Reply #2: The guy on Countdown last night was picturing -- quite reasonably -- [View All]

[WhirlyGirl]

... the image of 5 guys testifying as a group before Congress, and that image coming to stand for more than just some guys making a bad decision (in some cases before it was even illegal).

I recall dreading Clinton's making any public statement with the word Monica or Lewinsky in it, for the very reason that I had seen how the MSM (never mind Clinton's detracters in the rad-right press) had a tendency to take a few seconds of footage and loop it endlessly.

Well, you saw what happened, and how the words "I did not have sex with that woman, Ms Lewinsky" came heartbreakingly to stand for the career of a man who stood up for us -- and who has, as a result, been scarcely recognized for it.

The same treatment of the taped record is feared if baseball players appear to talk about steroids. No one knows what any of them will say, inexperienced as they are with understanding the political agenda behind every senator or congressman's question. But they do know that that IMAGE of 5 players testifying will very shortly -- and fairly or unfairly -- come to stand for the game of baseball in the public mind.

That's why I urged Clinton to defy the conventional wisdom which held that "just getting the whole thing out in the open" would enable the country to put the Lewinsky affair behind us, and why I understand baseball not wanting these players to testify, namely:

Personal mistakes are transitory -- but VIDEOTAPE IS FOREVER.

-- WhirlyG