Tripp-ing the Lite Phantastik
The headlines are taken up with news of a public hearing to decide whether or not Linda Tripp will have to go on trial for wiretapping. If I told you it isn’t looking good, what would you think that I meant...that she would have to go to trial and face likely conviction, or that she would escape a trial? If you chose door number two, you’d be right. I think it’s ridiculous that taxpayer dollars are being squandered in this attempt to prosecute Tripp.
They’re getting permission to prosecute, because they’re not quite sure that they have a case, what with immunity from Kenneth Starr, albeit after the fact. Of course, we know that she did something wrong. For her own convoluted reasons, Tripp taped many hours of many conversations with Monica Lewinsky , and according to reports from a year ago, she had been told that such taping — without mutual consent — was illegal in Maryland. By a store employee where she bought the recorder. You’ve got questions, they’ve got answers, even if she didn’t want to hear ‘em.
And still it’s a big so what. I mean, recording a telephone conversation shouldn’t be a big deal, and people should probably not do it without the other person knowing, but do you spend hundreds of thousands and maybe millions of dollars to try to try then try to incarcerate this indefatigable target of national scorn? Come on. Go after drug dealers and corrupt politicians instead.
Tripp seems to be a very sorry individual with little in her character to celebrate. She didn’t act for the safety or benefit of the nation, or even to hurt Lewinsky. Somehow she figured it was going to benefit her, and then she was led further astray by the shrewish agent harpy Lucianne Goldberg.
As disgusting as we may find Tripp’s behavior, it’s long time since we should have closed the book and let this hopeless hapless slink out of sight. Lewinsky should follow her into the darkness, maybe to a trailer mired in the slime on the outskirts of East Little Rock. It’s tough to sympathize with any of them, since they lack dignity, humility, and promise.
I suppose I could be more forgiving toward Tripp, and the others. Imagine being them, waking up every day having to read from their scripts. Goldberg’s been at it for a while, I’d guess, and it shows. Clinton’s done it all his life; when he gets caught he pretends it never happened. Lewinsky is actually trading on the notoriety she thinks is celebrity. And Tripp, the tragic cow, looks like she came through the wrong door, again.
And that’s SetonnoteS...I’m Tony Seton.
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