Katha Pollitt on Andrew Sullivan

Justin Schwartz jkschw at hotmail.com
Thu May 31 12:26:22 PDT 2001


Bill certainly DID break the law: he lied to a federal judge under oath, a point on which I am particularly sensitive. The judges are particular about it too. It makes things worse that he was chief exec and a lawyer. As to whatever Bill did with his interns, I don't care; that's between him and Hilary, although I think it's creepy for an older man to exploit an employment relation to take sexual advantage of evena willing much younger employee. None of this has much to do with the personal habits of a right wing publicist in getting a date. --jks


>
> >Just this past sunday Andrew went on and on in London times about
>clinton's 'sexual recklessness' and supposed psychological problems--about
>the thousandth piece he's written along these lines. he certainly didn't
>think Pres C or monica had a right to privacy! One thing you can say for
>old Bill, he didn't give Monica any fatal diseases, and he didn't troll for
>sex partners by filling out questionnaires on the internet!
>
>
>Distinctions, please. If you buy the line, Bill and Mon only didn't have
>the right to privacy b/c it's possible he broke the law. You don't have to
>buy that line, but then if you don't, you're no longer arguing about
>privacy, you're talking about the legitimacy of the charges against him.
>
>By the way, from everything I could tell from Monica's testimony and the
>Starr report, Bill was a psychological adolescent with a little dick and a
>narcissistic streak a mile wide. He may have never claimed to be anything
>different, but, if you believe Andrew's story half as much as you evidently
>believe Clinton's, then he hasn't claimed to be anything he isn't either.
>
>While you might not have to "troll" the internet or demean yourself by
>filling out a questionnaire (heavens!) to find partners, doing so isn't a
>crime. (And neither, btw, is having sex if you're HIV+ if you inform your
>partner.) This is precisely the kind of clean sex brigade crap that you
>accuse Andrew of being so good at. Takes one to know one, I guess.
>
> >Finally, I think anyone who is a practicing Catholic, anti-choice AND
>pro-welfare reform deserves to have their sexual peccadilloes widely known.
>The hedonism he has belatedly decided is all right for himself is not an
>activity he would make possible for women. Where's women's right to privacy
>in his scheme of things? In the back alley or the obstetrics ward. The heck
>with him I say -- what goes around comes around.
>
>The problem with this is that, even if the story is true, Sullivan's
>hypocrisy isn't a good argument in favor of the right to privacy--or the
>right to choice. It's a good argument not to lend him credibility, but
>there are a hundred Andrew Sullivan's waiting to pop up where that one
>falls.
>
>Christian
>

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