Word: swaggart
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...putting an apology in front of us. And he knew it. As disappointment poured in--not just from the media elite but from his supporters--an expanded apology, although not another speech, was a possibility. The press went on red alert, hoping to cover a full Jimmy Swaggart. But when the vacationing President chose to mention forgiveness--in a chapel, no less--it was in the third person and past tense. He may, in fact, have done some damage. By invoking Nelson Mandela, who did nothing to deserve his captors, Clinton suggested he had done nothing to deserve Kenneth Starr...
...some form in virtually every TV appearance. My first reaction was that he ought to put that in writing for purposes of negotiating the terms of surrender. My second was to wonder exactly how much contrition he wanted, on a scale from Nixonian modified hangout to a full Jimmy Swaggart, from something suitable for family viewing to a blushing Playboy-channel disclosure. Hatch made a direct appeal to Clinton when he crossed paths with one of the President's spokesmen at NBC's green room in Washington. Hatch said he meant what he said, that he would do whatever...
There are all kinds of interesting ways to confess. Long ago, Jimmy Carter startled America by admitting, in a Playboy interview, to "lust in my heart"--not a confession at all, really, but coy, juvenile exhibitionism. Playboy would not be a good forum for Clinton. Jimmy Swaggart wept and chewed the furniture on the soundstage of his TV ministry. Without the gnashing of teeth, Clinton might at least entertain the idea of a group format. He is good at the Oprah-type give-and-take. If confession becomes inevitable, best to take control of the drama and stage-manage...
There is something to be said for Clinton's playing the race and religion card, in a modified Swaggart mode. Risky, but consider: Clinton appears on TV flanked by the Rev. Jesse Jackson and the Rev. Billy Graham, the reverends arranged like pastoral bookends in full supportive body English. Clinton, voice husky, sincere, speaks to the camera about the weekend of soul searching he has just spent with Jesse and Billy; speaks about his brother's drug addiction and about (here goes) his own long troublesome addiction, which is sex; subtly blames his childhood, the alcoholic home; implies the sins...
...White House insiders go, the whole Jimmy Swaggart confession scenario was something of a national parlor game, not a live option. "The best thing to expect right now is our standard operating procedure," said an adviser. "He goes in, testifies and issues a brief one-sentence statement. That's the way we've done it in the past, and unfortunately, we've got a lot of experience in this." But there may be nothing standard about this operation anymore; Clinton's lawyers will have to be at least as hard on him as Starr will be, make him address every...