Sex and the Clintons: The Next Chapter

This week, for the first time, Hillary Clinton has appeared not to be ruling out running for presidency in 2016. At the same time, coincidentally or not, the curse that haunted her husband has reappeared and is now after her — a juicy sex scandal, which is only just starting to gain momentum.

Where shall we start? Actually, with Gennifer Flowers, the repulsive woman who has made a successful career out of being Bill Clinton’s mistress. The woman who considers herself the great love of his life, but chases him nonstop. The woman who appears every so often with a different story about Bill to sell something and, now that she has long stopped interesting anyone, has found another tree to climb — Hillary.

Gennifer Flowers made headlines during the 1992 presidential election. She sold an interview to the tabloid Star at the height of the election, containing this bombshell: The Democratic candidate, Bill Clinton, has a mistress. Three days later Bill and Hillary appeared in a joint interview on the show “60 Minutes,” holding hands and denying this entirely. But Gennifer didn’t give the chance up. She held a sensationalist press conference in which she described a 12-year affair with Bill Clinton, while sobbing as though she was the poor person being cheated on and playing recordings of his phone calls.

Within weeks, Flowers pocketed millions of dollars from Penthouse magazine in exchange for a series of nude photos — a nice advancement for an unknown bar singer from Arkansas. Then came the book and she was interviewed again, saying he was the love of her life. The sales weren’t bad. She has recently also been writing a sex advice column because “[Bill] taught me a lot”; her career has been developing for 20 years. She openly admits that she has no problem doing what she does: “I made a decision and I don’t regret it.” This is also how she decided to auction off the recordings of her phone conversations with Bill.

‘The First Lesbian President’

Bill is indeed a little naughty. The subject has haunted him. Six years later, midway through his second term in office, he was questioned following a complaint filed by Paula Jones over sexual harassment. During the investigation he was forced to admit that he had had relations with Gennifer Flowers “once.” This is likely to be from the same family as “I did not have sexual relations with that woman” (Monica Lewinski) and the fact that he smoked marijuana but “I didn’t inhale.” Bill was worried that if he denied under oath during the investigation, Flowers would be called in to testify and would make a scene. Jones’s case was finally closed out of court for $850,000.

Gennifer, now 63, apparently needs to continue making a living and getting attention, so this week along comes her interview with the British tabloid The Daily Mail. In the interview, she continues to fantasize that she and Bill would still be together today if it wasn’t for the birth of Chelsea — among other chatter that really isn’t interesting to anyone. That kind of thing doesn’t sell and is not what you get paid for. But “Hillary is bisexual”? Gong. Sold!

Gennifer will not leave out the hottest name in the race for the White House in 2016. When it comes to presidential campaigns, sex and the Clintons, she wrote the book. So she pulled out a nasty statement (which we will not quote here) that, according to her, Bill told her about Hillary and concerns a lady who is very happy in the company of other women. Gennifer also continues with her own interpretations, but The Daily Mail surpasses this and throws the wife of another politician into the cauldron. This is Huma Abedin, Hillary’s closest assistant in recent years. Yes, the wife of former congressman and candidate for mayor of New York Anthony Weiner — the one who sent naked photos on Twitter and was exposed twice. Scandal upon scandal upon scandal.

Wait, how did we get this far downhill? Oh, it is American politics which has gone downhill; what starts as gossip and rumor will gain momentum. It is already beginning, with a comment made by a peripheral right-wing conservative such as Brian Fisher, who stung Hillary on his radio show as not only the first female candidate for presidency, but also the first lesbian candidate.

In an apparent coincidence (although this is not Aviv Horowitz’s column), a personal interview with Hillary is being published in New York Magazine, the first of its kind since she resigned from her position as secretary of state. In the interview, she talks about how her and Bill spend more time at home, watch movies, play with the dogs and go for walks together. But what is really important is that she does not rule out running for presidency and leaves everything open. “I’m not in any hurry,” she says. “I think it’s a serious decision, not to be made lightly, but it’s also not one that has to be made soon.”

This is already contradicting the standard script of potential candidates, including Hillary herself, who always say “not interested,” “it’s not on the cards,” etc. until the very moment of opening the campaign arrives. Hillary has a good chance of winning the Democratic primaries. She already almost did that against Obama. She has since established herself as the secretary of state who travels the world — one of the two most important positions in the government, alongside the secretary of defense. She will always be the only candidate who can say, “I have been in the White House for eight years.”

In 2014, Hillary will release a book published by Simon & Schuster — a $25 million deal. At least one tabloid has quoted a source that claims she will come out of the closet in this book. There are three more years until the election. There is a good chance we will hear a lot about gossip, money, sex and scandals over these years.