The Clinton marriage
BY JAKE TAPPER
(08/26/99)

My goodness, you'd think that Bill Clinton invented adultery, the way we've heard the mightily self-righteous and hypocritical members of the anti-Clinton contingent harangue him over it. But you know what? The smear boys have succeeded: They have made an otherwise sane guy like Jake Tapper think that people like Gennifer Flowers and Kathleen Willey are telling the whole unadulterated truth.

Bill Clinton, under oath, 'fessed up to one sexual encounter (that did NOT result in consummation) with Gennifer Flowers many moons ago. A Penthouse magazine article from way back when quoted her friends as saying that it was indeed an attempt at a quick fling on her part that failed, hence her desire for revenge: Not only is she a lifelong Republican, she's also a woman used to being able to wrap men around her little finger, and when this one refused to wrap, she got angry.

Alas for her, her story falls apart upon examination. For instance: She says the affair started in 1979 in a certain Little Rock hotel. Trouble is, the hotel wasn't built until 1982. Oops. Flowers has told lie after lie after lie -- far more than Bill Clinton could even dream of telling -- yet you hold her credibility in greater esteem than Bill Clinton's.

The GOP figures that they can keep up the crap barrage under the principle that "where there's smoke, there's gotta be a fire." But in the case of all the phony "scandals" -- from TravelGate to FileGate to Whitewater itself -- the smoke's all coming out of some very-well-financed smoke machines.

-- Tamara Baker
St. Paul, Minn.

Christopher Andersen does not mention one solid source, yet we are suppose to believe anything mentioned in this book. Yes, Clinton-haters believe such rubbish, but they believe anything negative about them. Tapper mentions Bob Woodward and how his book backs up Andersen's. But as mentioned in the latest Brill's Content, Woodward's sources and direct quotes are as vague and questionable as Andersen's.

Also, you seem to give validity to the book because the Clintons do not disclaim it. Past experience shows denials lead to more attention, more questions and more book sales for Andersen.

The definition of nonfiction is compromised when we include these books in that category.

-- Linda Sparks

John McCain plays Dumbo
BY JAKE TAPPER
(08/26/99)

Jake Tapper forgot one elephant/gun statistic. The number of elephants that have prevented someone's wife from being raped and having her throat slit: 0.

By the way, don't forget on the same day the Jewish center shooting happened, another freak in Israel drove his car over and killed 15 people who were of a different religion. Having his car registered didn't prevent it.

Also, don't forget that all the guns Buford used at the Jewish center were already illegal in California. That didn't prevent it either.

-- Lance Larsen

Espionage without evidence
BY JEFF STEIN
(08/27/99)

What I think Jeff Stein's article is implying is that 1) if Chinese intelligence did get any valuable information out of Wen Ho Lee, they probably used methods so indirect and subtle that the poor man wasn't even aware of what he was giving them, and 2) whatever they got from him was probably so incremental as to be the intelligence equivalent of one piece of a 500-piece puzzle. And for this he's lost his job and might still be prosecuted and imprisoned. Spying without espionage. Collaborating without intent. How clever. It's almost like spying by witchcraft! I guess it's time for a witch hunt.

-- Vic Jang

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