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Yep, those politicians sure can "get up to stuff" can't they.

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Clinton Admits To 'Wrong' Relationship With Lewinsky

President reverses earlier denial; asks the matter be ended

Clinton.jpg

WASHINGTON (AllPolitics, Aug. 17) -- Breaking seven months of near silence, President Bill Clinton admitted Monday night that he did, in fact, have an inappropriate and "wrong" relationship with ex-White House intern Monica Lewinsky, but insisted he did nothing illegal. (512K wav sound)

"I know that my public comments and my silence about this matter gave a false impression. I misled people, including even my wife," Clinton said, his voice breaking slightly. "I deeply regret that." (320K wav sound)

Clinton's four-minute address to the nation followed an afternoon of closed-door testimony for a federal grand jury looking into how Clinton answered questions about his relationship with Lewinsky in a deposition in the Paula Jones sexual-harassment case last January.

"While legally accurate, I did not volunteer information," Clinton said.

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The president's admission was a stunning reversal from his forceful, and now infamous, public statement last January when he said, "I want to say one thing to the American people. I want you to listen to me ... I did not have sexual relations with that woman, Miss Lewinsky."

Explaining his misleading public positions, the president said they were motivated by a desire to protect his family and "myself from the embarrassment of my own conduct."

Word that Clinton was changing his story began leaking out Sunday night, a development that was characterized by one family friend as "wrenching" for his wife Hillary and daughter Chelsea.

The first lady did not appear with her husband during his speech, but did have a hand in crafting the speech, sources tell CNN. The president's personal attorney David Kendall was strongly involved.

The president began writing his speech Sunday night, and sources say that the original version was much more apologetic than the one delivered by the president. 

 

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Instead, the president urged the public -- and Congress -- to put the matter to rest and allow him to deal with his family and the work of the nation.

"Now, this matter is between me, the two people I love most -- my wife and our daughter -- and our God. I must put it right, and I am prepared to do whatever it takes to do so. Nothing is more important to me personally. (352K wav sound)

"But it is private, and I intend to reclaim my family life for my family. It's nobody's business but ours," Clinton said in the most direct and forceful declaration of the speech. "Even presidents have private lives.

"This has gone on too long, cost too much and hurt too many innocent people," Clinton said. 

Forever known as the Chappaquid**** Incident after the Massachusetts island where it took place, the scandal in 1969 broke the Kennedy grip on the White House.

A drunk Ted had been driving back from a party to the family ‘compound’ on Martha’s Vineyard when he veered off a bridge and into a deep tidal ****.
Drowned: Mary Jo Kopechne was killed after Ted Kennedy drove his car off a bridge with her inside

Drowned: Mary Jo Kopechne was killed after Ted Kennedy drove his car off a bridge with her inside

Mary Jo was in the back seat and, while he claimed he was just giving her a lift back to her hotel, it was widely thought that he had picked her up for sex. Kennedy swam as**** to save himself, but left Mary Jo to drown – in fact, it was even worse than that.

It was nine hours before he reported the accident. In the meantime, he walked back to his motel, complained to the manager about a noisy party, took a shower, went to sleep, ordered newspapers when he woke up and spoke to a friend and two lawyers before finally calling the police.

Divers later estimated that if he had called them immediately, they would have had time to pull out Mary Jo. She had not drowned, but had survived in an air pocket inside the car – she was asphyxiated only when the oxygen ran out several hours later.

As always, Ted used the family name to save his neck. In any other state but Massachusetts, the Kennedys’ home turf, and with any other name, he would have been charged with homicide.

Instead, he escaped with a slap on the wrist: a two-year suspended sentence and the loss of his driving license for a year. He had been allowed to plead guilty to no more than the charge of leaving the scene of an accident.




Oh, sure--trot out the Kennedy scandal and the Clinton scandal and serve those up as a "So's yer old man" response to reports that Mark Sanford might be forsaking the Appalachian Trail for the campaign trail.  Sanford is an arch-conservative, so let's cut him some slack--we need a good ole winger in that Congressional seat. Thus emerges the healthy prospect of Tea Party support:

 

<<<"Mark Sanford is a reliable fiscal conservative so I, like many conservatives, would be delighted to see him in the race," said Joanne Jones, vice chairman of the Charleston Tea Party, though she noted she'll wait to see the entire field before throwing her support behind a candidate.>>>


That statement by a Tea Party leader underscores the point often made by observers of that particular political cult, namely that they don't worry too much about social/moral issues; its all about taxes and spending and a reprobate who salutes these priorities is okay by them.


Let us remember more carefully just what kind of hypocrite Mark Sanford really was.  He was a member of that little fellowship "C Street" cultists that also included the adulterous Senator John Ensign.  Half a dozen or so  of these characters lived in, and paid very low rent for, accommodations in a house on C street where they allegedly doted on things spiritual.  At least  two of their number, Ensign and Sanford, found more erotic subject matter to dote on.


Not only was Sanford justly condemned for his extramarital adventures, he was fined $70,000 for ethics violations, the largest such fine ever imposed on a public official in South Carolina.


If a Democrat with the demonstrated hypocrisy and corrupt morals of Mark Sanford were to announce a run for national  office in South Carolina, the conservative sector would explode with moralizing diatribes about how unfit for public office a man like that must be.  They would renew the kind of criticism heaped on Bill Clinton, asserting that any man with such disdain for his commitment to marital fidelity can not be trusted to faithfully perform his duties of public office.

 

Mark Sanford has no monopoly on hypocrisy.

 

To bestir your memory:

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mark_Sanford

 

http://www.democraticundergrou...;address=389x5919288

 

http://www.sfgate.com/politics...Congress-4142772.php

 

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