JS>Mike:
JS>In a few states, how many I don't really know, adultery is still a crim
JS>act. In New York, it's still a ground for divorce since NY hasn't becom
JS>THAT enlightened in having "no fault" divorce. 
JS>In the District of Columbia, adultery is still classified as a misdemea
JS>Don't know when it was last successfully prosecuted. Guess it's been a 
JS>while since the "inhabitants" of D.C. were so enlightened as to re-elec
JS>Marion Barry AFTER he did time for crack possession. 
JS>The point Robert was making Mike is that even if adultery WASN'T a crim
JS>some jurisdictions, it's still immoral. What possible message can Clint
JS>be sending to the youth of this country by his behavior? Do as I say an
JS>not as I do? Adultery is OK? PERJURY is OK if the ends justify the mean
 
     Personally I have to draw a distinction between adultry and
perjury.  While I do not personally consider adultery OK, it does not
violate my own threshold of a crime which is initiation of force or
fraud against another individual in all cases.  Perjury, however, does.
     I find it objectionable and quite inappropiate for a President of
the United States to act as Clinton has admitted doing with reference
to his sexual escapades.  I would even consider it grounds for the
people to demand his resignation, but these acts alone are not,in my
own personal judgement, criminally prosecutable.  However, perjury,
subornation of perjury, and obstruction of justice are crimes,
felonies, and if these allegations can be proven as I believe they will
be, there is no room for Clinton to continue to occupy the office of
President of the United States.
JS>How in God's name can a United States Attorney bring a criminal action 
JS>against someone who perjured themselves in Federal Court when the Presi
JS>of the United States apparently has flaunted the law and has dared Star
JS>prosecute him?
 
      Actually there is a question now being raised as to where an
indictment can be levied against a sitting president in the courts.
It may very well be that once Judge Starr has his case built, he may
only be able to turn it over to the House for indictment.  Even then,
though, I fully expect Clinton to go around counting heads and resign
rather than have the facts of his crimes made public in impeachment
proceedings.
JS>What kind of role model can Clinton be? How can he go on television and
JS>preach abstinence or caution against teen age pregnancy, or women's iss
JS>It's abundantly clear to me that he treats women as sex objects. He's 
JS>defiled his marital vows, totally trashed them. Has out and out lied to
JS>American public. And we, the land of the quick and the naive, not to 
JS>mention greedy, are willing to overlook these "minor" transgressions 
JS>because the economy is good, unemployment is down, interest rates are d
JS>inflation is down, etc. ad nauseum. The public is worse than a $20 whor
JS>any city street corner. We as a society have sold out our social consci
JS>for the belief that we're "better off" with this guy. 
 
    I do agree with you.  I am also quite amazed at the apparent
general reaction of the public to Clinton's activities.  When he
admitted to the affair with Genifer Flowers under oath, he admitted to
having lied to the American people.  At that point any modicum of
credibility he may have had before was obliterated.  I do not
understand how the American people can be so overwhelming satisfied
with a President who they cannot trust to tell them the truth.  A
president, BTW, who has yet to even offer an apology for having lied.
Not only has he violated our sacred trust, but he has shown absolutely
no remorse what so ever for having done so. 
JS>This is the same guy who sold the White House, the election of 96, and 
JS>knows what else. If it walks like a duck, quacks like a duck, looks lik
JS>duck, guess what? It's a duck. 
 
       Well, this is a lesson for us all, I suppose, in just how far we
are each removed from what has become the "mainstream".  My own mother,
one of those unexplainable "Dixicrats" who has held on to her
identification as a Democrat since Republicans dismantled the
Confederacy, even continues to support Clinton.  She appears to
honestly believe that Clinton is the target of a conspiracy to
undermine his credibility and, despite her very fundamentalist Southern
Baptist view of the world, overlooks his personal behavior entirely.
Thgis is from a woman who doesn't drink, doesn't dance, doesn't wear
makeup, and has been in church every time the door has opened as long
as I can remember.  Her house is filled with religious symbols and
trinkets, she reads the Bible every day, prays, keeps her TV on
religious stations around the clock and is an impecablyy honest woman
of the highest moral character.
       Yet, inexplicably, she continues to have faith in Clinton.  I
jsut don't understand the hold this man has over her and millions of
others like her.  He represents everything they are opposed to, acts in
a manner that shames everything she believes in, but still, somehow,
this Jimmy Swaggart of politics holds his grip on them.  
       What are we missing?  What are we failing to understand? 
 
                                                   /\/\ike
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