Meant as a derogatory term when it was tossed around by Mary Matalin back in 1992, I have always embraced it.

Sunday Stealing

SUNDAY STEALING

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1. What brand & flavor of toothpaste do you use? Colgate, "Great Regular Flavor"

2. What is your earliest memory? I was a toddler.
I pressed my hand flat on the leather ottoman and tried to raise myself. Just a flash, just that little moment, is all I remember.

3. Hot Dogs or Hamburgers? If I'm at the ballpark, I want a hot dog. Otherwise, cheeseburger.

4. If you could bring any one famous person back to life, who would it be? My all-time idol, JBKO. So much I have to ask her!

5. What is one thing we would always find in your fridge... what one thing would we never find? Always: Ketchup. Never: Tomatoes.

6. Did you have to go and look for the answer of #1? Yes! Busted!

7. Why don't watermelons grow on trees? They grow so big they would break the branch.

8. What is something that you own that you should probably just throw in the trash, but you never will? My cassettes.

9. I push you into a room and lock the door. I leave you there for 6 hours. The walls are chalkboards and in the middle of the room there is a box of colored chalk. What will be written/drawn on the walls when I let you out? Lyrics to Beatle songs.

10. When was the last time you changed the oil on your car? No car


11. In your extended family, who has been married the longest? My kid sister

12. Name one thing that is so normal to you now that someone who was your age 50 years ago would think was abnormal. Women doctors. I was watching reruns of What's My Line? from the 1950s, and the panel and audience seemed to assume every woman was a school teacher, elevator operator or secretary.

13. Have you ever wanted someone or something so bad that it hurt? Oh, yes.

14. What do you dip your french fries in? Ketchup

15. What was the last picture that you took? I came home the other day to the open cabinet and cat food on the floor ... yet no cats were anywhere in sight. I suspect Pink Mouse and Green Fish were being framed for this crime.