Linda Tripp’s Long Slog
By Gary Aldrich (11/13/03)
Yesterday, attorneys for Linda Tripp announced that at long last the federal government decided to settle a lawsuit she filed against the Department of Defense and others for revealing secret information contained in her background investigation file.
The government’s privacy invasion was one of the many wrongs committed against Linda after it learned she had tape-recorded conversations with Monica Lewinsky proving Bill Clinton was a notorious, reckless womanizer.
Before Linda Tripp came along, Bill Clinton, his administration, the Democratic National Committee and all of their liberal friends in the mainstream media had managed to hide the fact that our commander-in-chief was a rude, crude, sexual predator.
In fact, everyone prior to Linda who tried to make that righteous claim was hooted down by Clinton’s supporters. The mainstream media even conspired with his cronies to put an “official” lid on the issue. For if the media had been doing the job they always claim they are best at doing, there would have been no way to miss the mountain of evidence of Clinton’s obsession with members of the opposite sex.
He made no attempt to hide the fact that he lived, breathed, and ached to satisfy his sexual cravings.
Linda was smart to tape Monica’s conversations. In doing so, she ensured that Monica could not lie her way out of the affair. But her other major accomplishment was in convincing Monica to save that blue dress with the DNA stains. Once the dress was examined by the FBI, along with DNA samples obtained from our predator-in-chief, nobody could deny what had been so obvious to many of us. We could not prove Clinton was spending too much time thinking about how to get into the skirts of whatever attractive woman happened to pass his way, but the FBI laboratory could.
My complaint in 1996 was that for reasons related to sex, ignorance, immaturity, naiveté, or whatever – Bill Clinton and his supporters and enablers were ignoring and undermining our national security. They made it easier for spies to spy, and influenced peddlers to bargain for that which they should never have been given. I correctly reasoned that another four years of Bill and Hill would be disastrous for our country’s national security.
History proved me right. When Osama bin Laden attacked our country on September 11, 2001, the intelligence community quickly established that Clinton had many chances and good reasons to kill bin Laden, but did not. Why? Was Bill Clinton distracted by something? Some of us think we know what was on this twisted man’s mind. I think he was busy satisfying his out-of-control “entertainment” needs, instead of taking more serious care of the terrorist threats against this nation.
Under any other circumstances, it would be difficult to make the case that a president would ever put his own personal cravings above the good of this country. Thankfully, Linda Tripp possessed the courage to reveal her persuasive evidence to Ken Starr, proving Bill Clinton had a pathological weakness making him unfit to be the leader of anything, especially a position as serious as President of the United States.
Clinton was impeached, and thereby stands as an example to others. But his impeachment probably would never have happened absent the blue dress and Linda Tripp’s tapes.
Linda Tripp paid a very heavy price for standing up to corruption. She could have simply rolled over, cooperated with Clinton’s corruption machine and been financially and professionally rewarded for being a “good sport.” Instead, she considered the ramifications of lying under oath and reasoned her secret was too important and too much of a burden for her to bear. She chose instead to face down a powerful evil, and yesterday she was finally vindicated.
I always counsel would-be whistle-blowers to consider very carefully if they truly want to take on “the system.” Whistle-blowers should never come forward for small reasons. The roads whistle-blowers take are long and hard, and too often consumes years of their lives. Linda filed her lawsuit many years ago and has waited a long time for the U.S. Government – the government of the people – to set things straight. Even under a Republican Department of Justice it has taken years for “the system” to acknowledge serious wrongs committed against Linda Tripp.
The money they offered Linda will never make up for the pain and humiliation she has suffered as a person, a woman and an honest, patriotic citizen of these United States. I hope Linda has it within her to one day forgive the small-minded men who did this terrible wrong to her, as well as the men who could have ended this nightmare shortly after President Bush’s inauguration, but for some reason did not.
Shame on the Department of Justice lawyers who delayed Linda Tripp’s justice for so many years. There could be no good reason to let Linda hang out there as long as she did. In Linda’s case, justice delayed was truly justice denied – but sadly this is the grim fate of your average, or even your above-average, whistle-blower.
Has it become U.S. government policy to shut up and discourage “troublesome” ethical dissent, no matter the gravity of the issue? Dragging Linda Tripp’s case out seems to send that message loud and clear.
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