Opinion

It’s time for Bill Clinton to take a walk in the Chappaqua woods

It’s 2018. One of the world’s most powerful married men had a 22-year-old intern perform oral sex on him in his office. He’s been accused of sexual assault by three other women. One claims, as is the case with so many of the men who have fallen from positions of power as a result, that he exposed himself to her (which always makes me, at least, pause and wonder why on earth so many men seem to want to do this). We know, too, that he lied about his tryst with the intern.

So why is Bill Clinton still presiding over glamorous parties?

When Monica Lewinsky was disinvited from a Town & Country Philanthropy Summit earlier this month where Bill Clinton was speaking, the question shouldn’t have been why was she disinvited. It should have been why is Bill Clinton is headlining events at all.





And boy, is he ever. Clinton has a full social schedule this summer. In June he’ll be publicizing his book “The President is Missing” along with his co-author James Patterson all across the country. He’ll also make time to host the Clinton Foundation dinner, where tickets range from $2,500 to $100,000 and Shaggy and Sting are scheduled to perform.

Again, he’s almost certainly guilty of actions that would be categorized as harassment in 2018. The fact that the Lewinsky affair happened as long ago as 1995 is no matter.

Charlie Rose is accused of harassment by several employees dating back to the late 1990s — and he lost his job in November.

People seem curiously willing to hold Clinton to a different standard than other men accused of sexual harassment. Many don’t seem especially bothered by his actions at all and lay the blame for the scandal squarely on Lewinsky. In a 2014 Economist/YouGov poll, 58 percent of those surveyed had a favorable opinion of Bill Clinton. Meanwhile, 48 percent had an unfavorable opinion of Lewinsky.





As recently as 2016, the very liberal Joy Behar was dismissing the women who slept with Clinton as “tramps” on “The View.” Not that much has changed since the period in the ’90s when Maureen Dowd dismissed Lewsinky as being “nutty and slutty” and “a ditsy, predatory White House intern who might have lied under oath for a job at Revlon.”

A Rasmussen Reports poll taken in November 2017, a month after the #MeToo movement began, found that 59 percent of people believe the accusations against Bill Clinton. But you wouldn’t know it from the way he’s being treated.

For some time, Lewinsky, who has emerged as a thoughtful anti-bullying advocate, said her relationship with Clinton was consensual. Still, it’s reasonable to wonder precisely how consensual a relationship can be between the leader of the free world and an intern.





Like many of us in light of the #MeToo movement, Lewsinky has recently been considering the nature of consent. Recently, in Vanity Fair, Lewinsky claimed that the past years have made her rethink the dynamics between her and Clinton. While still remorseful about her actions, she described his behavior as a “gross abuse of power.”

Some will contend that Lewsinky came on to Clinton, but there’s no argument wherein we can deny she was his employee.

Tthere’s a big difference between “not being the worst man in the world” and “being a guest of honor”

As for Lewinsky’s supposed seductiveness — plenty of 22-year-old women get crushes on their married older bosses. Plenty of married older bosses are man enough, and professional enough, to politely decline. Barack Obama’s personal life was notably scandal-free during his presidency, and it seems hard to believe that no young woman ever propositioned him.





In her Vanity Fair article, Lewinsky wrote of Clinton: “He was my boss. He was the most powerful man on the planet. He was 27 years my senior, with enough life experience to know better.”

Men in similar positions to Clinton’s — even very liberal men — have been correctly and swiftly pushed to the sidelines by defenders of the #MeToo movement. Sen. Al Franken resigned after pictures of him pretending to grope a woman in 2006 emerged. After lewd allegations against comedian Louis C.K. surfaced, FX cut ties with him. New York’s Attorney General Eric Schneiderman resigned within hours of being accused of abusive behavior by four women and was yelled at by TV host Samantha Bee in the process.

It’s not hard to find worse men than Bill Clinton of course (Harvey Weinstein). It’s not even hard to find worse men named Bill (here’s looking at you, Cosby). But there’s a big difference between “not being the worst man in the world” and “being a guest of honor in an age where women are speaking out against assaulters like you.”

If Democrats want to hold Donald Trump accountable for his alleged misconduct, and we should, then we have to hold Democrats accountable, as well. Sexual harassment isn’t an important issue because it serves as leverage against another party. It’s important because it destroys women’s lives and careers. At least in Lewsinky’s case, we know the fallout from the affair rendered her suicidal. But Clinton seemed to go blithely on, largely beloved in spite of the way he abused his power.

Maybe this is the year we say enough. After 20 years, it’s time for Bill to go and take a long walk in the Chappaqua woods.





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