Trump’s Approval Rating Almost 30 Points Worse Than Bill Clinton’s During the Monica Lewinsky Scandal

-- That's a current headline at Newsweek.com.

The reason Bill's approval rating was 30 points higher is that the real scandal back in 1998 was that the Republicans were trying to remove the President from office over a private matter between consenting adults. How long will it take for journalists and historians to catch up with what over 60 percent of the public understood in 1998, and start referring to it as the Starr affair or the Starr failed coup or the Starr insanity or something like that, instead of the Lewinsky affair?

In the same way, the real scandal today is not Trump's sexual assaults or his encouragement of police brutality or his financial entanglements or his dealings with Putin or his clear mental illness and inability to do his job properly -- the real scandal is that the GOP-led Congress has not impeached him yet.

Think about it. Let it sink in: in 1998, they impeached Clinton, tried to remove him from office, for that. And during that attempt, Newt Gingrich and the Republicans' first choice to replace Newt both had to resign, because they had both been caught doing pretty much exactly the same thing they were using as the world's flimsiest excuse to oust a head of state. And now, they haven't impeached Trump or invoked the 25th Amendment.

The Big Dog Crushed It

8 years ago, Bill Clinton gave the world the impression that he liked Barack Obama very much. Last night, he gave the world the impression that he likes his wife very much -- and who knows, this time it might actually be true. I'm not under the impression that the impression we get on TV from movie stars and politicians is necessarily accurate. Part of the reason I don't believe we actually get to know these people through the tube is that I've actually met a few movie stars and politicians, and the actual person I met was always a surprise. Instead of continuing the imaginary relationship we formed with a celebrity on TV, meeting one of them has always meant that things went off on a tangent, sometimes a pleasant tangent and sometimes an unpleasant one. But I never judge someone I've known for half a minute if it's an unpleasant half-minute, because anybody can have a bad day, even if I've had a long imaginary relationship with them because they've been on my favorite sitcom for years.

Over the past 8 years, the public has gotten a few strong hints that Bill Clinton and Barack Obama are not, in fact, close personal friends. As far as how Bill and Hillary get along, I'm not even going to guess.

And the main reason I'm not going to guess is because I don't feel it's any of my business, or yours, unless you happen to be Bill or Hillary or maybe as many as 2 or 3 other people. But politics is everybody's business, and Bill's speeches 8 years ago and last night were politics. I don't care if that big hug between Bill and Barack on the convention stage 8 years ago was bullshit in terms of their personal relationship: politically, it was very important, and politics is more important than the personal stuff. 8 years ago, the Big Dog gave a very effective speech for a very highly-qualified Presidential candidate, and last night he did it again. Hillary's abilities and qualifications are our business. The lack of substance of the charges constantly hurled at her from the Right is definitely our business. I admit, I was kind of caught up in Bill's depiction of some of the aspects of his private life with Hillary. I'm not immune to his speaking skills, I'm not made of stone. But the important thing about that drama is how Bill used it to deliver a long, detailed, fact-checkable list of his wife's remarkable political achievements, and then asked -- the link is a full transcript of Bill's speech:

How did this square with the things that you heard at the Republican convention? What's the difference in what I told you and what they said? How do you square it? You can't. One is real, the other is made up.

You just have to decide. You just have to decide which is which, my fellow Americans.

I like that. I like it very much. How do you get people to behave more intelligently? You remind them that they can.

We'll never really know for sure how accurate Bill's charming portrayal of his private life with Hillary was -- and, again, it's none of our business. But the highlights of Hillary's resume about which Bill spoke -- drugs for AIDS patients in Africa, the sanctions against Iran's nuclear program, the upgrades in battlefield equipment for US military personnel, legislation for adoptions of foster children, the decades' worth of fighting for greater access to health care, etc, etc -- these were the highlights of Bill's speech. Hillary's political qualifications. And as voters, those are the things which are our business, and the reasons you should watch or read Bill's entire speech if you haven't already, and re-watch it or re-read it if you have. Don't worry, there's plenty of adorable private stuff to liven it up, like how Bill supposedly was too shy to speak to her when he first saw her on the campus of Yale in 1971, and just followed her around like a helpless puppy until she finally came up to him and introduced herself: "Look, if you're going to keep staring at me, and now I'm staring back, we at least ought to know each other's name. I'm Hillary Rodham, who are you?"

Awwwww... Was the Big Dog really such a helpless little puppy back in 1971?

Once again: I don't care.

I'm Sick Of Hearing People Say We've Got Two Terrible Candidates For President

We've got one candidate who may be the very worst ever nominated by a major US political party; and we've got one fine candidate who will make a great President, provided that enough of the sheer bullshit flung at her by right-wingers over the past quarter century is refuted in the public's perceptions so that she is, in fact, elected.

I have to admit that Hillary has one serious weakness, and that is when it comes to refuting ridiculous charges made against her and her husband. Examples of this weakness: a completely-accurate phrase she coined back in the 90's about a "vast right-wing conspiracy" dedicated to smearing the two of them, almost immediately became a beloved slogan of the right wing, with, for instance, Rush Limbaugh introducing his batshit-crazy-but-popular right-wing radio show as "the great right-wing conspiracy." Another example: Hillary's inability to make the uproars about Ben Ghazi and emails seem as ridiculous and manufactured to everyone as they are.

The right wing has been squandering public resources for a quarter-century trying to get something to stick to the Clintons, and they've come up with squat. I think the Clinton campaign should talk more about this, because there are a lot of voters out there who are appalled by Trump for very good reasons, but who are also appalled by Hillary, for no good reason whatsoever.

It's true that in 1998, after five years as a Special Prosecutor on a case called Whitewater because the case originally had to do with allegations of fiscal wrondoings involving a company named Whitewater, the egregiously partisan Kenneth Starr caught Bill Clinton lying about getting a blowjob. It's true that "I did not have sexual relations with that woman... Miss Lewinsky" was absolutely the wrong thing for Bill to say. Debating what the meaning of the word "is" is was very entertaining for me, but I think the vast majority of the public did not have the linguistic training and temperament to enjoy it the way I did.

No, what Bill should have said was, "Ken, blow it out your ass. You've been wasting the public's resources for five years, and all you've come up with is something which is none of your God damned business. You will be remembered forever as a punchline. Now excuse me because I've got serious matters to attend to." I know, he wasn't allowed to blow Kenneth off like that, but he wasn't supposed to lie under oath either. He might well have been impeached for refusing to co-operate with a Special Prosecutor, but the result would have been the same: he would have been acquitted although he was technically guilty, the same way he was acquitted although he had clearly lied under oath. He would have been acquitted for the same reason either way: because the special prosecution had clearly become a farcical fishing expedition. And if he'd done it my way, a healthy legal precedent would have been set when Congress officially ruled that there are, in fact, limits to a Special Prosecutor's powers.

James Comey, the head of the FBI who was unable to find any dirt on Hillary but was also unable to refrain from insinuating that she somehow got away with something, used to work for Kenneth Starr. I hope that news doesn't come as a complete shock to anyone. Here's an idea for future Democratic Presidents: stop appointing Republicans as Special Prosecutors and heads of the FBI and every frigging thing else. The GOP has more than used up all the goodwill Presidents Clinton and Obama have extended to them by reaching across the aisle.

Mr Ex-President Clinton, You Compared The POTUS To WHAT?!

Yr busted, Bill: Mark Halperin and John Heilemann have a new book coming out about the 2012 Presidential campaign, and in it they tell the world that during the campaign you often referred to Barack as "luckier than a dog with two dicks."

A few thoughts, Sir. For one thing, that was skill, not luck. I would've thought a consummately professional politician like you would have less trouble spotting another one. Maybe the way Barack beat Hillary in 2008 just got under your skin and stayed there, I don't know, but it's remarkable the way you seem to underestimate the abilities of our current Commander-in-Chief, who has accomplished quite a lot in the teeth of a stupendous, still-ongoing effort on the part of the GOP to sabotage every thing he does. Barack's lucky they can't shoot straight? It'd be a lot luckier for him if they weren't shooting at him at all, and behaving like normal stupid reactionary partly-civilized Republicans.

Another thing. I know you didn't plan for this remark to go public, but still, are you really the sort of person who should ever compare anyone else to that kind of dog? I love you, Bill, but the jokes are just making themselves. It's hard to imagine how happy Bill Maher and Jay Leno have been made by this. I hope for your sake that you've developed a thick skin about those jokes.

Most of all, though, to me it just seems like a shame. Imagine what the three of you, you, Hillary and Barack, could accomplish if all three of you LIKED each other! Look how much you and Barack have done while not liking each other very much at all. I just don't get it, it just seems to me that the two of you were made to be pulling the same way on the same rope all the time. Maybe that just shows that I don't know a thing about how politics works up there at your level. Maybe it's sort of like how a football team can't have two quarterbacks on the field at once, or something like that.

Or maybe I'm completely right and it's nothing but a damn shame and a waste that the three of you -- or maybe I should say the four of you, because who knows how much of a politician Michelle is going to turn out to be? -- don't all get along.