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Sense of Betrayal

© Frank Monaldo

In 1974 when President Nixon was forced to resign, I was a teenager, moderately politically aware, but not active. Nonetheless, I can recall the sense of betrayal caused by Nixon's studied and deliberate dissimulation and deceit. Even more painfully, I can recall the personal denial, the reluctance to believe the truth or even face facts squarely. I even wanted to avoid the evening news lest I be reminded of the scandal. No one enjoys the disruption of his worldview.

Signs of denial are conspicuous to all, except those in its grip. There is the erection of impossible burdens of proof before acceptance of the apparent. There is the desperate attempt to conjure up contorted explanations for the emerging facts. There is the frantic effort to ignore inconvenient facts from arguably hostile sources. There is the tortured struggle find rationalizations to precariously cling to as a drowning swimmer to a piece of wreckage.

Sometimes it is a relatively little thing that changes one's perspective. I can remember seeing Julie Nixon vocally defending her father. One rationalization to continue to believe Nixon was to believe that no one would allow his daughter to be made a fool of. Nixon knew the truth, yet he permitted his daughter to speak publicly on his behalf. It is one thing to use political operatives, but how could a father use his own daughter to protect his political fortunes? With all the crimes Nixon was guilty of, some objectively far more serious, the exploitation of his daughter retains the most saliency for me.

When the potential perjury and obstruction of justice charges surrounding the Monica Lewinsky affair in the Paula Jones case first emerged, Hillary Clinton went on the Today Show and denied the charges against her husband and blamed everything on a "vast right-wing conspiracy." This was before the they-hate-us-because-we-are-from-Arkansas explanation. It is impossible from this distance to ascertain with confidence whether Hillary's statements on the Today Show were also lies or whether she too was deceived by her husband forceful protestations. Given their history, if she believed him without reservation, she must be in terminal denial. In any case, Bill Clinton allowed his wife, knowingly or unknowningly, to mislead the public on his behalf.

The most despicable behavior during the first days of the saga in January, was when Clinton paraded in a photo op with his arm around his smiling and adoring daughter, Chelsea. There is nothing wrong with parental affection, but its deliberate display in

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