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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsCharles P. Pierce: Trump's New Lawyer Is Someone I Remember Well
https://www.esquire.com/news-politics/politics/a19494233/joseph-digenova-trump/Trump's New Lawyer Is Someone I Remember Well
A visit from the ghost of presidential impeachments past.
By Charles P. Pierce
Mar 20, 2018
For those of us who were amazed and (ultimately) appalled as the Great Penis Hunt unfolded in the years 1997 and 1998, seeing Joseph diGenova back on the national stage, this time as a mouthpiece supporting a president being dogged by a special prosecutor, is proof enough that, whatever else we may think of Her, God has a deft hand for the plot twist.
Back 20 years ago, diGenova and his wife, a lawyer named Victoria Toensing, were regulars on the then-nascent political gab circuit. (This was when people like Geraldo Rivera and Charles Grodin had shows, and when Chris Matthews was going completely bananas over the wandering presidential priapus, and when Kellyanne Conway was Kellyanne Fitzpatrick, and when you and I were young, mother.) But diGenova was an all-purpose opinion grinder.
For example, back in 1997, he thought the only salvation for the Republic was to have Ken Starr indict Bill Clinton for lying about several blowjobs, and for obstructing justice in the case of several blowjobs. In The Wall Street Journal, diGenova wrote:
For those of you who may have joined American politics already in progress, both Whitewater and Filegate were nothingburgers; even Ken Starr admitted this to the House Judiciary Committee. Now, of course, diGenova is the newest recruit to a legal team that believes that indicting a sitting president is contrary to the rules of the Constitution, the criminal code, and cricket. And, besides, diGenova has bigger fish to fry. From Real Clear Politics:
He is not, as you can plainly see, a crank.
Meanwhile, diGenovas wife, the aforementioned Ms. Toensing, is working these days at laying a few more whacks into the dead horse that is Uranium One. In the pairs competition, they earlier promoted the notion that the Obama administration was threatening witnesses in the endless Benghazi investigation. You have to give Republicans credit. They are better than a summer music-shed tour at getting the band back together again.
Fifteen years ago, partly at the urging of people whose public careers should have been ended with their involvement in the Iran-Contra scandal, President George W. Bush launched his invasion of Iraq, which remains at the top of the list of foreign-policy debacles in American history. Now we have the Whitewater Undead staggering out of the ancient crypts of cable news and back abroad in our politics again. Somebody should ring the green rooms with garlic.
flotsam
(3,268 posts)if only for the green rooms and garlic comment...
flibbitygiblets
(7,220 posts)orangecrush
(19,545 posts)mcar
(42,307 posts)It is maddening.
BSdetect
(8,998 posts)malaise
(268,955 posts)Rec
scarletwoman
(31,893 posts)Mountain Mule
(1,002 posts)DemoTex
(25,394 posts)And their savior, Ken Starr, and his Clinton inquisition (which wasn't really about the blue dress, and all that). Ken Starr was payback for Bill Clinton's successful attack on Big Tobacco. During the inquisition, Ken Starr was riding around the USA - not in his Chevrolet - but in the Gulfstream III corporate jet of a company called Philip-Morris.
I had been a corporate pilot (flew for Ken Lay, pre-Enron, for a while) before I became an airline pilot. My old buds at Butler Aviation, the FBO at DCA (Washington National Airport), would keep me in the loop about the ramp intrigue with the real jet-setters. Thus the news feed on Ken Starr's comings and goings.
onethatcares
(16,166 posts)I wasn't aware of the tie in tween Big tobacco and the Clintons.
I just hadn't heard of it before. Now on to more searching
Thanks
DemoTex
(25,394 posts)IIRC, Ken Starr had been outside attorney for Philip-Morris.
Hekate
(90,658 posts)mgardener
(1,816 posts)Lost her credibility whaen she outed Valerie Plame.
Remember she claimed she was not a covert CIA operative.
PCIntern
(25,541 posts)Whose repulsive behavior was matched only by their ugliness of visage.
DemoTex
(25,394 posts)Preach it. These are dangerous peeps.
erronis
(15,241 posts)Maybe it's genetic, or maybe they feed at the same trough. Maybe they don't know any better or probably they like the money and attention.
Solly Mack
(90,762 posts)known as Scaife's "Blonde Bimbos" (Richard Mellon Scaife /Arkansas Project/attacks against the Clintons)
As well as the now dead Barbara Olson.
I remember Victoria Toensing and diGenova. I remember them all.
onethatcares
(16,166 posts)I'm eating popcorn and waiting for the Rumsfeld guy to be resurrected. CAUSE YOU KNOW IT'S GONNA HAPPEN!
ms liberty
(8,573 posts)Awful people jumping back in too?
spanone
(135,828 posts)FakeNoose
(32,634 posts)Man I didn't know he was still around. Very skeevy.
Thanks for the reminder.
JohnnyRingo
(18,628 posts)and certainly a good overview of Trump's legal addition.
This shook loose a few memories from the Clinton years. I'm glad someone thought to write that stuff down. hahaha
bagimin
(1,333 posts)I despise those Cretans.