How we’re a situationally puritanical nation
I remember a trip I took back in the 1990s, around the time that the Clinton impeachment hearings were in full swing. Sitting at a café in Florence, enjoying a cappuccino and a cornetto, I happened to glance up at the TV overhead and caught an Italian journalist discussing “Beel Cleeenton” and “Mowneeka Leweeenskee.” It followed you everywhere, that prurient interest in the president’s private life.
I remember at the time being embarrassed that the leader of my country had been doing what generations of frat boys had been doing at parties, only he was doing it in the Oval Office. I shouldn’t have worried, though. Italians, like most Europeans, weren’t fazed by the personal peccadillos of their elected officials.
There were those few exceptions that proved the rule, like when John Profumo engaged in wild sex orgies with call girl (and girlfriend of Russian spy) Christine Keeler, but the general reaction of Europeans was that we Americans were social puritans.
Fast forward to late last year, when Jeffrey Toobin became embroiled in one of history’s first Zoom scandals. At the time, I memorialized it in this little ditty: Poor Jeffrey did miscalculate When he began to masturbate The crowd did not anticipate That he’d attempt to copulate And most of them were quite irate
At his attempts to auto-date And all of Twitter did berate The guy who didn’t want to wait.
Indeed, Twitter did make Toobin the butt (no pun intended) of every joke, and rightfully so. His appearances on television showed him to be a supercilious, patronizing, snide and quite elitist fellow who, although obviously quite intelligent, didn’t have a very high opinion of anyone other than himself.
And it was reasonable to believe that his long, dark, social winter was going to last through spring, since he lost his decadeslong gig writing for the New Yorker and disappeared from CNN, where he’d reigned supreme as the “chief legal correspondent” for almost as long.
But apparently, America has recovered from its Bill Clinton-era puritanism, because this past week, Toobin re-emerged like one of those sleeping cicadas after a 17-year dormancy, and was back at the table on CNN. He made the obligatory mea culpa, explaining to midday host Alisyn Camerota that he was sorry about his “mistakes:”
“I’m trying now to say how sorry I am, sincerely. Above all, I am sorry to my wife and to my family, but I’m also sorry to the people on the Zoom call. I’m sorry to my former colleagues at The New Yorker. I’m sorry to my current, fortunately, still colleagues at CNN. And I’m sorry to the people who read my work and watched me on CNN who thought I was a better person than this. I’ve got a lot to rebuild, but I feel very privileged and very lucky that I’m going to be able to try to do that.”
Actually, not all of America was happy with the reinstatement of Toobin, including - I am happy to note - many liberals who felt that Toobin got off with a slap on the wrist. He is white, he is male, he is rich, he is educated, and “this is CNN.” I wish those same liberals had been as vocal when they railroaded Sen. Al Franken into the 5th circle of MeToo Hell, but beggars can’t be choosers.
And aside from the progressives who thought that class, race and gender were a protective shield for a randy guy, there were at least as many conservatives ticked off by the seeming double standard applied to the guy who regularly trashed Republicans on the network which is now dedicated to doing the same.
I do believe that there are double standards at play, and I absolutely believe that if Toobin
had been, say, Rick Santorum, he would have been banned from his job and shunned by his colleagues for eternity. In fact, the former senator from Pennsylvania was fired from CNN for making awkward comments about there being no “Native American culture.” Rick was wrong to say that, and he also apologized. But that didn’t get him a papal dispensation from the Unholy C.
Still, it’s not as black and white as we’d like to think, though. It really isn’t a “conservative versus liberal” thing, much as we might try and portray it, or a racial thing, or anything that you can define with a bright line.
The simple fact is, we tend to give a pass to those we like, and condemn those we hated to begin with. CNN loved Toobin, and
couldn’t wait until they could safely bring him back. It’s the same thing with Chris Cuomo. The man my friend Rich Zeoli calls the “Lesser Cuomo” has violated so many ethical standards over the past few years, and CNN keeps him employed because they can.
But Matt Lauer was expendable at NBC, because his time was up and they wanted to figure out a way to flood the morning stage with women in the post “MeToo” era.
And Bill Cosby was a man who lectured the Black youth about “pulling up their pants” and being accountable, so they went after him, deprived him of due process and now he sits in jail.
And, frankly, that’s why Bill Clinton got away with whatever he got away with in the Oval Office.
Feminists liked the guy.
Europeans actually have it wrong in thinking that we are a puritanical nation. We are only situationally puritanical. We will destroy those who are inconvenient, as Franken, Lauer, and Cosby were. But we have an immense capacity to forgive those sinners we like, the ones who are useful.
That’s why so many conservatives have been silent about Matt Gaetz, a sordid little fellow who looks like he combs his hair with kerosene.
Let’s face it. We forgive those who remind us of ourselves.