Yeltsin :lol: I wish that guy was running Russia again.
QuoteWhy Monica? Clinton 'cracked'
Book also tells of drunken Yeltsin trying to hail cab in his underwear
September 22, 2009
The Monica Lewinsky scandal happened, according to former President Bill Clinton, because he "just cracked" after the death of his mother, the Whitewater investigation and the 1994 loss of the Democrats' congressional majority.
That's one of the stories that's come out from Pulitzer-Prize winning author and civil rights historian Taylor Branch, whose 707-page book based on his taped late-night interviews with Clinton, The Clinton Tapes: Wrestling History With the President (Simon & Schuster), goes on sale early next week.
Branch, who roomed with Clinton in Austin in 1972 as they managed George McGovern's presidential campaign in Texas, interviewed him 79 times from 1993 through 2001. Although Clinton kept the tapes and used the transcripts for his 2004 memoir, Branch after each session recorded his own recollections of what was said.
In Branch's retelling, Clinton said that in 1995 former Russian President Boris Yeltsin, while visiting Washington, left the Blair House, the government's guest quarters, in his underwear and was found by the Secret Service inebriated on Pennsylvania Avenue trying to hail a taxi because he wanted a pizza.
In a book that author and Time magazine columnist Joe Klein calls "odd, revealing and often delightful," Branch also said that the next night Yeltsin eluded security forces by climbing down back stairs to the Blair House basement. He was mistaken by a security guard for a drunken intruder until Russian and U.S. agents rescued him.
The book also says that Clinton and former Vice President Al Gore vigorously debated Gore's 2000 campaign for president. Clinton told Gore he could have helped the ticket by campaigning in Arkansas or New Hampshire, either of which would have provided the necessary electoral votes for Gore to win. Gore complained that Clinton's impeachment over his affair with Lewinsky had been a "drag" on the campaign and the two men "exploded" at each other, Branch said.
"The former president has been on the phone with Branch for hours since he got page proofs of Branch's new book," Susan Page reported Monday in USA Today. The former president is "running 'hot and cold' about the account based on Branch's recollections of their conversations."
Too funny. :D
Putin really does just lack style.
Everyone prefers jolly drunken Russians to scary secret service Soviet types.
Except Russians, unfortunately.
Clinton probably heard stories of plugging dykes with fingers, and thus wanted to try a cigar in a crack.
This reminds me of the MP who blamed his cheating on his wife with a rent boy on a midlife crisis, prompted by the loss of his hair :lol:
Quote from: Tyr on September 22, 2009, 07:58:51 AM
Putin really does just lack style.
Everyone prefers jolly drunken Russians to scary secret service Soviet types.
(https://languish.org/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fpunditkitchen.files.wordpress.com%2F2009%2F04%2Fpolitical-pictures-vladimir-putin-bad-ass.jpg&hash=9d90b0d617266deff3ef2cde7fcfbacd67c90d64)
His rod looks just like mine. :cool:
So, why is the middle aged (or more) Putin parading around, flexing muscles, wrestling Russian bears and other manly stuff, for the cameras? I haven't really gotten that yet. Is it not enough that he's a national leader, former chief spy of the KGB? But he has to do what he thinks is showing himself off? Something wrong with his priorities, and/or he's over compensating for something.
Quote from: KRonn on September 22, 2009, 11:28:43 AM
So, why is the middle aged (or more) Putin parading around, flexing muscles, wrestling Russian bears and other manly stuff, for the cameras? I haven't really gotten that yet. Is it not enough that he's a national leader, former chief spy of the KGB? But he has to do what he thinks is showing himself off? Something wrong with his priorities, and/or he's over compensating for something.
Because Russia Strong!
Quote from: KRonn on September 22, 2009, 11:28:43 AM
So, why is the middle aged (or more) Putin parading around, flexing muscles, wrestling Russian bears and other manly stuff, for the cameras? I haven't really gotten that yet. Is it not enough that he's a national leader, former chief spy of the KGB? But he has to do what he thinks is showing himself off? Something wrong with his priorities, and/or he's over compensating for something.
Maybe that stuff really wins votes?
:unsure:
Ironically people who deserve victory in elections usually don't bother with them.
Quote from: KRonn on September 22, 2009, 11:28:43 AM
So, why is the middle aged (or more) Putin parading around, flexing muscles, wrestling Russian bears and other manly stuff, for the cameras? I haven't really gotten that yet. Is it not enough that he's a national leader, former chief spy of the KGB? But he has to do what he thinks is showing himself off? Something wrong with his priorities, and/or he's over compensating for something.
Because all the stereotypes about Russians are true. "Today comrades, I shall shoot tiger and save beautiful woman! OoooRah!"
Quote from: KRonn on September 22, 2009, 11:28:43 AM
So, why is the middle aged (or more) Putin parading around, flexing muscles, wrestling Russian bears and other manly stuff, for the cameras? I haven't really gotten that yet. Is it not enough that he's a national leader, former chief spy of the KGB? But he has to do what he thinks is showing himself off? Something wrong with his priorities, and/or he's over compensating for something.
It's not without precedent, actually. Mussolini did the same thing.
Quote from: derspiess on September 22, 2009, 03:05:26 PM
It's not without precedent, actually. Mussolini did the same thing.
That's true. Mussolini had the horse handler edited out of this photograph so he'd appear more heroic:
(https://languish.org/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.gstatic.com%2Fhostedimg%2F73e2b10dde5cfd4f_landing&hash=08b8d974fbadb77139418df1b31829ea966ceccb)
The handler was holding the reigns; you can see how he was edited out as sort of a blob.
I assumed the horse was just a hellhorse with superheated breath. :blush:
Quote from: Razgovory on September 22, 2009, 02:04:42 PM
Quote from: KRonn on September 22, 2009, 11:28:43 AM
So, why is the middle aged (or more) Putin parading around, flexing muscles, wrestling Russian bears and other manly stuff, for the cameras? I haven't really gotten that yet. Is it not enough that he's a national leader, former chief spy of the KGB? But he has to do what he thinks is showing himself off? Something wrong with his priorities, and/or he's over compensating for something.
Because all the stereotypes about Russians are true. "Today comrades, I shall shoot tiger and save beautiful woman! OoooRah!"
Russians do everything backwards.
Maybe if it had a saddle he wouldn't need the horse handler.
:squints: is that a female horse he's riding? whimp
Quote from: swallow on September 22, 2009, 04:37:04 PM
:squints: is that a female horse he's riding? whimp
They're called a mare or a filly.
Or could the horse be a gelding?
But anyways - calling it a female horse? :rolleyes: :P
Quote from: Barrister on September 22, 2009, 04:40:21 PM
Quote from: swallow on September 22, 2009, 04:37:04 PM
:squints: is that a female horse he's riding? whimp
They're called a mare or a filly.
Or could the horse be a gelding?
But anyways - calling it a female horse? :rolleyes: :P
:lol: My non-excuse was I was emphasising its gender rather than age or 'treatment'. Pllus I can never remember the various labels! So whaddya think? Male or female? ps I can talk about baby ducks and baby cows too
Quote from: swallow on September 22, 2009, 04:45:30 PM
:lol: My non-excuse was I was emphasising its gender rather than age or 'treatment'. Pllus I can never remember the various labels! So whaddya think? Male or female? ps I can talk about baby ducks and baby cows too
I actually paid for a large part of my university education by typing out the night's horse racing results for the local newspaper. Oh, the odd bits of information you can learn by doing that...
Quote from: KRonn on September 22, 2009, 11:28:43 AM
So, why is the middle aged (or more) Putin parading around, flexing muscles, wrestling Russian bears and other manly stuff, for the cameras? I haven't really gotten that yet. Is it not enough that he's a national leader, former chief spy of the KGB? But he has to do what he thinks is showing himself off? Something wrong with his priorities, and/or he's over compensating for something.
It's just a "cult of personality" thing; eastern despots/would be despots tend to like them, and at least he's a lot more subtle about it than Mao, Stalin or Kim Il Sung.
Maybe he's just proud that he's not a fat fuck or dead at his age.
Maybe Mussolini also edited out the horse's pecker because he didn't want a bigger one in the photo. :contract: