*On ' The Weak Who Worship Cokie Roberts ' Linda Tripp got to clear up some possibly blatant lies Monica Lewinsky felt she had the license to put in print within her poor excuse for a book? The first thing she cleared up was the way the OIC treated Monica Lewinsky that fateful first night, saying, " What I read in the book was completely removed from reality " and " They were gracious, they were polite at all times ". She continued on that same subject, " The truth would not harm Ken Starr in any way ". She was grilled about what happened before she started taping her conversation; remember Tripp had been listening to Monica for over a year, before she felt the need to cover herself by documentation ( audio tapes ). Tripp claimed that " she ( Monica ) was instructed by the President and Vernon Jordan that she would have to use the cover story ". She also said Clinton told her ( Monica ) what she would have to say in her affidavit, but not the exact words, so he could more easily deny it later. Tripp said Monica asked Vernon Jordan this question, " What do I tell him ( Frank Carter ), the truth or the story? " When asked about her ( Tripp's ) motivation and book contracts, et al., Tripp said, " Where's the book Cokie? ". She has no plans for a book unless the misinformation gets considerably worse! But when pressed about a possible book, she said it would not have much Monica, but cover subjects like Hillary Clinton's Rose Law Firm records and the firings of the Whitehouse Travel Office. She said, " Mrs. Clinton, seeing her role as co-president, was invloved in every scandal ", and " I don't ever want to downplay my outrage ". She debunked Monica's whining on the Barbara Springer show with, " The blue dress was a badge of honor for Monica, it validated their relationship ". Lastly, Cokie Roberts asked, " You know Monica Lewinsky, how would you characterize her mood at the moment? " Tripp's one word answer was, " euphoric ". Cokie Roberts ended the interview with a statement to the effect that Monica was, " the ultimate success of a Cosmo girl ".

*Senators Susan Collins ( R ), Phil Gramm ( R ) and Ernest Hollings ( D ) were joined by a Whitehouse lapdog, Lawrence Summers, supposedly Deputy Treasury Secretary, to ' Deface The Nation ' concerning the national budget. They all discussed the Social Security trust fund and it's relationship to the imaginary budget surplus, being claimed by the media and the Whitehouse ( all but Summers, ofcourse ). Lawrence Summers sounded like he was reading last week's Whitehouse talking points fax ( he should try a little harder to get his DNC obedience training right ) and said absolutely nothing specific. When the Senators began to offer their opinions and/or facts, Summers could only sound like a campaign stop broken record. He either didn't answer the question by changing the subject, or he made some silly statement like, " all these experts say the President's plan is the best " ( obviously never citing the particular expert or exact numbers past the year 2000 ). I mean this guy was truely embarassing to the Clinton adminstration, but on second thought, Clinton's plan does offer enough pork to choke a truck-load of Rabbis, with no explainable way to fine the money to pay for it. All three Senators agreed that the Social Security trust fund should be taken off the table and isolated from the other elements in the budget, as the entire phoney budget surplus comes directly from the trust fund, and not tax revenue, for instance ( obviously Summers ignored the question on this subject, but made sure he mentioned the name Clinton as many times as possible before Bob or Gloria cut off his non-answer ). Gramm wasn't too optimistic on acheiving a tax cut this year while ' trying ' to save Social Security. He doesn't believe the fix is that easy, saying, " Simply walling it off and buying down the debt does nothing to save Social Security ". Collins, reacting to some incredible claim by Summers, said, " The administration actually spends part of the Social Security trust fund ". Hollings, in almost complete agreement with the other Senators ( arguably a moderate and a conservative Republican ) said we should " cap the debt ". He was harsh on the administration for what he considers ' lying ' about a false surplus in their budget proposal, saying, " Everyone's talking surplus, and there isn't any ". This was the closest thing to working together that I have seen Democrats and Republicans do, too bad Summers had to be such a partisan political advocate, instead of addressing the issue!

I was impressed with Tripp, though I always thought she was a snake to record her conversations, whether she was trying to cover her back or not. I was intrigued by Hollings not towing the Whithouse line, but I was sufficiently unimpressed by Summers, who was a disgrace to the Treasury Department, though a good little Clinton/DNC/Whitehouse robot.

- Bongo ( Some of it didn't pass the sniff test, either. )