Train Wrecks and Presidents....
It's the most fun you'll ever have on TV.

I believe in honor. I believe in integrity. Those things must be learned. I haven't lied in a long, long time. I have learned that as a man, I should be responsible for my actions and my statements. If what I do or have done is wrong then I will accept responsibilty for it. I will answer personally so that I might explain any misunderstandings, answer questions as to my motivations or make my position clear. But I will not lie to avoid answerring for it.

Almost everyone has an opinion on the current Presidential Jerry Springer episode that is ongoing and like others, I am as fascinated like I would be when looking at a train wreck. And that's what it is. This presidency is a train wreck... a spectacle the likes of which hasn't been seen since Orenthal James Simpson had his time on the stand. People can't wait to see what happens next and they're willing to slow down their lives to watch.

And kinda like the OJ trial, people are getting tired of it being in the airwaves. When the News Types say that the polls reflect that "The People" want this to be over, I think what it really means is that people are tired of being presented with it day in and day out. I don't think "The People" are tired of the invesigation or the proceedings. I bet most of "The People" couldn't give two squats about how long it takes. I think "The People" are tired of old hat like the OJ year long trial news fest. After a while, it's just boring, and after TOO long, it's annoying. It seems like all "The People" are interested in the news for anyway is entertainment... kinda like a train wreck which is just as remote to them. Substitue a window in your car for a Cathode Ray Tube and you've got News baby.

I got sent this letter over the internet. I am posting it here because it echoes my thoughts and resounds in ways that I haven't given much time to working out myself. I think that this text is especially appropriate for those of our country whose job is to protect and perhaps die at the words of a man who will split hairs to a microscopic level to cover up a blowjob. The President is a liar. He looked me in the eye over the TV and lied to me. Hide the words as you like with legal speak, he still lied. He knew what he was doing when he did it, and compounded the lie tenfold.

Dear Mr. President:

It's not about sex. If it were about sex, you would be long gone.

Just like a doctor, attorney or teacher who had sex with a patient, client or student half his age, you would have violated the ethics of your office and would be long gone. Just like a Sergeant Major of the Army, Gene McKinney, who though found not guilty, was forced to resign amid accusations of sexual abuse. Remember the Air Force General you wouldn't nominate to be Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff because he freely admitted to an affair almost 15 years before, while he and his wife were separated? Unlike you, he was never accused of having a starry-eyed office assistant my daughter's age perform oral sex on him while he was on the phone and his wife and daughter were upstairs.

If it were about sex, you should be subjected to the same horrible hearings that Clarence Thomas was subjected to because of the accusations of Anita Hill. The only accusation then was that he talked dirty to her; He didn't even leave semen stains on her dress.

No, it's not about sex. It's about character. It's about lying. It's about arrogance. It's about abuse of power. It's about dodging the draft and lying about it. When caught in a lie by letters you wrote, you concocted a story that nobody believed. But we excused it and looked away. It's about smoking dope, and lying about it. "I didn't inhale," you said. Sure, and when I was 15 and my buddies and I swiped a beer from an unwatched refrigerator, we drank from it, but we didn't swallow. "I broke no laws of the United States," you said. That's right, you smoked dope in England or Norway or Moscow; where you were demonstrating against the U.S.A. You lied, but we excused it and looked away.

It's about you selling overnight stays in the White House to any foreigner or other contributor with untraceable cash. It's about Whitewater and Jim and Susan McDougal and Arkansas, Gov. Jim Guy Tucker and Vincent Foster and Jennifer Flowers and Paula Jones and Karen Willey and nearly countless others. It's about stealing the records from Foster's office while his body was still warm and putting them in your bedroom and "not noticing them" for two years. It's about illegal political contributions. It's about you and Al Gore soliciting contributions and selling influence at Buddhist temples and in the same Oval Office where Abraham Lincoln and Franklin Roosevelt led their countries through the dark days of wars that threatened the very existence of our nation. But we excused you and looked away.

It's about hiding evidence from Ken Starr, refusing to testify, filing legal motions, coaching witnesses, obstruction of justice and delaying Judge Starr's inquiry for months and years, and then complaining that it has gone on too long. The polls agreed. Thank goodness that Judge Starr didn't read the polls, play politics or excuse you and look away. He held on to the evidence like a tenacious bulldog.

Your supporters say that you've confessed your wrong-doings and asked for our forgiveness. Listen, what you said on TV the night you testified to the grand jury was not a confession. Confession in the face of overwhelming evidence is not a confession at all. Not that it would make a lot of difference. A murderer who contritely confesses his crime is still a murderer. When your "confession" didn't sell, even to your friends, you became more forthcoming. Maybe someday you'll confess more, but probably not. You've established such pattern of lying that we can't believe you anymore. Neither can your cabinet, the Congress or any of the leaders of the nations of the world.

When a leader's actions defame and emasculate our country as profoundly as yours have, it no longer a personal matter, as you claim. It's no longer a matter among you, your family and your God. By the way, I don't believe for a minute that Hillary was unaware of your sexual misadventures, abuses of power and pattern of lying. She has been a party to your wrong-doings since Whitewater and Jennifer Flowers just as surely as she lied about the Rose law firm's billings and hid the Vincent Foster evidence in your bedroom for two years. Why? So she could share in the raw power that your office carries. The two of you probably lied to Chelsea, but that is a matter among you, your family and your God.

Remember the sign over James Carvill's desk during the l992 campaign? It said, "It's the economy, stupid! Place this sign over your desk: "It's about character, stupid!" No, it's not about sex, Mr. President. If it were, you would be long gone. It's about character; but we have to live with your filth, lies and arrogance for a while longer. Your lies, amorality and lack of character have been as pervasive as they have been despicable, so we have no reason to believe that you will quietly resign and go away. You'll count on half truths and spin doctors to see you through, the country be damned. It has always worked before. We excused you and looked the other way.

No more, we've had enough. You betrayed us enough. You have made every elected official, minister, teacher, diplomat, parent and grandparent in the country apologize for you and explain away your actions. Now go away, and let us show them that our country was not without morals. It was just that you were. Let us show them that America was not the problem. William Jefferson Clinton was. Go away, Mr. President. Leave us alone. And when you leave, know that your legacy to the United States of America will be a stain on the Office of the President that is as filthy as the stain on Monica's dress. It will take a lot of scrubbing to make it clean again.

Eric Jowers, a retired Army Officer, served as public affairs officer at Fort Rucker from 1989 to 1991. He lives in Ozark, Alabama.

I have trouble believing in a man who would lie not to save a life; not to save his country; not to save someone else; but just to save his ass. As Jerry Springer might've said, "Be kind to one another. Be honest."