__________________________________________ Exegesis A Compass For Moral Excellence Published Worldwide From Washington January 6, 1999 The Exegesis web page is continually updated with breaking news and comment. Please visit us at http://www.sm.org/exegesis __________________________________________ Friends, if you're anything like me, I'll guess you don't enjoy high phone bills. For the past few months, we've been telling you about ExTel's 7.5 cents a minute long-distance rate. Now, we also have a service at 6.9 cents a minute. Both offer the lowest international and in-state rates. Hundreds of Exegesis readers have already switched - and some are saving up to 70% on their phone bills. Some are also making money by selling our range of services. Whether you want to save or earn as well, you owe it to yourself to see our selection of services at http://ld.net/?sm.org _______________________________________________ 2000: Year Of The Woman? While most folks enjoyed time off over Christmas and the New Year, the plotters, planners and schemers, ever keen to dominate politics, the media and the popular culture, were forced to reshape their plans by new details of presidential escapades. Their decisions this week will shape America for a decade. Last month, we outlined a possible power swap at the end of January in which Hillary Clinton would deliver her husband's resignation in return for becoming Al Gore's Vice-President, leaving the Clintons right at the center of power for another few years. The plan seemed viable for several weeks, but the Clintons themselves could not seem to agree on it. In any case, one aspect seems to have proven too much for her: the need to remain married to him for the foreseeable future. She has reverted to an earlier plan in which she will again mirror her seance communicant, Eleanor Roosevelt, by moving from the White House to New York in order to run for the Senate seat to be vacated by Daniel Patrick Moynihan in 2000. Presumably she will divorce Bill Clinton somewhere along the way. Her latest acrimony with her husband may have been aggravated by new revelations. It's hard to imagine that Bill Clinton can still shock us, but apparently he can. One story concerns the allegation that he has a 13 year-old illegitimate son. On July 1, 1998, we told you about Danny Jefferson Williams, the Little Rock teenager who is said to be the result of Mr. Clinton's 1984 liaison with a black Little Rock prostitute, Bobby Ann Williams. As we reported then, she met Bill Clinton one day as he was jogging. Clinton stopped to talk to her and returned three days later for the first of 13 sessions together, which involved other women too. As Danny grew older, he started to look more and more like Mr. Clinton. Danny's photograph has been on the Exegesis web page for the past six months. Now, the truth is about to be told to the rest of the American people, so we must expect Mr. Clinton's approval ratings to hit new heights. He denies he ever knew Miss Williams, but if a DNA test on Danny matches Mr. Clinton's DNA, he clearly knew her in the Biblical sense. Americans are left with the odd dilemma of whether to believe a prostitute or President Clinton. This sudden change of plans is good news for the Republicans. It removes the last major obstacle to their White House aspirations. Since November 1996, we have been telling you that Governor George Bush of Texas was being groomed to be the Republican nominee and the next President. A campaign staff was quietly recruited and the Internet site "Bush2000.com" was registered. For the past two years Mr. Bush has led the field alone, but not any more. He will run only if he is likely to win. He would prefer to remain a popular Governor of Texas to ploughing through the snowy roads of New Hampshire and Iowa for an uncertain outcome. He could even become the Republicans' vice-presidential nominee. Why? Because, amid the complex calculations and maneuvers, doubts and questions have been raised. Can George lead the Republicans to victory? Can his speaking abilities be upgraded from adequate to excellent? He has a winsome personality, but might it be wise to ease him into the job with a stint as vice-president first? Some weeks ago, he let it be known that he would favor a female running-mate. The name at the top of his list was that of Elizabeth Dole, the first woman in American history to have held two Cabinet positions, as President Reagan's Transportation Secretary and President Bush's Labor Secretary. She has also held positions in the White House and the Federal Trade Commission, and she has had a successful eight year tenure at the American Red Cross. Campaign experience with her husband has taught her how things work. Her Southern charm, gracious manner and quiet boldness make her the envy of many men and a great asset to the Republicans. Some say she is the closest America has to a Margaret Thatcher. However, she is not the solid conservative for whom many Republican voters yearn. She likes big government programs and is as much a pillar of the Ruling Elite as is her husband. Yet perhaps that is an unchangeable aspect of American political life for the time being- and certainly for the 2000 election. On Monday January 4, Mrs. Dole transformed the political landscape when she resigned from the Red Cross, saying: "At this important time in our national life, I believe there may be another way for me to serve our country. I believe there may be other duties yet to fulfill." How could that be interpreted as anything other than an intention to run for the White House? Her speech has made an enormous impact over at the Republican National Committee where they know she would be a formidable opponent for Al Gore or anyone else. She has no skeletons in her closet other than assisting in the stewardship of her husband's bribes and kickbacks over the years. She is gifted, popular, poised and clean as a whistle. Nobody could attack her integrity and retain their credibility. It would be like attacking one's own mother. Thus the American political dynamic has changed once again. Elizabeth Dole must now be regarded as the joint leader of the pack with Governor George Bush. There will be other challengers, but few serious ones. Senator John Ashcroft has dropped out, but Pat Buchanan and others are contemplating a run and presumably have their individual reasons for doing so. Some hope for a Cabinet position - John McCain for Defense, Colin Powell for State, Steve Forbes for OMB or Treasury, and Lamar Alexander for souvenir shirt salesman at the White House gift shop, but they will all withdraw graciously and punctually if they wish to receive their reward. One possible candidate, Alan Keyes, may be the only one to raise the real issue: that America's moral house is burning down. Meanwhile, Mrs. Dole has laid down the gauntlet in no uncertain terms. Like Margaret Thatcher, her gender strengthens her. She could reach the top with such ease and grace that we will wonder why it took such a long time to elect a woman president. Meanwhile, Bill Clinton's trial is about to begin. There has been way too much conversation about the details. Not only is it totally inappropriate for a jury to make remarks about a trial in progress, but the distorted logic employed in their public calculations surrenders every sense of propriety to prejudice, including the notion that Democrats are so irredeemably corrupt and blind to justice that they would not vote in any circumstances for the removal of one of their own, even when, as in this case, the evidence deems it necessary, and it is also in their interests to do so. It is wholly wrong to base a historical constitutional procedure on such a flimsy premise. The Constitution must take precedence over politics. We may yet be surprised by the evidence. Aside from the many women, there are reports of drug-taking and inhaling, not to mention at least 109 unresolved deaths of staff members and associates, which have in common only that each worked with Mr. Clinton. Whatever happens, he is almost a spent force: he might finish out his term after a slap on the wrist, but one holds out hope that the Senators will be galvanized by those basics of the Constitution that high school students know by heart. Either way, shrewd politicians are looking beyond Bill Clinton. 2000 is looking increasingly like another "year of the woman": Hillary Clinton is now charting a solo course while Elizabeth Dole hopes to be the first American to be addressed as 'Madam President' or 'Madam Vice-President'. Is America ready for this? ‡ Steve Myers × Editor ___________________________________________________________________ A PRAYER REQUEST May I ask your prayers for my mother, Ella? She is having another round of cancer surgery this Thursday, January 7. Obviously, this is not a good situation, and I am praying for healing, but I am praying much more for her to know the Lord and His peace. I will be with her in London again for the last part of this month. Thanks and God bless Steve ___________________________________________________________________ We welcome your letters to the editor. Please write to [EMAIL PROTECTED] Exegesis A Compass For Moral Excellence Published Worldwide From Washington http://www.sm.org/exegesis © Exegesis 1999 Post Office Box 789, McLean, Virginia 22101, USA __________________________________________________________ ExTel THE PROBLEM: ANOTHER OUTRAGEOUS PHONE BILL THE ANSWER: ExTel's 6.9 and 7.5 cents a minute services! Very low international and instate rates too! RoadTel Calling Cards at 14.9 cents a minute - See and apply for all our services at http://ld.net/?sm.org _________________________________________________________ Need some extra cash? http://www.sm.org/pp
