I see that you've gone the "scoffing & ridicule" route (with a side order of "STFU", a dish that I'm leaving untouched) rather than offering anything in the way of factual rebuttal.

The fix was in, bud. Read David Schippers' book on the impeachment to get the details...although it really isn't necessary. I knew from the outset of the Great Big Bad Impeachment Crisis that it was a sham.

I can count- as in counting votes, in the Senate. For me, the real question is why Clinton played along. He could have told them to pound sand over the Monica nonsense. 45 Democrats in the Senate- what, the Republicans were going to peel off 12 Democratic Senatorial votes to get a successful impeachment? With Clinton's public approval ratings above 70%?

Honestly, to this day, I don't know if he was really running scared, or just using the whole thing as a way to take of the threat of pressure from his Left (vulgar term, but as shorthand it works, sort of) to get on the stick and use his considerable political capital and undeniable governing skills to accomplish substantive leaps forward for the country, like winding down the Drug War with Federal decriminalization of marijuana (which he came out in favor of doing, once he had safely left office.)

Seriously- what's Bill Clinton's Legacy of Progressive Governance? A minimum wage hike? Not to minimize that- I remember talking with a black single mom who was a co-worker (different job than the cab gig, I've had several at various times & places), and we both agreed that put him miles ahead of his predecessors. But- what's this pulling the plug on the BNL investigation? What's the Telecommunications Act that gave us Clear Channel Radio crap from coast to coast? What's with the fast-track NAFTA, the no-conditions GATT act?

And- if Clinton really thought he was imperiled by impeachment (as if)- why didn't he simply resign and hand the reins to Al Gore, rather than enlisting the entire Democratic Congress to spend two years making unconvincing excuses for his actions? He would have been a hero for doing that- like America's Parnell, only with the prospect of rebounding, as an authentic voice for the people of this country.

Now? Not gonna happen. Unless, maybe, he opens up about Mena...;^0

Politics. Bah. Maybe it should be called Patronization. How dumb do they think...oh, nevermind.

If they think I'm that dumb, they're wrong.

Ken Starr? Sure he was after Clinton, at least enough to hamstring him- but badly enough to implicate George Herbert Walker Bush?

Uh-uh.

Well...you know, inside the Beltway and all...there are understandings, about doors best left unopened. A mode of "professional courtesy" and "gentleman's agreements" that continues to this day, by all indications.

Any time you feel like actually offering challenges to the factual details and evidence in play regarding the specific case of Mena, feel free to weigh in, Hieronymus.

In the meantime, I'll leave you with an encore presentation of my last link- the ante you failed to answer:

http://books.google.com/books?id=Vq96BQV5lF4C&pg=PA389&lpg=PA389&dq=partners+in+power+mena&source=bl&ots=RHzKBlHH8p&sig=8C3SEcAL7R26pGV238Ltzqnul-E&hl=en&ei=m92xSuW3DpOIMZvX9eML&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=1#v=onepage&q=&f=false

[link at my signature]

Henry Louis Gates getting mad at a police officer walking into his house when he went to go get his wallet (justifiably, imo)

To be clear: I think Gates was justified at getting mad at the cop, not that the cop was justified in following him into the house after Gates went to find his wallet to show his ID.

(I can't believe that anyone would bring up an altercation so trivial as evidence of some Black World Order dawning coincident with the inauguration of Obama, but someone did, recently, in the Salon comments section. Interested parties can search through the recent related discussions to find the post (or maybe there was more than one commentator sawing on that particular violin string); it's too tedious for me to dredge up Teh Stupid right now...I'm multitasking.)

I have to say it- I think something bad was happening at Mena.

Yeah. Mena.

Do I think Clinton is a "drug runner" or "drug kingpin", the way people like Emmett Tyrell spin it in their insinuations?

No. That's absurd. Zero evidence for that.

As Arkansas governor, Bill Clinton played host at one of the local National Guard air bases for a nasty Nicaraguan Contra-related covert op that was the brainchild of George H. W. Bush, Oliver North, and Bill Casey. People like that.

Cocaine was in the mix. Planeloads.

Clinton knew what was going on. And somehow, instead of him holding it over their heads, they hold it over his. Although maybe it's a little bit of both. Mutual blackmail.

You want to argue facts and evidence about that, we'll argue.

Here's my ante- kindly read the link at my signature.

If all you can do is scoff or play ridicule, as far as I'm concerned it means you got nothing.

And so much for that.