Ann Althouse’s latest statement about her calling out feminist bloggers for appearing enthusiastically with Bill Clinton I’m sure is going to make the lefty blogosphere seeth with even more anger:
So I called attention to the fact that Jessica Valenti, positioned right in front of Clinton, did look a bit like that woman, Miss Lewinsky. I thought the photograph was set up in a way that was detrimental to the Clintons’ interests, and I thought that was funny and that it presented an opportunity for some painful satire. I made it quite nasty, and I did it deliberately. I’m not sorry I did it. I mean to castigate feminists and so-called feminists who cozy up to Clinton. They were surely justified in fighting back at me, and I can understand why they want to ruin me.
Maybe so, but why isn’t it legitimate to question why Bill Clinton gets a free pass from feminists when he is, by all accounts, a sleaze ball when it comes to women. Let’s face it guys, Bill Clinton is the kind of guy if you found out your wife, girlfriend or sister were working for, you probably wouldn’t exactly feel good about it. We all know the type.
I think it’s a legitimate question, just as it is asking Newt Gingrich why he was crucifying Clinton when he himself was involved in his own affair. Politicians are, probably more often than not, distasteful human beings. You’d think the left, of all people, would know that, and would be willing to talk about it civilly once they got over the initial anger at being called out on the double standard.
One if my big beefs with the left is their general unwillingness to have a dialog; someone strays off the reservation, and it’s time to bring out the torches and pitchforks. It’s not a way to build a lasting political movement. In our community, we need to be careful of that as well.