Richard M Perry <76461.2737@compuserve.com> asks:
> Just out of curiosity, when is your next visit to sunny Florida
> going to be?

Welcome back....

Yeah, caught the Uncle Sam book, and liked it a lot. I haven't
had much chance to read comics lately, but when I saw the Alex Ross
stuff, I knew I had to pick it up. (Currently trying to catch up on
the Astro City arc.)

Thanks for all that...it's a nifty little season.

A 4.0 average?

Listen to my voice...watch more TeeVee...you will watch more
TeeVee... you will forget all about Barnabas....

Oops, wrong show.

jms

{original post had no questions}

Entering rant mode....

Of course the president screwed around...hell, it's one step
away from being a requisite for the job. Every president does...what
the heck's the point of BEING president otherwise? Some get caught,
some don't, that's the only difference.

If you were to remove every member of the senate and house who
was screwing around, you'd end up with maybe a dozen people, including
Strom Thurmond, who *would* be screwing around except that the
necessary parts withered up and fell off 15 years ago along with what
little remained of his common sense.

Frankly, I don't care who the president screws as long as it
ain't the country. And right now, the country is doing better than
it's done in the last 20 years. That's what will be noted in history.
The rest is marginalia.

jms

Carl Cantarella <105030.3700@compuserve.com> asks:
> He may have a 79% approval rating, but is this what we really
> want running the country? Didn't Richard Nixon get ousted because
> of an obstruction of Justice by trying to cover up a third rate
> attempt at a robbery after he found out about it? Why shouldn't
> the same standards apply here?

"What's really at issue concerning this latest scandal is whether or
not he *suborned perjury* and *actively engaged in an obstruction of
Justice,* and I think we both know the answer to that question."

No, actually, we *don't*. We have a great deal of rhetoric, but
that's the full extent of it. One of the things about the American
justice system is that it is based on the concept of innocent until
proven guilty.

You say scandals...but after eight years, and $30 million of my
(our) tax money spent, not one servicable charge against Clinton has
come out of Whitewater. Not one. You spend $30 million on lawyers and
you can get something on darn near anyone in the country...but they
*still* haven't been able to tag him with anything. Now we have this
new batch of unproven charges and allegations, which for all anyone
knows is as bogus and trumped up as the Whitewater situation.

I would also suggest that there is a difference (by several
orders of magnitude) between (possibly) having an affair with someone
on the one hand, with or without any later concerns about it, and on
the other hand Nixon with the systematic utilization of dirty tricks,
wiretapping, character assassination, burglaries, and general thuggery
practiced by Richard Nixon and his cronies. The harrassment of campus
dissidents by FBI, break-ins following the leak of the Pentagon Papers,
fake press releases issued under Muskie's name on his stationery during
the election, the Democratic National Headquarters break-in, kickbacks
and bribes made to Spiro the Zero Agnew (and it didn't take 8 years and
$30 million to document that one), the creation and maintaining of
enemies lists, use of the IRS to harrass political enemies, and
deliberate destruction of evidence (the 18.5 minute gap), among many
others.

Nixon was a mean, venal, destructive creature who used the
system to destroy his enemies. At his worst in this situation, if
guilty, Clinton was massively stupid and exercised poor judgement.

There's a substantial difference.

jms