# Because I'm feeling snarky, Bill Clinton's WH bio for your perusal. **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [September 16, 2003, 6:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/because-im-feeling-snarky-bill-clintons-wh-bio-for-your-perusal/201978 "2003-09-16T18:58:51Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Muldoon\_s\_Squishiness](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/13edae/32.png) [@Muldoon\_s\_Squishiness](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Muldoon_s_Squishiness)\ **Post date:** [September 17, 2003, 2:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/because-im-feeling-snarky-bill-clintons-wh-bio-for-your-perusal/201978/41 "2003-09-17T02:14:06Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Jack Batty \* > \*\*In other breaking news: Every single person at this message board is sick to fucking death of the Death Ray joke. \*\* Whoop-de-fucking-doo. You’re not a mod or an administrator so blow it out your ear. ---
**Author:** ![Stoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/stoid/32/272_2.png) [@Stoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stoid)\ **Post date:** [September 17, 2003, 2:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/because-im-feeling-snarky-bill-clintons-wh-bio-for-your-perusal/201978/42 "2003-09-17T02:16:00Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Airman Doors, USAF \* > \*\* One of the most important political happenings of the 20th Century, and it gets one matter-of-fact sentence. \*\* While Eve’s observation has merit, I have to laugh at this. How sad is it that you actually believe this to be true? How much sadder and more bizarre is it that you can hold this belief in the same braincase that dismisses Watergate as mere political manuevering? ---
**Author:** ![Muldoon\_s\_Squishiness](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/13edae/32.png) [@Muldoon\_s\_Squishiness](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Muldoon_s_Squishiness)\ **Post date:** [September 17, 2003, 2:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/because-im-feeling-snarky-bill-clintons-wh-bio-for-your-perusal/201978/43 "2003-09-17T02:23:48Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by MsRobyn \* > \*\ ***RT** , until the coverup was revealed, the break-in didn’t even show up on radar. The Washington Post article from [Election Day 1972](http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn?pagename=article&node=&contentId=A53217-2002Jun3¬Found=true) makes absolutely no reference to Watergate, which I find interesting considering they were the ones that nailed him to the wall for it. It was at that point a minor crime, and if he had only told the truth he almost certainly could have survived, especially since there is ZERO evidence that he ordered the break-in. His crime was covering up what his minions were doing. \*\* The _Washington Post_ most certainly did **not** nail Nixon to the wall. Nor did Woodward and Bernstein. Nixon did it himself by approving the various illegal activities and then trying and failing to cover them up. The **Post** reported the information and di one of the finest cases of investigative journalism/reporting in history. Despite what Conservatives and Republicans always shriek and bleat, the **Post** wasn’t _out to get Nixon._ The paper didn’t _have a vendetta against him._ In fact it was the other way around. Nixon was out to get and destroy people. Nixon was the one with the vendetta. And as for there being **zero** evidence that he ordered the break-in, it’s been pretty well established that the infamous 18 1/2 minute gap on the Nixon tapes is a conversation between Nixon and Haldemann concerning the break-in and how to cover it up. ---
**Author:** ![Airman\_Doors\_USAF](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e36b37/32.png) [@Airman\_Doors\_USAF](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Airman_Doors_USAF)\ **Post date:** [September 17, 2003, 2:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/because-im-feeling-snarky-bill-clintons-wh-bio-for-your-perusal/201978/44 "2003-09-17T02:42:47Z")
Did he order it? Can you prove it? While I was doing the reading that **Elvis** told me I should do, I came across no mention of Nixon giving the order to break into the DNC Headquarters. Considering how they gave up the goods on everything else, one would think that someone, anyone would drop the dime on Nixon if it happened, and nobody did. He did the cover-up, but there’s no proof that he ordered the break-in. And I never said the paper had a vendetta against him. I said that they nailed him to the wall for it. Note that he wasn’t convicted for it (although he would have been). His resignation was very much a result of Woodward and Bernstein’s reporting. Don’t think for a second that I have something against them. They did a fine job. I’d thank you not to put words in my mouth in the future. **Stoid** , I understand that in your desire to canonize your boy Clinton you want to write off all of his misdeeds, but it was an impeachment proceeding against a President. For that reason only, it was VERY important, no matter what you think of the motivation behind it. ---
**Author:** ![Zoe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/a4c791/32.png) [@Zoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zoe)\ **Post date:** [September 17, 2003, 3:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/because-im-feeling-snarky-bill-clintons-wh-bio-for-your-perusal/201978/45 "2003-09-17T03:26:19Z")
> [@](#): > > While I was doing the reading that Elvis told me I should do, I came across no mention of Nixon giving the order to break into the DNC Headquarters. Considering how they gave up the goods on everything else, one would think that someone, anyone would drop the dime on Nixon if it happened, and nobody did. I think that within the last year or so one of the co-conspirators said that either Nixon was the instigator or was aware of the plan ahead of time. I will see if I can find a source to link to. Meanwhile, what kind of man would put Bill Cosby on an Enemies List? That’s how low and silly and stupid it got. The Senate investigation into Watergate was very bi-partisan. If you would like to get a glimpse of the “young man” who discovered that Nixon had taped his Oval Office discussions, tune into _Law and Order_. Real life attorney and former U.S. Senator Fred Thompson plays the D.A. At the time of the Watergate hearings, he served as legal counsel to Senator Howard Baker and asked a lot of the questions. Quiz of Friday. ---
**Author:** ![Zoe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/a4c791/32.png) [@Zoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zoe)\ **Post date:** [September 17, 2003, 3:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/because-im-feeling-snarky-bill-clintons-wh-bio-for-your-perusal/201978/46 "2003-09-17T03:27:32Z")
Er…Teacher needs to learn to spell… ---
**Author:** ![DreadCthulhu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/db5fbb/32.png) [@DreadCthulhu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DreadCthulhu)\ **Post date:** [September 17, 2003, 3:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/because-im-feeling-snarky-bill-clintons-wh-bio-for-your-perusal/201978/47 "2003-09-17T03:34:34Z")
He said second impeachment. First Johnson, then Clinton. Nixon was almost impreached, but resigned first. ---
**Author:** ![Zoe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/a4c791/32.png) [@Zoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zoe)\ **Post date:** [September 17, 2003, 3:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/because-im-feeling-snarky-bill-clintons-wh-bio-for-your-perusal/201978/48 "2003-09-17T03:46:53Z")
**Airman** , you are right that nothing _proves_ Nixon’s involvement before the break-in. But this is the interview that I was referring to in which a co-conspirator said that Nixon ordered the break-in: From the _Washington Post_: [http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn?pagename=article&node=&contentId=A51085-2003Jul26¬Found=true](http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn?pagename=article&node=&contentId=A51085-2003Jul26¬Found=true) From the BBC: [http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/3101661.stm](http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/3101661.stm) ---
**Author:** ![Guinastasia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guinastasia/32/5751_2.png) [@Guinastasia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Guinastasia)\ **Post date:** [September 17, 2003, 6:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/because-im-feeling-snarky-bill-clintons-wh-bio-for-your-perusal/201978/49 "2003-09-17T06:29:55Z")
Does it really matter whether or not he ordered it? He was still involved, and he still was a fucking crook. ---
**Author:** ![Stoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/stoid/32/272_2.png) [@Stoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stoid)\ **Post date:** [September 17, 2003, 7:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/because-im-feeling-snarky-bill-clintons-wh-bio-for-your-perusal/201978/50 "2003-09-17T07:42:03Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Airman Doors, USAF \* > \*\*Did he order it? Can you prove it? \*\* Looks like yes and yes! > [@](#): > > \*\* **Stoid** , I understand that in your desire to canonize your boy Clinton you want to write off all of his misdeeds, but it was an impeachment proceeding against a President. For that reason only, it was VERY important, no matter what you think of the motivation behind it. \*\* See my post again…which references Eve’s post…which points out the only real importance the event had, which was hardly the importance you were implying (wishin’ and hopin’ and plannin’ and dreamin’…) it would have. As to his misdeeds,\*\* Airman, \*\* I have no need to “write them off”, as it were. I could shine a 1000 watt bulb on his misdeeds, writ in bright red 48 pt text, with bold, underline, and italics, described in the most lurid terms possible, I could hear them sung by the mighty Mormon Tabernacle Choir, I could hear them solemnly intoned by James Earl Jones, and not a one would inspire in me anything more dramatic than a shrug. I am under no illusions about policians as a class, and Bill’s misdeeds simply pale into nothingness when held up against the felonious transgressions and villainy that so many of his predecessors were guilty of, not to mention the rap sheet His Awfulness is adding to by the hour. Unlike yourself, for instance, I can rest easy in the blissful certitude that his misdeeds are confined to those sometimes embarassing, occasionally shameful, rarely shocking and altogther negligible screwups and bad choices we all have full knowledge of, courtesy of the ever-hatin’ GOP itself, who, despite digging, rooting, praying, bribing, lying, implying and shoving their collective nose up the mans ass from the day he took office til the day he left and refusing to let him pass wind without issuing subpeonas demanding testimony as to the composition and quality of his effluvia, \*\*\* still \*\* \* couldn’t come up with anything more horrible than a rather sad and pathetic little sexual misadventure. (The poor guy spent his life aspiring to be the next JFK, Lotharian adventures and all…Monroe, for god’s sake!..and all he ends up with is a little coatroom fumbling. Poor shmuck.) So it’s one of two things: either what we know is everything there is to know, (yawn) or the entire Republican leadership, press and party are a passle of incompetent boobs without the wit of a 12 year old girl between them. You pick. ---
**Author:** ![Jack\_Batty](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jack_batty/32/3201_2.png) [@Jack\_Batty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jack_Batty)\ **Post date:** [September 17, 2003, 11:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/because-im-feeling-snarky-bill-clintons-wh-bio-for-your-perusal/201978/51 "2003-09-17T11:59:01Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Muldoon’s Squishiness \* > \*\*Whoop-de-fucking-doo. > > You’re not a mod or an administrator so blow it out your ear. \*\* Ok, Slappy. You keep working on that comedy routine, you’ll be opening at Ha-Ha’s any day now. You fucking zero. ---
**Author:** ![zuma](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/e9c0ed/32.png) [@zuma](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/zuma)\ **Post date:** [September 17, 2003, 1:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/because-im-feeling-snarky-bill-clintons-wh-bio-for-your-perusal/201978/52 "2003-09-17T13:08:11Z")
This is the weakest bush-bashing thread I’ve yet seen. So you are pissed off at the bush people for glorifying the presidency? What do you expect them to do? Shit, I am not exactly sure who you are pissed off at here… Bush, for giving Clinton a respectful bio, or Clinton himself for his misdeeds. The Bush whitehouse, while maybe deserving a tad bit of criticism, should not be hung up and lynched for giving Clinton a rather fair bio on the White House website. To coin a phrase, doors, the bush administration, via its website, was pretty fair and balanced in its bio of the Clinton presidency. I think you can e-mail the president via the [whitehouse.gov](http://whitehouse.gov) website if you have strong objections to their summaries of our former presidents. ---
**Author:** ![MsRobyn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/90ced4/32.png) [@MsRobyn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MsRobyn)\ **Post date:** [September 17, 2003, 1:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/because-im-feeling-snarky-bill-clintons-wh-bio-for-your-perusal/201978/53 "2003-09-17T13:34:47Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Airman Doors, USAF \* > \*\*And as usual, I forgot to log Robin out, so the above post was from me. Not that she would agree with anything I say, either. 🙂 \*\* Damn skippy, I wouldn’t. At least not in this thread. 😃 Anyone got any suggestions for a hobby for Airman? He’s got waaaayyyy too much time on his hands. Robin, who is going to wander off to dust her shrine to Bill Clinton and Al Gore. ---
**Author:** ![minty\_green](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f6c823/32.png) [@minty\_green](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/minty_green)\ **Post date:** [September 17, 2003, 2:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/because-im-feeling-snarky-bill-clintons-wh-bio-for-your-perusal/201978/54 "2003-09-17T14:06:09Z")
Poking bears with sticks? ---
**Author:** ![Ukulele\_Ike](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/df788c/32.png) [@Ukulele\_Ike](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ukulele_Ike)\ **Post date:** [September 17, 2003, 3:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/because-im-feeling-snarky-bill-clintons-wh-bio-for-your-perusal/201978/55 "2003-09-17T15:54:58Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Qadgop the Mercotan \* > **One of my mentors in college was Dr. Milton Eisenhower, Dwight’s brother.** Milton and Dwight? Missus Eisenhower named the kids _Milton and Dwight_? Man, THEY must have had to do some fancy stepping around the schoolyard. ---
**Author:** ![Isabelle](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/b5a626/32.png) [@Isabelle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Isabelle)\ **Post date:** [September 17, 2003, 3:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/because-im-feeling-snarky-bill-clintons-wh-bio-for-your-perusal/201978/56 "2003-09-17T15:58:35Z")
I like how Bill and Hillary couldn’t remember anything while in office (especially during critical times) yet they both have gone on to make millions by writing their memoirs of the White House Years. Go figure. ---
**Author:** ![Jack\_Batty](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jack_batty/32/3201_2.png) [@Jack\_Batty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jack_Batty)\ **Post date:** [September 17, 2003, 4:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/because-im-feeling-snarky-bill-clintons-wh-bio-for-your-perusal/201978/57 "2003-09-17T16:07:37Z")
I heard that same joke/opinion about 10 years ago, only instead of “Bill and Hillary”, it was “Ron and Nancy”. It was about as funny and relevant then as it is now. ---
**Author:** ![mack](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b19c9b/32.png) [@mack](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mack)\ **Post date:** [September 17, 2003, 4:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/because-im-feeling-snarky-bill-clintons-wh-bio-for-your-perusal/201978/58 "2003-09-17T16:52:24Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by zuma \* > \*\*So you are pissed off at the bush people for glorifying the presidency? What do you expect them to do? Shit, I am not exactly sure who you are pissed off at here… Bush, for giving Clinton a respectful bio, or Clinton himself for his misdeeds. > > The Bush whitehouse, while maybe deserving a tad bit of criticism, should not be hung up and lynched for giving Clinton a rather fair bio on the White House website. > \*\* I’m not going to bet the farm on it, but I’m relatively certain that [whitehouse.gov](http://whitehouse.gov) is maintained by a permanent staff regardless of who the president is. The Bush people had nothing to do with the bios of past presidents. Anyway, the purpose of the bios isn’t to dwell on every lie to cover up an affair or less important stuff like the staff selling missiles to Iran and using the money to go behind congress’s back to fund a murderous rebel army in Central America. No, they’re just there to give some basic info about the president in a brief, informative, semi-respectful way. ---
**Author:** ![ElvisL1ves](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/5daacb/32.png) [@ElvisL1ves](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ElvisL1ves)\ **Post date:** [September 17, 2003, 5:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/because-im-feeling-snarky-bill-clintons-wh-bio-for-your-perusal/201978/59 "2003-09-17T17:31:08Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Ukulele Ike \* > \*\*Milton and Dwight? Missus Eisenhower named the kids _Milton and Dwight_? > > Man, THEY must have had to do some fancy stepping around the schoolyard. \*\* "And he said: “Son, this world is rough And if a man’s gonna make it, he’s gotta be tough And I knew I wouldn’t be there to help ya along. So I give ya that name and I said goodbye I knew you’d have to get tough or die And it’s the name that helped to make you strong.” - “A Boy Named Sue” Might be a point there. The top American generals and admirals in WW2 and the Cold War had first names like Dwight, George, Chester, Omar, Hyman … ---
**Author:** ![RTFirefly](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/c77e96/32.png) [@RTFirefly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RTFirefly)\ **Post date:** [September 17, 2003, 7:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/because-im-feeling-snarky-bill-clintons-wh-bio-for-your-perusal/201978/60 "2003-09-17T19:00:48Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by MsRobyn \* > **RT** , until the coverup was revealed, the break-in didn’t even show up on radar. The Washington Post article from [Election Day 1972](http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn?pagename=article&node=&contentId=A53217-2002Jun3¬Found=true) makes absolutely no reference to Watergate, which I find interesting considering they were the ones that nailed him to the wall for it. I assume you have a point here, Dave, but I’m not sure what it is. > [@](#): > > It was at that point a minor crime, and if he had only told the truth he almost certainly could have survived, Depends on how much of the truth he told, clearly - and how much of that truth led to other truths. As we’ve been discussing here, “Watergate” was considerably more than just the one break-in. And most of the guys who were involved in the actual Watergate break-in were also involved in the earlier one. > [@](#): > > especially since there is ZERO evidence that he ordered the break-in. His crime was covering up what his minions were doing. Well, yes. There he is, the C-in-C, and he finds out that his subordinates are planning and executing break-ins. He’s shocked to find this out, fires the lot of them, and…what? That’s not the way it happened? He, as the Chief Executive, the guy who’s in charge of carrying out the laws, immediately threw his lot in with the lawbreakers, instructing the CIA to tell the FBI, a mere six days later, that the trail of the crime wasn’t to be pursued for “national security” reasons. (See the June 23, 1972 tape - the infamous “smoking gun”.) That’s taped evidence of a crime, btw - one that he committed on his own. > [@](#): > > Whereas we have videotape evidence that Clinton committed a crime from the get-go. “From the get-go”? When was this crime, and what, exactly, was the “get-go”? [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/because-im-feeling-snarky-bill-clintons-wh-bio-for-your-perusal/201978.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/because-im-feeling-snarky-bill-clintons-wh-bio-for-your-perusal/201978.md?page=4)