From: maxwell@fnalo.fnal.gov
Subject: Clinton's Brother: our problem?
Keywords: Clinton's brother, Comedy Central, Buck Henry
Organization: Fermi National Accelerator Lab
Date: Fri, 6 Nov 1992 02:43:59 GMT
Summary: Clinton's bro could be a key obstacle for the Hemp movement.
X-Posted-From: fnalo.fnal.gov
NNTP-Posting-Host: sol.ctr.columbia.edu

In one of my previous massages, I ended with a post script asking if anyone
saw Buck Henry's interview w/ Bill Clinton's brother.

Please allow me to put this question in context.

Some of you may remember the _Rolling Stone_ interview with Bill Clinton. (_RS_
sent 4 journalists of various political persuasion-- including P.J. O'Rourke
and Legendary Doctor of Journalism, Hunter S. Thompson-- to interview Clinton
in Little Rock, Arkansas.)

One question to which Clinton responded was about the Drug War.

In his response, Clinton mentioned the stuff everyone here squawks about-- the
extra 100k police on the street, the boot camp idea... but he also talked about
his little brother.

[Clinton has been excoriated, or at least held in reproach, because he turned
 in his brother to the cops for cocaine dealing or somesuch thing.]

When he talked about turning in his brother, Clinton said that although he
hated to turn him in, he *really* felt that he saved his brother from a
premature death (this is from memory folx-- corrections welcome). He said that
he was absolutely sure his brother was alive today because of his arrest.

What does this have to do with Buck Henry? Read on...

On election night, the american cable television station Comedy Central, had an
election night special, with live commentary as the returns came in.  They
featured live and *previously taped* interviews from the election night parties
of the various candidates.

Buck Henry covered the Clinton party from Little Rock.  A day or two before he
was able to wrangle a quickie interview with Clinton's brother, and Comedy
Central ran the interview during their special.  This is to my knowlege the
first time Clinton's brother has been interviewed on national television.

I couldn't help but come to the conclusion that Clinton's brother was either
mentally unstable, had a *severe* case of Attention Deficit Disorder, or was
using some kind of recreational drug.  He seemed *extremely* disconnected from
reality during the interview.  His responses sometimes seemed orthagonal to the
conversation, other times completely irrelevant and sometimes just
inappropriate. He fidgeted a *lot*, and he seemed not to have his mind on the
matter at hand.  At the end of the interview he responded with an inapropriate
operatic falsetto non sequitur.

He was sooo disconnected that Buck Henry, Al Franken and two other stand up
comedians in the studio were *nonplussed*.  I suggest that it takes a lot to
leave 4 professional comedians speechless.

I couldn't help wondering if we're seeing some curse borne by southern
Presidents, call it the "Billy Carter Syndrome".

My impression of Clinton's brother-- and I will acknowelege that it's based on
minimal data-- is that he's one seriously messed up dude. He strikes me as the
kind of guy we talk about when we say that some people are just self
destructive.

I hear Clinton really cares about, loves, his brother, and that his brother's
drug experience colours Clinton's approach to drugs. (Someone else can do the
analysis wrt his father and step-father) If this is true, and it probably is,
we have our work cut out for us-- Clinton will be a hard sell.

Our best strategy would probably emphasize the differing effects of hemp and
cocaine.

Note that I don't think the above means Clinton is the intractable enemy of the
Hemp movement. I see the issue of Clinton's brother as an obstacle for us, and
as part of the mass of conflicts that "make the man" we call Bill Clinton.

Anyway, that's my opinion on that little piece of the Hemp movement phase
space.

opinions?

Am I the only one who watched Comedy Central's coverage of the election
returns? 


regards.max
mmonningh@igc.org
Newsgroups: talk.politics.drugs