Caveat lector

Minor mishaps #1: Sam says the darnedest things

Synopsis: Sam Donaldson (who else) had the dumbest remark on this week’s Sunday chat programs.

Commentary by Sam Donaldson
This Week, ABC, 12/20/98

DONALDSON: I’m fond of quoting my friend Joe Klein...He likens Bill Clinton to the central character in The Great Gatsby. He walks along and behind him he leaves wrecked lives, ruined lives, not just his enemies, but his friends. And if you think about the people, both his enemies and his friends, Speakers and Webster Hubbell, you see that wherever President Clinton walks, carnage is left behind, and it’s amazing.

And it really is amazing, now that you mention it, the things one hears said by a lynch mob. Hubbell went to prison, after all, for misappropriating money from Mrs. Clinton’s law firm--for stealing from the Clintons! The ability to blame Vile Clinton for that--well, it’s all a part of the logic one get to see inside a celebrity lynch mob. Meanwhile, it’s somehow Vile’s fault that Speakers have fallen? We search for the logic there, also. Rep. Livingston, like Dimmesdale, sat silent for seven years, while his party attacked Clinton for sexual conduct. When Livingston’s similar conduct (and hypocrisy) is revealed, somehow that’s Clinton’s fault too.

Normally, we try to close with a witty remark. Tonight, we just aren’t gonna bother.