However, Reese concludes with, “Don’t let the slimy apologists for the Slimy Bill Clinton tell you there has never been a man in the White House who didn’t lie and cheat both on his wife the American people.”

I wonder if the man understood exactly the point he made. Of 42 presidents, he could only find one who was known to be virtuous, that would not lie or cheat on his wife. Additionally, the man (Truman) left office in 1953, nearly a half-century ago.

So, why haven’t we heard all the gritty details of past presidents and, not to short Congress, the many trysts of our law-makers? The answer to that is simple - to take a leading politician’s private life and make it public had been, up to Clinton, a no-no even by the press thriving on scandal.

Also, since there has only been one virtuous example, maybe our norms concerning sex dalliances is not the assumed one but is quite different. Have our norms changed? Is what was once absolutely taboo (at least publicly) now the accepted, the norm?

In the early days of TV, men and women could not sleep in the same bed, had to be fully clothed at all times, could not use the word ‘pregnant’ (as when Lucy was ‘in that way’ with Little Ricky, and a thousand other inane restrictions on natural human behaviors and occurrences.

Even the Sears Catalogue was a journey into near pornography if one dwelled on the woman’s underwear section. Speaking of that, for example, women could not stand or sit in pictorial ads with their legs spread due to the sexual connotation of such a stance. Now, of course, it is a much used position.

TV focuses on the sexuality of people. If you don’t believe it, watch any sitcom, nearly every drama, commercials (including Victoria’s secret), dancing (now shows more skin than some movies of old which were considered risqué, talk shows, late night shows such as Letterman’s or Leno’s. Heck, watch the news.

In the fifties, the word ‘sex’ couldn’t be said in public unless one was referring to an animal other than man. Even with animals, though, we didn’t talk about animals having sex as that was too ‘nasty’ and might bring forth images of people engaging in intercourse.

Anyone who doesn’t agree with what was considered porn now being considered quite normal by the majority of people must have their head buried. Women (not nearly all, of course, just as with males), even use the same words that only sailors once used, such as the ‘F’ word.

TV shows are filled with phrases that mean the same, such as ‘doing it’, ‘going down’ (both in the sense of intercourse and orally), and dozens of other examples all meaning the same - whether a man or woman had intercourse or oral sex. Newscasts openly talk about sexual behaviors.

Conclusions of research conducted, beginning with the Kinsey Report, have put adultery and illicit sex as high as 75 percent for both sexes. Divorce has gone up and up reaching epidemic proportions. Most often, divorce is based on one or both parties in a marriage having had extra-marital affairs.

Very, very few like to admit having had sex outside of marriage when questioned by their spouse or others in authority, let alone when a job is on the line. To lie, whether under oath or not, is the norm, not the exception.

Now, this is not to defend Clinton in any way but exactly how did we get to where we are, politically speaking, and exactly what has he done that is outside the norm as indicated by acceptable behaviors by the majority of our population?

We got here simply because the media, with the Republican Party’s help, broke an age-old taboo, that of removing sexual encounters of political leaders from the realm of privacy.

And, I for one, hope it eventually backfires on them, that all politicians from now on must behave within the boundaries set by any action already taken and any in the future against President Clinton, that their private lives become an open book for all of us to read.

Then, their rhetoric and the rhetoric of other anti-Clintonites will be more than just rhetoric designed to destroy an administration and get votes.