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2008-03-27 Home Front: Politix

Chelsea Clinton Bristles at Lewinsky Question

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Posted by Fred 2008-03-27 00:00|| || Front Page|| [11127 views ] Top

#1 In basketball terms - "Chelsea, how is it that your father consistently gets his own shot off?"

Posted by Raj 2008-03-27 08:19|| 2008-03-27 08:19|| Front Page Top

#2 "Well have you seen what my mother looks like?"

Posted by Icerigger">Icerigger 2008-03-27 08:22|| 2008-03-27 08:22|| Front Page Top

#3 She blew them off, in other words.

Posted by Galactic Coordinator Tholuck3545 2008-03-27 08:29|| 2008-03-27 08:29|| Front Page Top

#4 It was kind of a low class question, but she is schilling for mother so she's fair game.

Posted by bigjim-ky 2008-03-27 08:50|| 2008-03-27 08:50|| Front Page Top

#5 how about questions about Juanita Broderick

that issue is so much more important than the Lewinsky matter since Juanita claims to have been raped.

Posted by mhw 2008-03-27 08:57|| 2008-03-27 08:57|| Front Page Top

#6 Gentlemen, get a grip and be civil. No, it is not appropriate to ask Chelsea this stuff. Period.

Clobber Billary with this question as much as you like, but leave Chelsea out of it.

Posted by mom">mom 2008-03-27 09:03|| 2008-03-27 09:03|| Front Page Top

#7 I quite disagree, mom. The question of Hillary's credibility should be fair game for anyone who is campaigning for her. Hillary's relentless defense of her husband in spite of his long-standing "Slick Willie" reputation (and the facts) suggests a serious character flaw in the credibility department and that she doesn't learn much from her "35 years of experience". Hillary rolls out the evil VRWC as foil every time the ugly side of the Billary team reality surfaces. And as we've seen plenty in recent weeks, Hillary is just as inclined to play games with truth as Bill. If Chelsea can go out and promote Billary, then Chelsea doesn't get a pass on the lies and lack of credibility of the Billary team.

Posted by Darrell 2008-03-27 09:42|| 2008-03-27 09:42|| Front Page Top

#8 Darrell's right. If she doesn't want the question, she should stay at home. If she wants to shill for Mom on the evening news, she'd better be ready for the questions.

Maybe I'll change my tune when Jena shills for Laura. As if.

Posted by Nimble Spemble 2008-03-27 10:21|| 2008-03-27 10:21|| Front Page Top

#9 Such things are the business of the country. If you run for public office and seek the highest office in the country, then such questions are fair. Such questions speak to character and integrity of the candidate. If Chelsea is out campaigning for her mother and a spokesperson for her mother, then she can provide a more substantive answers.--or answer as she did. Chelsea is a grown-up. Was WJC was too busy with his affairs to be concerned with the affairs of the country at the time? Hillary's released papers, schedules, etc. suggest she was in the Whitehouse when Bill was having some of his trysts with Monika. Either she didn't know about these affairs or she didn't care about them.

Posted by JohnQC 2008-03-27 12:15|| 2008-03-27 12:15|| Front Page Top

#10 Gentlemen, you're still wrong. You do not ask people personal questions about their parents.

Posted by mom">mom 2008-03-27 12:22|| 2008-03-27 12:22|| Front Page Top

#11 #10 Gentlemen, you're still wrong. You do not ask people personal questions about their parents.
Posted by: mom 2008-03-27 12:22

Parents,
Don't act like Bill and Hillary Clinton and then use your kid out into the public sector to try to get you into a respectable and important public office.

Posted by www 2008-03-27 12:41|| 2008-03-27 12:41|| Front Page Top

#12 "If the enemy is an ass and a fool and a prating coxcomb, is it meet, think you, that we also, look you, be an ass and a fool and a prating coxcomb?"
--Llewellen, Shakespeare's Henry V

One thing that really gets on my nerve when reading this otherwise excellent news service is the willingness of so many otherwise intelligent people to discard good manners and use moronic vocabulary--the kind that has to be ***d to get past the filters. These attitudes have seeped into all levels of public discourse, and it is destructive and unnecessary.

Treat other people's young and adult children the way you'd want people to treat yours.

Over and out.

Posted by mom">mom 2008-03-27 12:44|| 2008-03-27 12:44|| Front Page Top

#13 Rewrite! Head should read: "Clinton Blows Off Lewinsky Question"

Posted by Chief Running Gag">Chief Running Gag 2008-03-27 12:56|| 2008-03-27 12:56|| Front Page Top

#14 Treat other people's young and adult children the way you'd want people to treat yours.

One, I wouldn't send my kid out to campaign for me. Two, 'adult' means exactly that - abiulity to stand on one's own feet and deal with the slings and arrows. Deal with it.

Over and out.

Wrong, and goodbye.

Posted by Pappy 2008-03-27 13:04|| 2008-03-27 13:04|| Front Page Top

#15 Clever reporters ask questions from those who can reasonably expected to know the answers. Chelsea was a highly protected daughter, and as such can hardly be expected to have been the recipient of either of her parents' confidences on the subject of her father's sex life.

That the question is rude is undeniable. But then, the entire profession of journalism seems based on ill manners, so that is not a functional objection. Sorry, mom, but our scruples are not always held by others. :-( That the question was a rhetorical flourish intended to demonstrate the speaker's point rather than elicit information is also undeniable, and the reporter should have been sent back to intern for a few more years before being allowed to embarrass the station by open political posturing.

Posted by trailing wife ">trailing wife 2008-03-27 13:17|| 2008-03-27 13:17|| Front Page Top

#16 didn't her pops just say something like, "In a political office if you put on the pads I may come over and tackle you?"

Posted by swksvolFF 2008-03-27 13:18|| 2008-03-27 13:18|| Front Page Top

#17 If she was just going about her normal life, and she was asked this question, I would fully expect the asker to be slapped silly for it.

However, Chelsea was at that function as a mouthpiece and official representative of her mother's presidential campaign. As such, I would fully expect her too and would ask her about her father's serial adultery and why her mother rolls over (no pun intended) for it. It speaks highly of the character of not only the presidential hopeful, but the character of those that she keeps around her. I would not want a female president that slinks and sulks away from domineering men. I would have some respect for Hillary if she put Bill out on the front lawn after Monica with a size 9 high heel imprint on his ass. But the fact she hasn't does leave me questioning her ability to stand up to sleezeballs.

So, in the function of being an official representative of the Hillary Clinton for President Campaign, that question had every right to be asked in front of her.

Posted by DarthVader">DarthVader 2008-03-27 13:25|| 2008-03-27 13:25|| Front Page Top

#18 Sorry Mom, disagree.

Chelsea is a 28 yr old ivy-league educated woman and no longer the teen first daughter. She's and Adult who is VOLUNTARILY schilling for a senator who wants to be president. Her father perjured himself in front of a grand jury. AS A TAXPAYER and a member of the armed forces HRC may command (God Forbid) one day the question of credibility is not only fair but pertinent.

She should of either answered the question which, btw was from a HRC supporter about her mom's *credibility* not about what Chelsea feels about her dad's daliances. OR, she should of said: "I have no comment, you should ask Sen Clinton herself." Her remark just made her look snotty. Typical clinton false sense of entitlement.

As Truman once said, can't take the heat, stay out of the kitchen.

Posted by Broadhead6 2008-03-27 13:30|| 2008-03-27 13:30|| Front Page Top

#19 "Treat other people's young and adult children the way you'd want people to treat yours."
Okay, Chelsea or anyone else may ask me or my wife or any of my three children anything they want about my credibility, honesty, or fidelity. I can take it -- because I haven't been misbehaving. The Clintons can't take it.

Posted by Darrell 2008-03-27 13:55|| 2008-03-27 13:55|| Front Page Top

#20 With all due respect, mom, you are wrong on this count. I appreciate your call to raise the level of political discourse in this country above that of raw sewage. That could only be a good thing. However, that being said, if Billary are going to pimp their daughter out (please don't suspend me, MSNBC!) then she should be prepared for questions of all nature and temperament. How she chooses to handle or answer them, or not as the case may be, is her choice entirely.

Bottomline, if you are on the sidelines then you are on the sidelines. But if you get in the game, you either play by the rules on the field or you pull yourself out. Simple as that.

Posted by eltoroverde 2008-03-27 14:57|| 2008-03-27 14:57|| Front Page Top

#21 Sorry Chelsea, but questions about your mom's *credibility* is definitely *my* *business* when she is running for the Presidency of the United States. And her credibility during difficult times would be even more important.

I don't think the question was personal. A question like 'How do you feel about your dad's dalliances?' would be personal (and none of our business). This question was about her mother's credibility - a very valid question to ask of someone (or their representative - which is what Chelsea was at the time) who is running for POTUS.

Posted by CrazyFool 2008-03-27 15:17|| 2008-03-27 15:17|| Front Page Top

#22 The question was actually pretty tame. Did Hillary's credibility suffer because of the scandal. It's not very personal, it didn't really ask Chelsea what she thought of the scandal and Chelsea answer was also revealing in that "it's none of your business" is not true. If Hillary's credibility suffered or not is all of our business. A better answer would have been no. If she'd lost credibility she wouldn't be a contender right now.

Posted by rjschwarz 2008-03-27 15:48|| 2008-03-27 15:48|| Front Page Top

#23 rjschwarz is right. It wasn't a personal question at all. Had Chelsea simply answered, "No," to the question, this would be a non-issue.

Posted by eltoroverde 2008-03-27 16:07|| 2008-03-27 16:07|| Front Page Top

#24 #18 - BH6, a small nit. Chelsea attended Stanford and Oxford. Neither is an Ivy League college.
Other than that, I agree with the majority of the commenters here - a question about Senator Clinton's credibility is valid.
Out.

Posted by Rambler in California">Rambler in California 2008-03-27 18:05|| 2008-03-27 18:05|| Front Page Top

#25 Mom, as well as my Mom (God rest her soul) are correct in calling this out as loutish behavior...

That being said, having to explain, on Bill's behalf, what an "inappropriate relationship" was to my then 12 year old daughter... well that memory kind of overruns my distaste for loutish behavior.

Posted by Capsu78 2008-03-27 18:24|| 2008-03-27 18:24|| Front Page Top

#26 A reporter/journalist didn't ask Chelsea the question. The person who asked the question was a student who was a Hillary Clinton supporter who is a student at the school Chelsea was answering questions from the student body.

The student who asked that question told ABC afterwards that the reason she asked that question was because she was trying to get an answer from Chelsea that she could use when others who brought the Lewinsky situation and the resulting response from Hillary, which made Hillary seem weak to that supporters anti-Hillary friends, would give her amunition to use to support Hillary.

However, the student/Hillary supporter was told by Chelsea "non of your business".

Posted by www 2008-03-27 19:04|| 2008-03-27 19:04|| Front Page Top

#27 Rambler - true, neither are in the *ivy league* - I should have said she's a supposedly highly educated woman from two of the best universities on the planet - I'm still not sure if that translates into a bit of smarts after watching her get flustered by some college kid yesterday.

Posted by Broadhead6 2008-03-27 21:03|| 2008-03-27 21:03|| Front Page Top

#28 Damn Pappy,
you said that to Mom in writing and in public? [he said rhetorically]

~~Now I KNOW you had a couple for lunch~~...

Strike That! Now IMA CERTAIN you Start Drinking at Noon!!

Posted by RD">RD 2008-03-27 21:49|| 2008-03-27 21:49|| Front Page Top

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