Thursday, April 9, 2020

Remembering Miss Linda Tripp and the Making of a Case for the Impeachment of President Bill Clinton

What a Character! May Her Soul Rest In Peace.
Miss Monica Lewinsky, the White House Intern who was at the center stage of President Bill Clinton's impeachment saga, trusted her bosom friend, Madam Linda Tripp, and confided in her like a Big Sister. She willingly, though naively, succumbed to the manipulations of the elderly Tripp throughout the duration of their friendship.  And while they talk on the phone, she never had any reason to doubt the sincerity of her friend and enthusiastically unload details of her flirtatious encounter with the President.
Miss Monica Lewinsky related to her as a confidant and a Mom. She told her about the Blue Dress and the Presidential fluid in it. And for no apparent reason, Madam Tripp counseled the naive Monica to keep the dress - you might need it one day. And she did. (If you were really naive and did not contemplate litigation, why did you keep the dress? A Naija Babe or Akaata would get rid of it immediately. That's by the way).
As their friendship blossom, Madam was busy secretly recording their conversations, with one goal in mind - to bring down the President. And in the end, she almost succeeded - a popular President was impeached by the Republican House Managers pursuant to Article of Impeachment on the allegations of Perjury and Obstruction of Justice, centered on lying under oath. He was saved by the bell, the Senate.
In hindsight, the allegation of lying under oath and the resultant perjury and obstructions of justice charges against President Bill Clinton were not only diabolical, but they also represent the worst form of judicial ambush ever concerted against any sitting President in American history - something no human being would want to experience.
She confided in her that the President does not believe that foreplay is sex. She told her as a matter of fact that they did not have sex. Adding that there was a physical encounter that does not extend to the penetration of the cavity by natural means as we take sex to be. She was deviously interrogating her and she was childishly complying, dishing out every bit of their frolicking, while Madam was busy recording.
Now satisfied with the explosive nature of the secret recordings at her disposal, Madam Tripp went to work, fishing for the right process to unload the cumulative dossier and develop a criminal case out of it. 
The waited opportunity came when the President was going to be deposed for another matter involving Paula Jones. Knowing that Mr. President does not consider foreplay or smushing or whatever you want to call it as sex, she called the Attorney who was going to depose the President the next day and upload the details of her recorded phone conversations with Miss Monica.
She told the Lawyer that the President doesn't believe oral sex is sex and the President is going to argue that there was no sex. She already knew what the President was going to say, based on what she gathered from Monica Lewinsky. Her plan from the onset was for the President to make that declaration while testifying on oath.
I am not espousing adultery or trying to justify what the President did. If you watch the video of the deposing of President Clinton, as I did so many times, you will weep and vow never to trust anyone again with the story of your sex life. It came to a point the President had the feeling that the Lawyer interrogating him has first-hand knowledge of his encounter with the Intern. And when the question came as to whether he had sex with the intern, the President answered no. And that was it. The game was over at that point.
The trap set by Miss Linda Tripp works out pretty well - to her, oral sex is sex, whether Mr. President likes it or not. One, if oral sex is sex, it means the President lied on oath when he told the deposing Lawyer that he did not have sex with the woman. Two, if oral sex is sex and the President lied on oath about it, then, that amounts to Perjury. And three, if anyone can establish a case of Perjury against the President, then, impeachment is within reach.
The next task is to find someone to tighten the loose-ends and leverage the final product to institute a case of perjury and impeachment against the President. And that was where Mr. Kenneth Starr came into the picture.
As at that time, Independent Counsel, Mr. Kenneth Starr, was investigating the Clintons and the Jim McDougal Family over the White Water Land Deal in the state of Arkansas when President Clinton was the Governor of the state. Mr. Kenneth Starr wasted no time, jumping into the sex case. Since he couldn't nail the Clintons over the land deal allegations, this sex scandal is potent enough to destroy the Clintons and torpedoes his Presidency. Like a bolt from the blue, Mr. Ken Starr abandoned his original mandate and went on a frolic on the definition of sex and oral sex.
His first task was to prove and convince the people that foreplay is sex. And to sink that into the American consciousness, they went for the Blue Dress. Remember the Blue Dress? Subsequently, they went for the President's DNA. And there was a match. And the President was forced to apologize to American people. And the rest is history.
With the outcome of the DNA, it is irrelevant whether he actually had sex with the Intern as we know sex to be. And as long as there was a stain on the dress, there was sex and he lied about it on oath. That was the goal of Miss Linda Tripp and that was the Kenneth Starr's case for impeachment against President Bill Clinton.
And that was how the definition of sex was reinvented in America so that a roguish Independent Counsel could establish a prima facie case for Perjury and obstruction of justice against a very popular President and humiliate him before the global community.
This piece is not about the right and wrong of what President Bill Clinton did, but to show the extent that some people would go - people who you trust - to destroy you and destroy other people and what they work for.
Next time you read about an American President who was impeached for Perjury, please, know that it was actually a manufactured crisis. Would I have done what the President did? Not one chance. I am very discreet about my love life. If you don't have an image to protect, if you don't value secrecy or know how to keep it, not even your beauty can persuade me to stay.
As for the late Miss Linda Tripp, she told the American TV audience that she did it out of patriotism. As I said after watching her on Larry King Live on CNN at the time, I want to repeat: Betraying the trust of a young and naive Lady who took you for a friend, a mentor, and a confidant is far from being patriotism-defined. That was the height of callousness and hatred. Your goal was to write a book and profit from the downfall of another human being. None of them happened as you planned. Unfortunately, you permanently destroyed the beauty and innocence of the young girl who trusted you and took you for a Mom.
Thank God Americans refused to let go of their forgiving spirit; they know patriotism when they see one. And they stood by their President. And a few months after the impeachment trial, President Clinton received a standing ovation from the Heads of State and Governments and Presidents of Nations led by the late Mr. Nelson Mandela at the UN General Assembly when he stood before the word to address his peers. And that was an unforced display of vindication and forgiveness.

And to those haters are there, be careful of what you do to those who are vulnerable before you. There is no difference between hackers and those who violated your privacy by secretly recording your telephone conversations. Every one of you will continue to live a miserable life for the misfortune you unleash on the innocent whose privacy and vulnerability you feed on. Those you want to destroy will bounce back, but you will remain a sad character all your life, feared and resented by the larger society. 

DISCLOSURE:

Reminiscing on My Obsession for President Bill Clinton

I was an unrepentant fan of President Bill Clinton, and I am still is. I used to follow him assiduously on the pages of the Guardian newspaper when  I was a student in Nigeria. Those days, the Guardian would always publish any of his major speech the previous day on its page two or three. And it was always a delightful read. 

But  I wanted more - install a Cable or Satellite Receiver in our apartment to be able to watch him and his activities in the United States directly from our Living Room in Lagos, Nigeria. And the opportunity came when I was going back to school for my final year at BENSU. 

That very morning, my elder brother handed me my school fees and my "pocket money." Instead of catching a ride back to Benin City and to Ekpoma, I went to our neighbor's shop at Alaba International Market in Lagos. With his help, I was able to get a good deal; I bought a Satellite Dish Reciever. I took it home and installed it in my brother's apartment.  

And I was in America, virtually, though. Now I can watch CNN and follow President Bill Clinton diligently on TV, whenever I am home on weekends or on holidays. (By the way, when my brother came back from work that evening, initially he wasn't comfortable with the fact that I spent my school fees on Cable. But as we continue to flip channels between MTV, the Arsenal Hall Show, BET, and CNN, my brother couldn't help, but joined. The following morning, as he was leaving for work, he came to my room and handed me an envelope. The content was twice what I spent on the Cable. And I went back to school happier). 
A year later, when I was now at the Nigerian Law School in Lagos, my risky acquisition yielded its bounteous harvest ever. It was the night that Vice President Al Gore debated Mr. Ross Perot on CNN Larry King Live.  I was at the Igbosere Hostel behind the old Supreme Court at the time and I was in Group B. That week, my group was taking classes in the morning - meaning I must be at the main lecture hall by 7 a.m. I made up mind that I will not miss the debate. And I had enormous challenges to overcome to be able to watch the debate live at 9 p.m American Tim - 3 a.m Nigeria Time. And I must be at the lecture hall at 7.00 a.m. unfailingly.

We do not have a Cable or Satellite Receiver at our Dom at Igbosere. And I did the impossible. I went straight home to my elder brother's house at Ijesha - at the other end of Lagos. I made up mind to watch the debate live on Larry King Live at 3 a.m Nigeria Time with the American audience, which is 9 p.m American Time (East Coast). 
I got home at about 8 p.m and started studying. I made up mind not to sleep or take a nap. And I prayed to God to prevail on NEPA not to take the light. At 2.55 a.m I was ready. The whole neighborhood was asleep. And I was by myself. And the time came, but I couldn't afford to sit down. My heart was beating fast, believing that President Clinton was about committing political harakiri for allowing Vice President Al Gore to debate the man who destroyed President George Bush Sr. during their Presidential debates.  
So, I remained standing as Al Gore continues to unleash blows upon blows and counter punches on the irrepressible Ross. Then, five minutes, ten minutes, and when they went on a commercial break after the first fifteen minutes, I gathered some strength and sat down at the edge of the sofa. Exactly half an hour later when they went for the second commercial break, I started jumping all over the living room, shouting we won, we won, we won. I went straight to the refrigerator and fetched one giant bottle of Odeku. I opened it, relax, and started doing justice to the Guinness beer until the end of the debate at 4 a.m.  

I went to bed, woke up at 5.30 a.m. At 6 a.m I was already inside the Molue Bus, shouting Obalende Straight, Obalende Straight. Luckily for me, there was no traffic on the way, until we arrived at the island. And I got to class on time. 
And that was my obsession with President Bill Clinton. Anyway, that obsession did not by any stretch of the imagination influence or slant one way or the other my recount of the events that culminated in the impeachment saga that humbled a highly visionary and highly vulnerable President. 

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