America’s Prince Charles and Camilla?

Are the Clintons done and gone for good? Hillary makes noises like the wants to run again in two years but that is merely the electro-muscular twitching of a dead frog. One hopes. (Donald Trump could not be THAT lucky!)

No candidate wants Bill Clinton on their podium. He has, finally, been done in by the #MeToo movement’s accounting for his serial sexual predations. The once-powerful couple’s 13-city tour has been cancelled due to poor sales. (Source here.)

Channel surfing on the Manor’s ancient b&w Philco, happened to catch Tuesday evening part of the A&E network’s six-part series, The Clinton Affair. It is evenly balanced — remarkably so. (But should have been titled “Affairs,” plural.) With extensive interviews with prosecutor Ken Starr and — ta da! — Monica Lewinsky amazingly looking much the same as she did 20 years ago, when that affair and her blue dress threatened to bring down the Clinton presidency.

Monica shares her humiliation at the late-night comedians’ jokes, which A&E helpfully replays. As is a snippet of the infamous SNL skit with hefty John Goodman playing confidante-turned-informant Linda Tripp.

You can watch the episodes here at the A&E site.
(Don’t know when they’ll be rerun on cable but likely they will.)

Also spell-binding is the footage of Clinton’s deposition, wherein he parses what the meaning of the word “is” is. And the interview with a Ken Starr assistant who accompanied the doctor to the White House late at night to take the President’s blood sample to match the DNA on the blue dress.

There is Hillary Clinton on a morning talk show imagining the “vast right-wing conspiracy” of, largely, Federalist Society lawyers known as “The Elves.” Sure enough, there is a very young Brett Kavanaugh sitting over the left shoulder (the viewer’s right) of special prosecutor Ken Starr. (How delicious that Hillary had been scheduled on Rachel Maddow back in September just as the Kavanaugh allegations broke and she had to tip toe around a response! Our take is here.)

‘Genuinely, morally outrageous’

The six-part series also gives face-time to Bill’s other victims: Paula Jones, Juanita Broaddrick, and Kathleen Willey. 

Still defending his old boss is the reptilian James Carville, the infamous fixer who, back then, infamously tarred the victims as “trailer trash.”

“Watching The Clinton Affair (says this reviewer) makes it difficult to see the events leading up to Clinton’s impeachment as anything other than genuinely, morally outrageous.” 

Arguably, Bill Clinton’s conduct was as bad or worse than Richard Nixon’s. How Clinton survived to finish his term is truly remarkable. 

Even to this partisan Republican 20 years later, the Clinton affair(s) do not rise to the level of an impeachable offense. No, not even the lying. Instead, Bill Clinton and his enabling, power-hungry wife must suffer the verdict of history. 

What’s love got to do with it?

Ann of Althouse believes:

Bill Clinton loved her and that he watched this show and felt deep pangs of loss of her love and her company these past 20 years. I’m not saying he’s a good person. I’m just observing the fact of the sheer magnetism of Monica Lewinsky. I wish Bill Clinton had simply resigned and walked away from the presidency — given it all up for love. I think she deserved it, she whose youth he appropriated, she who really did love him.

Hillary, give the man the divorce he so clearly needs! Like Charles and Camilla, the two love birds can finally get legal!

What else we’re reading the day before Thanksgiving

Attention John Nichols: “How the Beto O’Rourke bubble could burst,” in Politico.

If O’Rourke had made real inroads in Trump territory, then it would make perfect sense to dispatch him to similar territory across the country as the party’s standard-bearer. But he was crushed in Texas’ more rural, lightly populated counties by a 2-to-1 margin.… Red state Democratic candidates like Krysten Sinema who steered clear of the culture wars had better results on Election Day than forthrightly progressive candidates like O’Rourke.

• Dilbert cartoonist Scott Adams on “Only President Trump seems to get it right on Khashoggi” 
• “Mexico is deporting migrant caravan members so we don’t have to”
• “Stacey Abrams claims election was rigged. Brian Kemp destroys her claims.”

And today’s winner: “Eastern Michigan U ends Vagina Monologues since not all women have vaginas.” And you wonder how Donald Trump gets elected?