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Clinton is too mired in scandal to ever be considered a good president
JOSH MOENNING is a
sophomore advertising
and political science
major and a Daily
Nebraskan columnist.
President Clinton likes to worry
about his legacy.
I don’t think he should lose any
sleep over it, though. In my book,
he’ll always be one of the greatest.
Yes, when it comes to manipula
tion, abuse of power, disregard of
conscience and downright tomfool
ery, President Tubby will be remem
bered as second to none. You may be
thinking to yourself, “Hey wait a
minute, Nixon was a pretty bad guy,
now wasn’t he? I’m sure he was way
more corrupt than our present com
mander-in-chief.”
Nope, it’s not looking that way.
If even half of all the allegations
corresponding to half of all the
scandals Clinton has amassed dur
ing his six years at the White House
are true, he makes Tricky Dick look
like a regular St. Bartholomew.
Now I am not usually an avid
Clinton basher. Unlike the man cur
rently inhabiting it, I do hold respect
for the office of the presidency. I
even tried to promise myself at the
beginning of the year that I would
not devote a column to defaming the
president’s already dishonorable
name. There were times when I felt
the Republicans in Congress should
focus less of their attention on
dethroning the Teflon president and
more on pushing their own agendas.
But those times are now long
gone. With the recent arrival of
Lewinsky-gate, I think it’s about
time we finally expose Mr. Clinton
for what he really is and has been
from the beginning of his career: a
deliberately deceptive, politically
ruthless manipulator of the people
who is not and never was worthy of
the presidency.
Now that I’ve gotten that off my
chest, let me give you just a few of
the reasons why I believe this. Let’s
review just a handful of the “slight”
mishaps that have thus far highlight
ed the Clinton legacy:
■ Whitewater - The granddad
dy of all the Clinton scandals. It
involved an Arkansas land deal gone
bitterly sour, shady business deal
ings with a shady savings and loan
director and a bailout of said savings
and loan that cost federal taxpayers
more than $60 million.
■ Filegate - The rummaging
through of at least 900 FBI files on
various Republican officials in the
Reagan and Bush administrations.
Clinton has claimed it was an inno
cent mistake made by inexperienced
White House workers. Chuck
Colson, a top Nixon White House
aide, was in possession of one FBI
file and was sent to prison.
■ The peculiar and mysterious
death of Vince Foster - Even if
Foster, a former law partner of the
first lady’s and White House lawyer,
really did commit suicide, why did
Clinton officials defy police orders
to seal and secure his office? Why
did Bernard Nussbaum, another
White House lawyer at the time, bar
federal investigators from searching
the office directly after Foster’s
death?
■ Travelgate - The firing of
career travel staffers to make room
for friends of Bill and Hillary.
Allegedly, Hillary brought in the
FBI in order to justify the firings.
Billy Dale, the career head of the
White House Travel Office, was
promptly brought up on criminal
charges by the Fed which later were
dismissed by a jury in deliberation
for just two hours.
■ The Chinese and Indonesian
fund-raising contributions - Are
you a businessman from a relatively
poor Asian country? Would you like
to buy influence to the U.S. govern
ment? See the Lippo group or John
Huang. Bill Clinton worked for
them.
■ The first lady’s cattle
futures - Back home in Arkansas,
Hillary mysteriously turned a
$1,000 investment into $100,000 on
the cattle futures market. Market
experts called that gain virtually
impossible under normal trading
conditions.
■ Paula Jones - The now over
shadowed sexual harassment case
that stemmed from an alleged meet
ing between Arkansas state employ
ee Jones and Gov. Clinton in an
Arkansas hotel room. Where is the
outrage from the women’s rights
groups such as the National
Organization for Women that so
readily and enthusiastically attacked
Bob Packwood and Clarence
Thomas during their trials of alleged
sexual harassment? Maybe it’s only
sexual harassment if it happens to
be a Republican male allegedly
doing the harassing.
And is it simply a coincidence
that the group helping to fund Mrs.
Jones’ lawsuit, along with at least 13
other conservative organizations
across the nation, has been audited
numerous times since Clinton took
office, while no liberal group has
seen any such tough luck?
■ And now presenting
Lewinsky-gate - True, having an
affair with a 21-year-old intern is an
immoral and despicable act, espe
cially if you’re leader of the free
world, but not an illegal one. What
is illegal though, are a couple little
Melanie Falk/DN
things called suborning pequry and
obstruction of justice.
From shady business deals to
mysterious suicides to torrid love
affairs with big-haired Jezebels, this
president has continually displayed
to the nation and to the world that
when it comes to character, integrity
and almost anything that is right, he
is running on empty.
All this from what Clinton
promised to be the “most ethical
administration in history.”
I’m afraid you missed the boat
on that one, Mr. President. But in —
the future, when historians call for
the administration skilled most in
deception, debauchery and overall
decadence, you and your legacy will
be sure to get my vote.
Wilted flower children
The hippies were doomed from the start; and so are their heirs
KATERYNA OVCHARENKO
is a freshman English
major and a Daily
Nebraskan columnist
* Where have all die flowers gone?
Where have all the flower children
gone?
According to the dictionary, a
hippie is the one who doesn’t con
form to society’s standards and advo
cates a liberal attitude and lifestyle.
The hippie era started as asmall
movement of children of wealthy
parents. They were very tired of then
lives, of the surroundings they lived
in, of the rules they had to Mow and
obey. Children waited to escape, to
break through, to leave this night
mare somewhere behind, in the past,
and to enjoy die new life. They need
ed changes, something that could
break die Puritan shackles of their
parents.
So they did.
The children dashed to the
forests, ran to green meadows and,
sticking flowers into their long hair
and preaching free love, they seemed
to be really free. Innocent flower
i ........
children - those who were against
systems and hierarchies - how could
you have known that very soon you
would have your own leaders, your
own system, your own hierarchy?
Everything started so well. The
leading idea was wonderful. They
didn’t ask for much. All they needed
was freedom, love and peace. The
flower children made no distinctions
between nations, races, ideologies
and religions. The way to peace in
the world was led through love and
tolerance. Being a hippie when the
movement started was not a matter
of using drugs, of dressing like
bums, listening to rock ’n’ roll; it
was a kind of philosophical approach
to life.
The movement was widespread
in a couple of years and reached its
climax in the ’60s. By then, huge
crowds of cheerful youth were mov
ing from place to place looking for
entertainment. The primary idea was
left, but it was already obscured by
dirty accretions.
The primary idea of liberty was
expressed as legalizing marijuana
and freedom in ecstatic expressions,
namely dancing and singing in die.
parks, orgiastic sex, etc. Drugs
became one of the most important
issues'. You are God - use “grass” to
reach nirvana and you’ll feel that you
are as God!
Hippies considered themselves to
be one with nature. Have a look how
they did it! By making their “free
love” with one another under green
bushes and producing children free
of parents. Perhaps this is the sad
metaphor of flower children:
Children were bom and had to live
like flowers, all by themselves.
The idea of self-expression (“do
your thing”) was mixed with the idea
of living for the moment. “Bum your
candle at both aids and enjoy the
moment; do what you want and like
to do! You are not supposed to care
about the opinion of others about
you.”
Love became accepting others as
they were, again giving everyone the
freedom of self-expression. Hippies
didn't .draw global conclusions judg
ing only their behaviors; it would
have been a narrow definition.
Much attention was given to
female equality. Women demanded
not only the same pay and working
conditions as men, but also equal
opportunities in drinking, smoking,
using drugs and taking or dismissing
lovers.
The pagan idea was that the
human body is a temple developed
with great success. There was noth
ing unclean in it; itwasasacred
place that had to be adorned for the
ritual of love.
Music played an important role
in the lives of hippies of the '60s.
Rock 'n' roll and folk songs - all was
for one, to help people express them
selves. Frequent concerts that gath
ered thousands of hippies were held
all ova the country. What's funny is
that those concerts, which usually
took place somewhere in the open
air, caused the spoiling of nature.
jf /• * ,
Can you imagine so many young
people, all of whom wouldn’t have
wanted to have damaged the sur
roundings they found themselves in?
Especially the young people, who
wanted to be free in expressing
themselves?
Hippie morality wasn’t new,
though. It’s only in the ’60s that
these philosophical views became so
popular. For example, the system of
Bohemian ideas about life was very
close to the hippie morality! I do not
think the Bohemians are the limits;
you can trace hippies through the
history of mankind.
Bohemian children were (and
are) encouraged to develop their own
personalities, so that the world will
be saved by this new free generation
- children blossom freely like flow
ers. Life is oriented on creative work
and living in beautiful surroundings,
seizing the moment as it comes. So
these ideas were not new at all; they
only received a new interpretation,
and the views changed a little, I p £
It was weird to proclaim living
somewhere in the forests or woods,
to eat bugs and maybe honey with
sweet roots for desert, to plow the
soil ami grow crops, to have group
sex with every member of your small
tribe and then to bring up common
children. Can you imagine yourself
being bom in the middle of nowhere
with a bunch of people who all are
your parents? It reminds me of the
source of human civilization.
I wonder, how could those people
from the Stone Age manage to sur
vive with their ideas and appear
thousands of years later, in the
1960s, as hippies? Man, it was die
20th century already! How people
could forget about all the progress
they’d made during the centuries and
rush to jungles to live together with
their closest relatives - monkeys?
If everyone had followed hippies,
we would have had no civilization
right now. Only silly teenagers cduld
follow these ideas, to leave their
homes in search of adventures with
drugs and sex. The “baby boomers”
said their word: There were too many
teen-agers in the ’60s who had noth
ing to do and couldn’t find a place
for themselves.
Hippies were obviously part of a
doomed movement. It was a good
lesson to any group: You just can’t
stand up against the whole society
with your own green ideas. There is
no way you can do this unless your
ideas match this society in at least a
few respects.
Even when the wave of the
flower children passed by, we still
could find “representatives” of hip
pies. Different kinds of hippies exist
now- there are old and-new hippies,
amnesiac hippies, Web hippies,
cyber hippies and many others. They
will always be among us, until their
philosophy of freedom, love and
peace exists.
. Until they grow into something
new, they will try to change the
world and will fail again.