Why Monica?

The cartoonish photograph of Hillary Clinton above this paragraph is from Reuters coverage of the State of the Union address on Tuesday night. It reminded me of the way Pat Oliphant, my favorite current political cartoonist, draws her. Then it made me think, hmm, that’s probably an expression old Bill Clinton knows all too well.

Which gave me pause to chuckle. Then I thought of a Monica and Bill cartoon by one of my all-time favorite artists, R. Crumb. That panel is below this paragraph (click on it to enlarge). Taken together, I now think these images may help to answer the very question -- Why Monica? -- many of us were asking way back at this time of year in 1998. Why in the world would the president, a former Rhodes Scholar, go for such a bimbo? Well, the answer could simply have been that after looking at scary Hillary’s visage for so long, cheeky Monica looked rather sweet and harmless. Boy was he wrong...

And, please don’t get me wrong, I’m not defending Slick Willie’s dalliance. Only trying to better understand the Splattergate scandal, which put Dubya & Co. in the White House. That pizza Monica delivered led to us having to swallow Cheney, Rove, "Brownie," Alito, color-coded fear, and all the rest of it.

That chatterbox, Monica, if only... (make up your own punchline)