Between the Lines, Online: Boxers or Briefs?

Long before Monica Lewinsky, this was seized upon by commentators as symbolic of everything Clinton did to degrade and embarrass the American presidency. When George W. Bush was elected in 2000 by promising to "restore honor and dignity to the office of president of the United States," he was tapping into perceptions of Clinton that began with him discussing his underwear on national television.

Hunter Thompson ran hot and cold on Clinton, though he liked him far better than Nixon, Reagan or the Bushes. For all of his brilliant eviscerations of politicians (Hubert Humphrey was "a rat in heat"), the most enduring began with a question that even he would not answer.

For a writer, that's painful, and I never had the heart to tell him.

© 2005