Recalling Dianne Feinstein’s ‘gracious tribute’ in 1995 to sex-harasser Bob Packwood
Twenty-three years ago this month, in the watershed year 1995, Bob Packwood resigned from the U.S. Senate in an abrupt but calculated move to head off certain expulsion for serial … Continue reading
For Bill Clinton, the reckoning grinds on
It’s mid-August, almost exactly 20 years since Bill Clinton’s petulant, 4½ minute speech in which he conceded to having had an “improper” sexual relationship with a former White House intern … Continue reading
Rambling nostalgia: WETA’s ‘Washington in the ’90s’ documentary
A flaw common to documentary treatments of the 1990s (or of any decade, really) lies in the failure to address fundamental yet vital questions such as: “What’s the point?” “What … Continue reading
The Clinton interview we’d like to see
Former President Bill Clinton has been making the rounds of late, promoting a co-authored novel while renewing controversy about his furtive liaison with Monica Lewinsky that began at the White … Continue reading
Apologize to Monica Lewinsky? Would it matter?
Speculation arises from time to time about whether former President Bill Clinton should apologize to Monica Lewinsky for their affair at the White House that began during the government shutdown … Continue reading
‘Othering’ and the 1995 OKC bombing: Wiping away McVeigh?
The site of the deadliest domestic terror attack in American history nowadays is a meditative outdoor memorial featuring a reflecting pool guarded by loblolly pines, and 168 bronze-and-glass chairs (see … Continue reading
Narcissism on display: O.J. Simpson’s quasi-confession is aired
The quasi-confession of O.J. Simpson, the former football player and celebrity tried and acquitted in 1995 for killing his former wife and her friend, aired last night on the Fox … Continue reading
Re-reading Clifford Stoll’s 1995 Internet predictions: Bah!
Clifford Stoll’s 1995 newsmagazine critique of the emergent Internet is a digital classic, an off-target artifact that is constantly being rediscovered, and scoffed at, online. Few essays published in 1995 … Continue reading
Remembering Bill Clinton’s finger-wagging denial-lie, 20 years on
His eyes were narrowed, his face flushed. He wagged an index finger for emphasis and he nearly spat the words as television cameras rolled: “I want to say one thing … Continue reading
HLN’s oddly timed Clinton-Lewinsky rehash notable for what it left out
HLN’s two-hour look-back last night at the President Clinton-Monica Lewinsky scandal was notable for what it left out. And for its peculiar timing. Consider first the timing: Given the recent … Continue reading
