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 steemed
historians, journalists, political operatives, and caterers are
no doubt cooking up a long series of conferences dedicated to determining
the True Clinton Legacy. One
suspects
the former president himself may address some of these gatherings,
seeing in them a chance to further spin his own story and also check
out the waitress action in local Waffle Houses.
Yet with all due respect to the noble participants, one relishes
the prospect of missing these events. Not only will they produce
droning so profound as to further glaze the eyes of corpses. They
can also be counted on to largely miss the point. Bill, and his
defenders, will understandably insist that he will be best remembered
for matters associated with the economy, international affairs,
and perhaps AmeriCorps. Yet if truth were the ultimate goal, the
legacy hunt would lead directly to a courtroom in New York's Northern
District.
It was in that courtroom that Judge David Hurd ruled (just last
week) that calling a woman "Monica Lewinsky" can be considered a
form of sexual harassment. Unfairly or not, these two words (or,
for that matter, either one uttered separately) best sum up what
most Americans will remember about the Clinton era. No degree of
spinning can change this fact.
Judge Hurd — now known in some quarters as the Learned Hurd
— came to his conclusion as he considered a lawsuit against
Mr. Alex Young, a garrulous professor at the State College of New
York. Mr. Young's troubles stem from allegedly having created a
"sexually hostile environment" for a former student by calling this
student "Monica Lewinsky." Mr. Young also aired references to Monica's
"more notorious conduct," including a crack along these lines: "Shut
up, Monica. I'll give you a cigar later."
One is obviously hesitant to lend any support to such a lawsuit.
As is all too common these days, a little good-natured jibing is
seen as an opportunity to cash in, this time by an Israeli immigrant
named Inbal Hayut, who complained not only of "shame and humiliation"
but also charged the references to Monica caused her grades to suffer.
How fast the immigrants learn our shoddy ways.
Yet it is also true that calling a woman Monica is not exactly a
pat on the head. Like the name Bork, the name Monica is
now synonymous with a specific type of human behavior. In most of
the world's major cities, in selected districts, the mention of her
name will inspire the immediate recitation of a price list, with a
possible discount on President's Day. Students from late elementary
school on up nod wisely when the name is uttered, and before much
longer criminal defendants in some parts of the country will no doubt
hear themselves charged with "Commission of a Monica in the first
degree," etc.
This isn't fair, it can be reasonably argued. There were many pleasant
events we can associate with the Clinton years,
| “It
is also true that calling a woman Monica is not exactly
a pat on the head.” |
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including NAFTA, welfare reform, and the raging Dow. It should also
be remembered that the president worked hard for peace in the Middle
East and kept his sense of humor in the face of danger, as when
an apparent maniac attempted to pilot his small aircraft into the
White House living quarters.
Yet human nature, American-style, dictates that all those play a
distant second to Monica, a name that sums up the Clinton years
as a time of sleaze so deep and disfiguring that to simply call
a woman by the name of the president's former love interest is to
maim her and possibly render her worthy of financial reparations.
Understandably, Monica wishes this were not so. "Monica is dismayed
this incident ever occurred," her publicity agent, Juli Nadler,
said last week, "but that was in 1998, when her name was linked
to presidential scandal. It's February 2001, and when people hear
her name now, they think Monica Lewinsky handbag designer, e-commerce
entrepreneur, Yahoo Internet Life cover girl, and the Post's
own 'It' girl. Clearly, she has moved on and taken her good name
with her."
That is spin worthy of the master himself. It is also utterly in
vain. The fact is, Monica could dig up the Holy Grail and she'd
still be known primarily for one thing, and one thing only. Bill
finds himself tarred by the same brush, reminding one of the old
joke about the great industrialist: "I built great bridges, roads,
hospitals for the indigent. I built homes for orphans and widows,
fed the poor of Africa and Appalachia, bought shoes for the world's
peasants and fed the hungry on all the continents. But just one
little indiscretion with a goat, and that's all anyone remembers."
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