Dahlia Lithwack at Slate has this hilarious comparison of Sarah Palin’s Troopergate and Bll Clinton’s Toopergate.
For me the so-called latest Troopergate scandal, saga, or whatever one might consider it, just brings back post-traumatic stress memories of covering the first one. What is to be learned from this? Maybe if we are going to continue to have candidates from small states that begin with an “A” we were forewarned.
The awful thing about covering the first Troopergate story is that everyone dissembled. The Arkansas state troopers often exaggerated and sometimes lied, and when one thought they had figured out what happened, one found out that President Clinton wasn’t exactly telling the entire truth either. And then there is the small matter of one of the troopers, Danny Ferguson, talking about shaking down a sitting President of the United States. Of course, I know this is a minority opinion– but why was any of this a story in the first place?
Uh oh. My post-traumatic Troopergate memories are really flooding back:
Sidney Blumenthal somehow getting through on the line (I knew I should have gotten caller ID): “The troopers! David Brock!…. Michael Kelly. We all know the troopers’ connection to the Federalist Society!. You know? Connect… the…dots.”
A personal note: So as not to display any bias, I am fond of both former President Clinton and trooper Roger Perry. I like them both.
I actually had the pleasure of sitting in the Capitol Hotel in Little Rock in Aug. 1996 with Roger and his wife as we watched then-President Clinton’s acceptance speech to the Democratic convention. Seemed like a more interesting setting to watch the speech then to be at the convention itself.
And a final note: I’m defending the Clintons or their troopers here, but at least in the Clinton Troopergate scandal, no one got tasered, least of which any children.
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