<http://schema.org/articleBody>
" Regular readers of the blog know that I have a peculiar jones for two distinct eras in American politics, both of which, I believe, represent the beginning of some particularly foul dynamics that plague us even unto this day. The first is the largely unpunished Iran-Contra scandal, which reversed almost all the lessons we thought we&amp;#039;d learned after Watergate and set the America presidency a good ways down the path that ended it in Baghdad, and Bagram, and Gitmo, and the black sites. Even some of the principals were the same; the last administration was full to its gunwales with Iran-Contra&amp;#039;s lawless Undead, up to and including the vice-president. The second was the endless pursuit of Bill Clinton (and his penis) in which we learned that all the remaining lessons of Watergate \u2014 particularly those regarding ratfking \u2014 were no longer valid if you could launder them into the mainstream through Matt Drudge, or the kept conservative political press, or, eventually, the justice system and the Congress of the United States. More to the point, the basic blueprints for the construction of our Kenyan Muslim President were laid down in places like the Mena Airport, where Bill Clinton allegedly assisted drug dealers and had to kill two teenagers on the railroad tracks to do it. Nonsense was empowered. Fantasy treated as real. The political class went utterly mad. It was where The Puke Funnel was invented. The Arkansas Project made what Donald Segretti did for Richard Nixon&amp;#039;s campaign look like a bad episode of Punk&amp;#039;d. Now, it seems, the latter episode is back with us. I noticed the other day that some intelligence officials familiar with the attack on the consulate in Benghazi were being represented by Joe DiGenova and Victoria Toensing and, immediately, bells went off, echoing in the general direction of the White River in Arkansas. This pair, particularly Toensing, became teevee news stars during the Great Penis Chase, and they had largely faded from sight as other, younger hacks emerged to take their places in the various Green Rooms. But they have not lost their touch for fact-free slander. &amp;quot;I&amp;#039;m not talking generally, I&amp;#039;m talking specifically about Benghazi - that people have been threatened,&amp;quot; Toensing said in an interview Monday. &amp;quot;And not just the State Department. People have been threatened at the CIA.&amp;quot; Toensing declined to name her client. She also refused to say whether the individual was on the ground in Benghazi on the night of Sept. 11, 2012, when terrorist attacks on two U.S. installations in the Libyan city killed four Americans, including U.S. Ambassador to Libya Chris Stevens. She&amp;#039;s not talking generally, She just declines to get into the relevant specifics. And, in case you were wondering if The Puke Funnel was still operational, the president got asked about Toensing&amp;#039;s allegations at his press conference yesterday by Ed Henry, of Fox News. Apparently, bells went off at Media Matters, too. If you&amp;#039;re wondering what the plans outside the Congress are to stymie the president&amp;#039;s second term. (Which is not to say there aren&amp;#039;t willing congresscritters lining up, too.) I think we have a pretty good idea already. We learn nothing. We truly do not. I expect any day now, we&amp;#039;ll be hearing about cattle futures and who moved Vince Foster&amp;#039;s body to Tripoli. "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.esquire.com/news-politics/politics/a18347/getting-the-band-back-together/>