"Lewinsky was 22 — and Chelsea Clinton 15 — when, with the flash of a thong, La Monica turned the commander-in-chief..."

"... into what she called her 'sexual soulmate' in a 'mutual relationship' that lasted approximately two years."

In a weird way, I hope she delivers an honest, introspective account of how she managed to clear away the emotional rubble, if indeed she has, and if indeed our celebrity-train-wreck culture will let her 14 years after her world imploded.

Yeah, Lewinsky has a book to sell, even though she "gave hours of interviews to Andrew Morton, Princess Di’s British biographer, for his 1999 book, 'Monica’s Story,' the same year she spilled her guts along with some tears in a long, unpaid ABC News sit-down with Barbara Walters." She has a book to sell because she's lived through a long expanse of years since the 1999 glossy media blitz that she might have imagined would get her life going on a rewarding new track.

What's it been like being Monica Lewinsky all these years? That's the new story. Monica, The Middle Years. Of course, she wants money, but she wanted money in 1999 when she gave away those interviews. She must have thought it would work out well. Now, she can tell us how she thought that and how it didn't go so well.

And of course, she can retell the old story, with new more honest/more lurid details, and with revelations about all the times she fudged the truth with Morton and Walters, to serve what she believed were her interests at the time.

She's also earned a master’s degree in social psychology from the London School of Economics. That along with the maturity of her advanced age (39) might bring some actual insight to the story of Monica and Bill — which is never going to go away.

IN THE COMMENTS: Rabel notes that the word "unpaid" — seen in the quote I extracted above — no longer appears at the linked article and provides, via Wikipedia, the information that "Lewinsky made about $500,000 from her participation in the book and another $1 million from international rights to the Walters interview."

Why is it that Obama can't just enjoy his slow jam with Jimmy Fallon?

We were talking about Obama's effort at comedy on the Jimmy Fallon show. I had said, in the post, "Doesn't he have a job?" In the comments, Rabel said:

From the AP, April 25, 2012....

KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) — NATO says that two service members have been killed in separate attacks in southern Afghanistan, while two others have died of non-battle injuries.

The coalition said in statements that one service member was killed by an improvised explosive device Wednesday and another by a similar weapon on Tuesday....

So far this month, 31 coalition members have died in Afghanistan, bringing the year's toll to 122."

Barack Obama was their Commander-in-Chief.

Fuck him.

 And then Rabel came right back and said:

That's his job right there.

Fuck him and fuck his Goddamn comedy act.

Now, that's a very harsh way to talk about Obama, but it's the way people talked about George Bush all the time. Remember how Bush was savaged for displaying a capacity for enjoying himself when Americans were fighting and dying?



That much criticized performance occurred in 2002. A year later, after he received news of war deaths while golfing, Bush gave up golf:

“I don’t want some mom whose son may have recently died to see the commander-in-chief playing golf... I feel I owe it to the families to be in solidarity as best as I can with them. And I think playing golf during a war just sends the wrong message."

Does a slow jam with Jimmy Fallon send the wrong message? Or do we not think about the mom whose son may have recently died anymore? (Obama has no Cindy Sheehan dogging hounding him bothering him... at least not that we see in the news.)

Why is Obama immune from the criticism that normally befalls a President? Back in 2008, running for President, Obama pushed back the press one time with "Why is it that I can't just enjoy my waffle?"

It's like that was a really hard question — why is it that he can't just enjoy his waffle... and his multiple vacations and his golf and his rock concerts in the White House and his slow jam with Jimmy Fallon?

The answer is: Because you have a job. You applied for it. We hired you. Make us believe you're doing it.

You know, a couple days ago, Rush Limbaugh said something that sounded outlandish to me at the time:

There's a lot of mythology out there still today about Obama and his strengths and how there hasn't been any fallout from the dismal record that he has amassed.  None of this is true.  They're in trouble.  They're in deep trouble.  You basically have David Plouffe, who's the president, you got Axelrod who's the chief of staff and Obama's out playing golf.  Obama... Not quite.  Obama's out doing the fundraising, but David Plouffe is the acting president, Axelrod's chief adviser, and Obama's out playing golf.  Obama basically has a nine a.m. to four p.m. day.  It's these other guys that are formulating policy, doing all this other stuff.  He knows what's going on, don't misunderstand, and he's guiding and influencing it.

I'm not saying Obama's disengaged, doesn't know what's going on and he's a puppet.  Don't misunderstand.  Not saying that at all.  But he's not known as a hard worker. He's not known as somebody who gets in there early and stays late....

While David Plouffe is the president, Axelrod's the chief of staff, Obama's out raising money. After his campaign stop in North Carolina today, he's going on his comedy tour.  He'll be appearing on the Jimmy Fallon show and then with Jimmy Kimmel before being roasted at the White House Correspondents Dinner this weekend....

Plouffe is the acting President?! That sounded outlandish. But look around. Obama performs 5 minutes of a musically sexualized speech about students and... it's wearing down my sense of the outlandish.