Issue link: https://www.epageflip.net/i/622651
GregStevens,Publisher Chip Thompson, Editor EDITORIALBOARD How to have your say: Letters must be signed and provide the writer's home street address and home phone number. Anonymous letters, open letters to others, pen names and petition-style letters will not be allowed. Letters should be typed and no more than two double-spaced pages or 500words. When several letters address the same issue, a cross section will be published. Email: editor@ redbluffdailynews.com Fax: 530-527-9251 Mail to: P.O. Box 220, 545 Diamond Ave., Red Bluff, CA 96080 Facebook: Leave comments at FACEBOOK.COM/ RBDAILYNEWS Twitter: Follow and send tweets to @REDBLUFFNEWS DonaldTrumpisoutofhismind—noth- ing new there — if he really thinks that he can taint Hillary Clinton by recycling her husband's infidelities. How can he, or any other Republican, hope to gain traction in 2016 with a tactic that backfired so abys- mally in the last century? TrumpsaysthatBillhas "a penchant for sexism," that, in Bill's career, there was "certainly a lot of abuse of women." The thrice-married mogul isn't the first Repub- lican candidate to party like it's 1999 — Rand Paul, nearly two years ago, resurrected the Lewinsky scandal when he said, "We shouldn't want to associate with people who would take advantage of a young girl in his office" — but as political ammo goes, it's a major misfire. I'm not minimizing Bill's trysts with the intern. His recklessness was a gift to his enemies, as I explicitly wrote on the morning after his impeachment. But most Americans rightfully drew a distinction between Bill's private behavior and his per- formance as president — and they rebuked the Republi- cans harshly for their idiotic overreach. In the '98 mid- term elections, as the House impeachment effort neared its climax, Republicans lost seats in both chambers, and impeachment overlord Newt Gingrich — who at the time was engaged in his own ex- tramarital trysting — was compelled to quit his speak- ership. By the time the conser- vative crusade crashed and burned, Bill Clinton's poll ratings were higher than ever. And when he left of- fice in January '01, 66 per- cent of Americans gave him a thumbs-up for his job per- formance; only 29 percent signaled thumbs-down. In the history of polling, no other president has finished his second term with bet- ter numbers. And today, 15 years after he left office, he's polling at 60 percent posi- tive. It's fair game to dredge up Bill's past behavior, and if local Republican lawmak- ers want to heckle Hillary about Bill, that's fine too. Hillary frequently touts her husband's tenure as a '90s golden age, so we have to ex- pect some conservative push- back. Which is why we're hearing about Paula Jones and Juanita Broaddrick all over again, especially on con- servative talk radio. The guilt-by-association goal is to paint Hillary as an enabler of abuse — and pull some fe- male voters into the Republi- can camp. It's amusing so many con- servatives view Broaddrick's rape claims as automatically credible, considering both the FBI and Lewinsky prober Kenneth Starr said her claim was inconclusive. These are the same conservatives who typically insist that women alleging sexual assault are PC whiners. Anyway, the biggest prob- lem with resurrecting Bill's history is that most Ameri- cans made peace with it long ago. The only people who'd be dissuaded to vote for Hill- ary because of her husband's alleged behavior are people who probably wouldn't vote for her in the first place. Even Brent Bozell, the veteran Clinton-hater who helms the conservative Media Research Center, says the tactic is a waste of time. In his words, the recycled scandal-mongers "aren't really going to have an impact. They're barking at the moon." Best of all, we got this suc- cinct assessment of the origi- nal Republican scandal-mon- gers, back in January 2000: "I got a chuckle out of all the moralists in Congress....If the Clinton affair proves any- thing, it is that the American people don't care about the private lives and personal of our political leaders so long as they are doing the job." So wrote Donald Trump. DickPolmanisthenational political columnist at NewsWorks/WHYY in Philadelphia (newsworks. org/polman) and a "Writer in Residence" at the University of Philadelphia. Email him at dickpolman7@ gmail.com. Dick Polman Bill Clinton's sexual history? Really? Again? Cartoonist's take It is a New Year that lacks somewhat for good cheer and traditional happiness in much of the electorate. The portion of Amer- icans express- ing pessimism over our coun- try's current state is about as high as it has ever been. Large majorities tell pollsters they don't think current and future generations will see "America's best days" and will not experi- ence better times than their par- ents. I'm neither predicting nor wishing; I'm just reading the polls. The following are relevant and provide some insight into the current mood: Jim Geraghty reprinted a March, 2010, column, "The Com- plete list of Obama Statement Expiration Dates," which con- tained statements by Barack Obama on 2 dozen different is- sues that were all reversed by his own mouth, or policies he implemented. He said, for in- stance, in 2008, that he differed with Hillary Clinton on health care mandates because she would "force everybody to pur- chase it," 2 years before sign- ing that exact individual man- date into law. From promising health care negotiations on C- SPAN, to not raising taxes on "households making less than $250,000," to condemning re- cess appointments, to promis- ing "tougher border security… securing our border," to state- ments on Iraq, Iran, FISA, nu- clear power, NAFTA, welfare re- form, gay marriage, partial birth abortion and so on—Obama re- neged on them all. Aside from Obama syco- phants who shrug "oh well" or, more atrociously, attack anyone pointing out the obvious, even moderate Democrats must be disappointed over their presi- dential standard bearer. The rest of America can't help but lose their ability to see past the lies and corruption of an imperialis- tic nincompoop like Obama. Charles C. W. Cooke may have similarly hit upon a demoraliz- ing aspect of O's reign in "Our Presidents Are Beginning to Act Like Kings," in which he looks at both parties' leaders with an in depth examination of what many rightfully refer to as Em- peror Obama's overreach. Many cannot help reacting with dis- belief over those on the left that ranted and raved over "unitary executive" Bush, but dismiss and explain away genuine authori- tarian abuses by Obama. While the rot spreads from the head, the electorate becomes cynically numb and loses hope. How despicable is it for Obama, "Celebrating a Deserter in the Rose Garden" (Mark Steyn, December 15), to have re- leased 5 hard-core terrorists in exchange for Bowe Bergdahl? It was obvious to all but the par- tisan left, including media ste- nographers, that standards were abandoned—both to pursue the release of court-martial-and- brig-bound Army deserter Berg- dahl, as well as fast-tracking ter- rorists with blood-soaked hands back eventually to their Islamic comrades. Steyn calls the im- pending court martial a "heart- ening surprise" given that "cyni- cism about the politicization and corruption of all federal institu- tions is so widespread." Coincidentally, in "Why is Obama obsessed with springing terrorists from Gitmo?" the New York Post editorial board called out Obama for his headlong pur- suit of releasing al Qaeda, Tali- ban and ISIS terrorists from de- tention. "Meanwhile, a terrorist the president sprang from Gitmo in 2012, Ibrahim al-Qosi, has surfaced as a top leader of Al Qaeda" in recruiting videos. Those videos haven't men- tioned Gitmo; not Donald Trump, either, until Hillary Clinton mentioned it. Is she of- fering advice to ISIS video mak- ers? One widely viewed did, however, show Obama, Biden, Kerry, Bush, Rumsfeld, Tony Blair, Bill Clinton, Paul Wolfow- itz and John McCain. Infidels all. It's about Obama, Gitmo and the safety of the American people. America's mood may be im- pacted by terrorism in several ways, tied to Obama's policies and decisions. Look up "A DHS Whistleblower's Shocking Let- ter to Congress," by Paul Miren- goff at Powerlineblog.com. "In an open letter to members of Congress, retired DHS employee Philip Haney says that, under pressure from the Department of State (Civil Rights Division), his superiors closed down work on terrorist outfits with which the San Bernardino murder- ers—Sayed Farook and Tashfeen Malif—were affiliated. Haney said if this work had not been shut down, the San Bernardino killings might have been pre- vented." They wanted no scru- tiny of Muslims. "Inside Obama's secret pity party," by Michael Goodwin, de- scribed a private meeting with friendly reporters, "where the president gave his water-carriers talking points so he could jet off to Hawaii and still look as if he's engaged in national security… He blamed cable TV for whip- ping up fears over the Islamic State, and said, weirdly, that he missed the public mood swing because he doesn't watch much cable news." David Ignatius, of the Wash- ington Post, said, "Obama doesn't think this is an existen- tial battle that's worth the cost to the United States of an all- out war." A New York Times ar- ticle similarly concluded that "Obama will not change course even if America suffers what he regards as minor terror at- tacks…like the one in San Ber- nardino that killed 14 people and wounded 22. Ignatius de- scribed this as Obama's 'cost- benefit analysis' and that only 'a big, orchestrated terrorist inci- dent that so frightened the pub- lic that it began to prevent the normal functioning of America' would alter his strategy" (Good- win). "First, it is an absolute der- eliction of duty for a president to make a 'cost-benefit analy- sis' that regards any attacks on Americans by foreign enemies as minor. Successful attacks ter- rorize people well beyond the specific location. Second, given his record, Obama's assur- ances that there are no credi- ble threats now are not comfort- ing—nobody saw Paris and San Bernardino coming." Americans are understand- ably less-than-cheery as this New Year begins. Don Polson has called Red Bluff home since 1988. He can be reached by e-mail at donplsn@ yahoo.com. The way I see it America's mood in the New Year By the time the conservative crusade crashed and burned, Bill Clinton's poll ratings were higher than ever. And when he left office in January '01, 66 percent of Americans gave him a thumbs-up for his job performance; only 29 percent signaled thumbs-down. Don Polson Prosecutions are like snow- flakes, no two the same. Some- times, you have a low-profile drunken-driving case where the defendant is a first-time offender and the district attorney is will- ing to offer a plea deal. And then there are those cases that catapult a prosecutor into the cable-news firmament. The newest ticket to prosecu- tor stardom has been cashed by Montgomery County's new D.A., Kevin Steele, who is going after comedian Bill Cosby. Of course, we're not allowed to say things that in any way, shape, or form exhibit sympathy for Cosby. We're supposed to pretend that due process doesn't apply to a man already convicted in the court of public opinion. It is unlikely that Cosby will ever spend a day in prison. He has already posted bond, and the likelihood that the district attorney will have the ability to prove the charges of aggravated indecent assault beyond a rea- sonable doubt is questionable. Kevin Steele used the case of Bill Cosby to buy himself fa- vor in the eyes of Montgom- ery County voters who believed the previous D.A., Bruce Castor, dropped the ball in 2005. And you have to hand it to him: It worked. So it's not far-fetched to be- lieve this prosecution is the ful- fillment of an IOU to the peo- ple who pulled the lever for "The Guy Who Would Put Cosby in Jail." None of this is to suggest that Cosby is innocent. He is, of course, until proven otherwise under this flawed yet precious system of justice we've been hon- ing for the last two and a quarter centuries. But there is a troubling amount of evidence to at least support a finding that the man was an immoral serial adulterer. And yet, one does not gener- ally go to jail for adultery. And Steele is going to have to show that the woman who claimed to have been abused by Cosby didn't consent to sex. He also has to come up with more than just her word to substantiate the claim. Perhaps he'll be successful, perhaps not. Until he is, though, let's remember the words that are printed beneath Cosby's mug shot on the Montgomery County district attorney's website: "Criminal charges, and any discussion thereof, are merely allegations and all defendants are presumed innocent until and unless proven guilty." Christine Flowers is an attorney and a columnist for the Philadelphia Daily News, and can be reached at cflowers1961@ gmail.com. Christine Flowers Bill Cosby and applying due process in the court of public opinion OPINION » redbluffdailynews.com Tuesday, January 5, 2016 » MORE AT FACEBOOK.COM/RBDAILYNEWS AND TWITTER.COM/REDBLUFFNEWS A6