SKEETER BITES BY SKEETER SANDERS nd so the impeachment trial of polyamorous president William Jefferson Clinton has ended with an outright‘ acquittal on one charge and a hung jury on the other. That the senators would never reach the , constitutionally required two-thirds majority (67 out of ‘I00 votes.) to convict and remove Mr. Clinton was beyond a shadow of a doubt, given the rabid partisanship demonstrated by the Republican-controlled House of Representatives in approving two articles of impeachment against him by strict party-line votes. The real surprise was that the GOP, which also controls the Senate with 55 seats, failed to muster even a simple majority of 51 votes for conviction. Ten moderate GOP senators, includ- ing Vermont’s Jim Jeffords, saved Mr. Clinton’s tenure in the White House with their votes. By so doing, those 10 moder- ate GOPers have finally ripped the remaining covers off a bitter power struggle within their own party —- and set in motion the final “armageddon” inythe 30- year-old culture war between the hard—line social right wing and everyone else. The president — who has yet to come to terms with his polyamorous nature and come out of the closet —— has wonhis battle to keep his job for the remaining two years of his tenn. But the culture war waged against him and others who don’t confonn to the strict morality of the social right wing is far from over. On the contrary, we ain’t seen nothing yet. With the new millen- nium around the corner, the social right wing, like a cornered wild animal, will go on an all-out rampage of viciousness that will make what’s already transpired over the past 30 years seem like your proverbial Sunday church picnic by comparison. Let’s start with the Republican Party. If you thought their 1992 presidential nominating conven- tion in Houston — in which Pat Buchanan delivered his clarion call for a “cultural war” to “take back America” from the depraved proponents of the ‘60s and ‘70s counterculture — was scary, wait till you hear Gary Bauer’s keynote address at the 2000 convention in Philadelphia. That is, if he doesn’t get to deliv- er his acceptance speech. Already here in Vermont and elsewhere in New England, social right-wingers are going after J effords and other GOP sen- ators who voted to acquit Mr. Clinton with threats to mount pri- mary challenges against them next year. ' Vermont Republicans have a reputation of being considerably more socially libertarian than the national GOP. But if Jeffords does face a primary challenger and loses, it would send shock CROW’S ‘it can work well if... Thank you for the wake-up call. sure we agree about that. In sisterhood,’ Crow Response to Letter to the Editor Hooray! Someone finally wrote a letter in response to one of my columns (“On Non-monogamy” OITM Jan. 99). I welcome your comments, Karen, but I’m wondering if we’re talking about the same column. I don’t remember assuming that my experience is “the last wor ” on radical‘ lesbianism in the ‘70s. As a matter of fact, I remember being careful as I wrote it to say, “It did- n’t work for me,” and “maybe” it can work for others, and “perhaps” Interpreting history is always based on the individual’s perspec- tive. Perhaps I will be careful to emphasize that in my next column. I take issue with your statement that “the most radical thing we can do is be who we are, whoever that might be.” What if we happen to be a nazi? There’s no such thing as a free-floating identity. We are who we are based on birth, choices, and historical contexts. We can choose to align with fascists. That does not make us ‘radical.’ The point of my article was not to condemn non-monogamy per se; but to take a long, hard look at our motivations and treatment of one another in our sexual practices. This often cannot be done in isolation. We need communities to help each other sort out ethical behavior linked with compassion, It helps not to dichotomize each other’s viewpoints. Here’s hoping we don’t consider each other on opposite sides of the fence. lt’s much too complicated an issue. I’m CA-WS our Poly Prez wins, But the culture llllar llin’t over waves coast to coast that social right-wingers are taking over Lincoln’s party with a vengeance not seen since the dark days of Sen. Joseph McCarthy’s anti- communist witch hunts. And if it could happen here in Vermont, imagine how even more rabidly right-wing the GOP would be in the rest of the coun- try. We would be witnessing the political party founded in I857 to rid America of the evil of slavery plunging into outright fascism led by zealots bent on replacing our Constitution with the Ten Commandments. If I were Texas Gov. George W. Bush and seeking the GOP presidential nomination next year, I’d be looking over my shoulder a lot for an all-out ambush from my right flank. V Skeeter Sanders is an FM radio DJ who can be heard at 11 :00 p. m. Saturdays on “The Point" (WNCS 104.7 Montpelier; WSHX 95. 7 St. Johnsbury, WR./T 103.1 White River Junction) and at 10:00 p.m. Sundays on WGDR 91.1 Plainfield Eoltonis NOTE We'd like to apologize for a , momentary lapse of editorial reason on last month's Skeeter Bites. Although the intent was to pique curiosity with a highlighted quote from the text, in retrospect the selection of the “roller derby” line was a littletoo flippant fornthe serious tone of the column. We apologize to bothithe columnist and our readers. 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