...as I have also revisited my views of the Clinton years, and, specifically, Mr. Clinton's indiscretions (and the media's view of them).

But I 'gots to know', Joan.

When you make public appearances, do you have 'handlers'?

you have one critical piece wrong. i love bill clinton and i think he is one of the top 2 or 3 presidents in the history of our country. but you are wrong to say "and probably made George W. Bush president in 2000." the country was going great in 2000, and al gore was perfectly qualified. it was a shoe-in for the dems. the country was disgusted with clinton's affair with monica lewinsky, plain and simple. bush was a babbling idiot but the country saw him as less sexual (and therefore less sexually deviant) than clinton. that's what cost gore the election. i'm not saying it was rationale or fair, but your assessment is completely wrong.

It voted 7-2 to require a uniform approach to the Florida re-count procedure.

Five justices observed unremarkably that under the time table established by the Florida legislature and courts for the certification of electors, there was no time left to complete a fourth count.

(The first three being the election day count, the machine recount, and the select county-by-county counts requested by Gore and completed before final litigation over a final state-wide count).

Every newspaper to subsequently review and count the ballots concluded that under any available 'chad' counting methodology, George Bush would have won.

There was a wrinkle, of course -- the butterfly ballot in West Palm Beach. But that wasn't part of the ultimate litigation. There was no way to remedy the bogus Buchanan vote. Gore lost that one early in court, and had no successful appeal.

In truth, Gore won. But you can only count ballots, not subjective intent. Every single ballot count -- actual and hypothetical -- supported Bush's win.

Joan, you don't seem yourself; are you okay? Did the right wing and the press focus on all the wrong stuff for putrid purposes? Yes. Was BillClinton a Republican-lite Democrat and a huge egotistical disappointment who let his country and his party down? Yes.

Janet Reno-Give me a break.

Welfare Reform - if that wasn't Republican-lite and a very marginal success, i don't know what is.

Who let the Banker/Financier dogs out to boost a fake (and very Republican) economic boom; I'm pretty sure it was bill Clinton.

Bosnia was a good dee; I'll give him that, but the hopelessly belated Mideast effort was just tardy, hopeless desperation. And let's not forget Rwanda- there's plenty for all to feel ashamed of there.

The Environment - once again, Republican-lite; Boy, are the Everglades ever saved!

Bill Clinton really was the archetypal poll watcher, not leader. Was he unreasonably hammered by opponents and wienie media types? Yes. Did he rise above them through acts of Statesmanship, honor and courage?

Bill was a lot of time wasted, time we could have used to better society.d

I've a theory that press people, being probably cynical and arrogant as hell due to their profession, tend to react antagonistically to anyone who comes across idealistic despite even supporting the same goals. As in: Here is some BS that needs to be scooped, who the hell is this guy to try and pretend he doesn't have an angle with ME! Whereas someone that comes across as ruthlessly political, blatantly manipulative for an obvious and barely covert agenda, the press tends to grin slyly and wink cause they 'get it' but of course there's no story to uncover.

I know nothing about the law, nor the specifics of that case but the whole 'this ruling shall only apply to this case' makes me think it was an ideologically driven decision that they KNEW was BS and didn't want it come back and bite em in the butt.

I grew up loving and taking keen interest in politics. I watched the conventions as a kid and teenager. I talked politics with my mom and brother.

I always had an interest until the Clinton years. I could not stand the way the press treated the Clintons. The coverage was disgusting and I stopped listening.

Joan, you need to confront your beltway friends and try to get to the bottom of their need to crucify the democrats in general.

Why they were so ugly towards the Clintons, so slavish of Bush when anyone with an ounce of brains or common sense saw he was a fraud and a incompetent.

Why does the beltway run around trying to impress Drudge, roll over for the gop and trash anyone who is a democrat and tie them to 50 year old stereotypes that don't fit.

Then, you need to write about it to educate us as to why.

I had a conversation with Tim Russert in my job one time, in about 1998 or so. I pretended not to know who he was, and played it straight. He tried to make a trite funny at the end, to which I also played straight. It wasn't until after that episode that I tuned in to Meet the Press a few times. I found him to be a lightweight, though not physically, asking either softball questions or questions meant to confine the discussion within narrow parameters.

I suppose the same could be said of Bill Clinton. You could say he was a good president if you confined the discussion within narrow parameters. As a "neoliberal" groomed by the "Democratic Leadership Council," he did as well as could be expected. He correctly can be criticized for Rwanda, the deaths of 500,000 "Iraqi" children as a result of the sanctions, Waco, the bombing of Belgrade, and his recreational use of the Oval Office. I give him the most credit for the Elian Gonzalez rescue, a reall touch of class, with no casualties.

It was not much of a concern to me about the Walinsky scandal. It was more of an embarrassment than anything else. I remember feeling sorry for him for being lonely, though not very sorry.

I voted for Nader in '96, the first of three throwaway votes. We all can wonder how much better or worse we would do in a similar situation. I think I would have done worse, and from that perspective, Bill Clinton was our best president since Carter. Hmm. I guess that isn't saying much, but I look at him with more compassion than I did when he was in office.