There must be a half life to scandals … and so, the Clinton's
just released, this past Friday night, a dump of many documents from the
Clinton Library relating to their numerous sordid scandals … Whitewater, Monica
Lewinsky, the pardoning of Mark Rich, Vince Foster, etc. … see:
UK Telegraph Story and
News10 Story. (The bigger the scandal, the longer must be the half-life ...) Many of these documents
were heavily redacted and some were held back altogether. To use a tired old
chestnut, this document dump was clearly and cynically meant to inoculate the
Clinton's against further use of this information. In any future discussions they can, with
a dismissive wave of the hand, offer the pusillanimous slight, “That’s old news!”
I find it very curious that good (or I might say evil)
politicians seem to sense the exact timing of the aging process of scandalous
stories in which they are involved. Thus, Hillary Clinton can put off
any testimony about Benghazi until the American people (and the media) will
dismiss any damaging revelations as “old news.” (Somehow Nixon never found the
exact timing of this half-life process … although he surely tried.) I, on the
other hand, react entirely the opposite way. Seeing politicians play this game
of rope-a-dope just incites my outrage even more ... at this politician … and at
the American people for allowing themselves to be so easily manipulated.
I guess I am forever cursed with my out-of-step mind.
And even more curious, after a sufficiently long delay
(using some mysterious formula), the public may again have an appetite
for the details of a particular scandal … the Sally Hemings, Thomas Jefferson
affair comes to mind. How do I respond to such ancient revelations? My normal reaction
is, “That’s old news!”
