One of the more absurd, and anticipated, attacks by Donald Trump and his surrogates, has been on Bill Clinton's infidelities as a means of attacking Hillary Clinton. [1]
The absurdity has come from three men in particular [2] critiquing the infidelities of Bill Clinton: Donald Trump, Newt Gingrich, and Rudy Giuliani.
Donald married his first wife, Ivana (with whom he had three kids), then had an active affair with Marla; Ivana was given an uncontested divorce; Marla had their Donald's fourth child, then they married, then they separated, then he started dating Melania, then Donald and Marla divorced, then Melania and Donald married.
Newt at 19 married his former high school geometry teacher; they had two kids; Gingrich started an affair, then left his wife, who claimed that Gingrich raised divorce while she was in the hospital recovering from cancer (Gingrich denies this; he also denies the quote attributed to a senior aide that his first wife was "not young enough or pretty enough to be the wife of the President"); he had an affair 12 years later with a younger staffer, and seven years after that divorced his second wife (who claimed that Newt had asked for an open marriage); after that divorce, he married his mistress. Newt has said, "There's no question at times in my life, partially driven by how passionately I felt about this country, that I worked too hard and things happened in my life that were not appropriate." His first and second marriages were annulled by the Catholic Church, so he can still receive Communion.
Rudy married his childhood sweetheart; several years later they had a trial separation, and later he began dating another woman; he divorced his first wife (and the marriage was annulled because he "discovered" they were second cousins); he married his new love a few years later, and they had two children; eleven years later, he began having an affair, and a few years later was appearing in public with his mistress; he announced at a press conference that he was separating from his wife (without informing her first), then moved out of the Mayor's Mansion and in with his mistress, and filed for divorce; a few years later, after he was out of office, the divorce was settled, and he married his third wife.
That these three men — Donald, and his surrogates Newt and Rudy — are standing in judgment over the marital infidelities of Bill Clinton, or critiquing the Clintons for staying married for over forty years despite Bill's dalliances, is absurd hypocrisy of the highest order. I don't say that defending Bill, but if ever there were a trio with beams their eyes criticizing the mote in someone else's, it would be these guys.
Which brings us today, when Rudy went forward with such an attack, and was immediately called on it.
“You have your own infidelities, sir,” Mr. Todd said.
“Everybody does,” Mr. Giuliani responded.
Um … no, Rudy, not everyone does. I know a lot of people who, as far as anyone knows, have been utterly faithful to their spouses.
When called on that by a lot of people, Giuliani tried to backpedal, saying he was talking about “all forms of infidelity, which there are many” — lying, cheating, general sinfulness, flaws that everyone has. Except then that defuses the entire point, attacking Hillary through Bill, or attacking Bill hoping to spatter Hillary, or whatever the line of attack is meant to be. If we are all sinners, then critiquing the sins of others in obliviousness to one's own parallel flaws is goofiness at best, and a sort of projection of one's own darker motivations at worse — I lusted after another woman and cheated on my wife, and I know what an awful person I was for that, so Bill Clinton must be just as bad — and since I was punished for it, if Hillary didn't punish Bill for it by divorcing him, she must be just as bad as I — er, as he is.
Given that Trump has already been hinting that maybe Hillary wasn't faithful to Bill — without providing anything more than suggestive questions about it — I'm sure that's the next line of innuendo and attack. Because, again, project: If I would cheat on someone who I thought was unfaithful to me, obviously anyone else would. Such accusations say a lot more about the accuser than the accused.
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[1] There are other dimensions to this: accusations of rape against Bill, and Hillary's attacks on the women who were accusing her husband, but let's deal with those issues in another post some time, because they are very different things than the main issue here.
[2] Plus Rush Limbaugh, whose record matches theirs, but who is so much of a has-been "please, still pay attention to meeeeeeee" guy that it's not worth including him here.
Rudy Giuliani, Continuing Rebuke of Hillary Clinton, Says ‘Everybody’ Commits Infidelity
Mr. Giuliani’s remarks, on NBC’s “Meet the Press,” were the latest in a string of attacks on the Clintons, and struck many people as hypocritical.
