A L S O+T O D A Y I'm sorry, Tinky Winky By Michael Colton The writer who outed the "gay" Teletubby in the Washington Post apologizes for bringing the wrath of Jerry Falwell upon him Free at last By Joshua Micah Marshall Trent Lott's concession to Tom Daschle on witnesses was the moment that mattered in the impeachment trial Moral majority By Charles Taylor The American people acquitted Clinton long ago Word from the White House The text of President Clinton's statement   T A B L E+T A L K Tinky Winky is gay!? Share your reaction to today's news in the Headlines area of Table Talk   Find deep discounts and great selection on the books you need to read at barnesandnoble.com Search by:  Keyword Title Author       R E C E N T L Y Rigoberta Menchú meets the press By James Poniewozik The Nobel laureate, accused of misrepresenting her life, tries to simultaneously argue that she didn't lie and that if she did, it doesn't matter (02/12/99) Wake-up call By Joel Dreyfuss Police brutality has long been a problem for African-Americans, but it took immigrant blacks being brutalized for New Yorkers to take notice (02/12/99) The trouble with Rudy By Neal Pollack Reaction to the killing of an African street vendor by police shows the growing protest power of the city's immigrant communities (02/12/99) Clinton's dumbest education idea By Joan Walsh Ending "social promotion" won't cure what ails American schools (02/11/99) Scandal's silver lining By Art Levine Washington lobbyists profit from upheaval (02/10/99) - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Browse the Newsreal Archives - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -       90 ads
		MOMMIE DEAREST | PAGE 1, 2 - - - - - - - - - - At the end of the interview, Gangel said that the country had gone through a long and divisive ordeal, and the upshot had been that Lewinsky's life had been ruined and Clinton acquitted. Was it worth it? "I would do it again," Tripp said. The "Today" appearance was just one tentacle of a multi-armed media strategy that Tripp is employing to transform herself from a comic villain, the Snidely Whiplash of the '90s, into a maternal moral exemplar, the mother America never had. On Monday, she will perform on Larry King, and she has also given an interview to the New York Times in which she reportedly broke down in tears. No tears were visible during the "Today" broadcast. Whether this is because the tears just wouldn't come, she wished for some reason to avoid having them captured on film or the print interview simply made her more emotional remained unclear at press time. Will the National Rehabilitation Tour '99 (has anyone noticed that such tours are now announced without irony or even comment in the media, as if there was nothing peculiar about a private citizen undertaking an enormous PR campaign?) work? Tripp can surely take heart in the comebacks of such recent butts-of-all-jokes as Dick Morris and Marv Albert, those dueling poster boys for the Oral Stage who have graduated from sucking toes and biting backs to pontificating and calling basketball games. America does indeed appear to forgive quickly, and a few months of slick media mumbo-jumbo, better hair and a quick reinsertion into the all-plastic-parts American spectacle machine can turn just about any misdeed into a commercial for a smiling, artificial self. Tripp, however, faces a tougher road than Morris or Albert, or even earlier mustache-twirlers like Oliver North. Since her position makes it impossible for her to express formulaic remorse, she doesn't have access to our formulaic forgiveness, the first stage in the well-defined path that ends with her being able to walk down to the 7-Eleven without being regarded by people as someone combining various elements of Goneril, Judas, Lizzie Borden, Mrs. O'Leary and Tokyo Rose. Moreover, complete personal betrayal is still regarded by most people as a greater misdeed than doing the nasty, even with those you ain't supposed to. Finally, we need a permanent comic villain -- both to put this whole mess behind us, and just because we're kinda sadistic that way -- and Tripp is too perfect for the role. The egregiously slimy nature of her offenses -- those smarmy recorded instructions to Monica to "put the dress in a zip-loc bag," those "re-created" conversations she manipulated Monica into -- just can't be plastic-wrapped. They're too ridiculously over the top. For all of these reasons, Tripp's rehab odds are down there with the likes of O.J. Simpson, Tonya Harding or another misunderstood savior, Ted Kaczynski (who, in a bit of cosmic serendipity, announced Friday that he too was embarking on an image-rehab campaign!). Tripp should either embrace her fate, starting a new postmodern career as a villainess in Quentin Tarantino flicks, or move to the friendly confines of the white-supremacist portion of some Western state, where the idea that Clinton ordered her whacked will fall on fertile soil. Maybe they'll even declare her their Honorary Mother. SALON | Feb. 12, 1999 - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Clinton in Crisis Salon's complete coverage of the investigation, impeachment and trial of the president. - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Become a Salon member. Click here.