hunting and politics

Tonight I went down to the Roxie and saw The Hunting of the President, a documentary about the "ten year campaign to destroy Bill Clinton," based on the book by Joe Conason and Gene Lyons.

At first I was a little worried, as some over-zealous visual montages and ominous soundtracks made me wonder what the next 90 minutes held in store for me. Fortunately the film settled down (or perhaps I acclimated to it?) and then stepped through some interesting perspectives on the right's efforts to bring down the Clintons. While most of us know that way too much money and time was wasted on an unmaterialized financial scandal, in the end disrupting our democracy to parade some extra-marital fellatio, I for one was not familiar with all the strange peripheral characters involved in the tale. Accuse me of being a west coast elitist, but Arkansas has some pretty crazy cats. My favorite in the film is Larry Case, a detective (of sorts), who, backed by right-wing patrons, travels around recording various conversations trying to dig up (mostly sexual) dirt on President Clinton. And for some reason he eerily reminds me of Larry Flynt. I also learned that Ann Coulter is an elf -- who knew?

I guess I never quite understood the extreme, and in many cases irrational, hatred of the Clintons. And though I suppose many on the right may feel the same way about today's anti-Bush sentiment, I feel that (Fahrenheit 9/11 notwithstanding) today's rancor is rooted much more in policy than personality. I wasn't much of a Clinton fan during my youth, but the past four years have created a nostalgia in me that I would not have thought possible.

So go grab some 90's nostalgia while you can. Outfoxed will be playing here in a week, so then we can all revel in the glorious present.