A View From Here -- Deb Weiss
A VIEW FROM HERE
by deb weiss
The John John Show
July 26, 1999
Perhaps, for now, it's over, and we can take a breath.
What it was like, most of all, was a kind of Truman
Show version of the life of John F. Kennedy Jr. The
young man himself had nothing to say about those
endlessly recycled images complete with theme music,
slow-motion flashbacks, and commentary by Boomer sages
like Doug Brinkley and Jonathan Alter.
Geraldo, that one-man delusion of grandeur, offered
footage of Britain's Tony Blair eulogizing Diana, then
a clip of Bill Clinton doing the same for John. See,
he seemed to be saying. This is greatness. This is
history.
You didn't have to sit and take it, of course. You
could switch it off. Visit friends. Read a book. Weed
the garden. Walk the dogs.
It was there, though, just the same. It never really
went away.
What was truly dreadful was to see so many people
caught in the act of marketing this death. It was like
seeing some secret vice acted out in the public
square. Within hours, the extinction of John F.
Kennedy Jr. fueled a ratings race. Within days, it was
feeding a resurrected cult of the New Frontier.
It was no longer, Oh, how sad. Instead, it was Vote
Democratic -- John-John would have wanted it that way.
We've all heard about the inevitable Clintonisms,
especially his false claim to have been the first
president since 1963 to receive JFK Jr. at the White
House, and his creepy intimation that it was thanks to
this visit that the young man had finally come to
terms with JFK Sr.'s assassination.
Not a good moment. Still, it prepared us for the crude
politicization of last Friday's A-list memorial
service at St. Thomas More Church in Manhattan
(Jackie's church). The Clintons wangled themselves
invitations. New York Mayor Rudolph Giuliani, who'd
been introduced to young John by Jackie herself, was
ostentatiously snubbed.
Clearly, the admirable Caroline Kennedy Schlossberg
(raised, like her brother, to be more a Bouvier than a
Kennedy) could only hold back the torrent of sleaze
for so long. She insisted upon the quiet dignity of
the burial at sea. But others were hell-bent on
transforming her brother's death into a fundraiser
with eulogies.
Mr. Clinton came bearing gifts: three large, glossy
photo albums -- one for Mrs. Schlossberg, one for the
Kennedys, and one for the Bessettes. In addition to
albums for every branch on the mourning tree, he had
plenty of extra glossies for the press.
These were official photographs of Kennedy, his wife,
and -- whenever possible -- Mr. Clinton himself, taken
during that therapeutic White House visit. (We'll see
these icons again, stitched artfully into the moving
videotaped "tribute" that will, alas, I promise you,
be prominently featured at next summer's Democratic
Convention.) Whenever the glossies were aired by the
ever-helpful networks, it was as if Mr. Clinton's
emanation hovered there, too, unctuous, solipsistic,
gloating.
"Look -- see that picture of JFK Jr.? -- that's ME,
right there next to him, see that? I helped him
resolve some issues. We were like brothers. I touched
his father one time. I'm president now. I was
anointed. Everyone loves him, and he loved me, so
everyone has to love me, too!! Look here's another
picture. See who that is? That's ME!!"
If you've lived long enough to have attended more than
a few funerals, you've met the funeral bore -- the
mourner in the corner who "knew" the deceased better,
even, than his grieving family. He'll buttonhole you
at the wake to tell you how it was that the late
lamented never took a single step without first asking
his advice. His sobs will drown out the eulogies.
He'll assure you that he feels this death more keenly
than anyone.
Most funeral bores are harmless -- even rather to be
pitied.
Not these political cannibals, though, feasting on the
dead. They're despicable. And they're just getting
warmed up.
A word of caution to the Clintonites, however. After
Diana, a quiet backlash sprang up in England, though
it was obscured at first by the pre-fab polls, and the
blatting of journalists and politicians. Very soon,
the flowers and teddy bears and teary, dreary
strangers weeping on cue for Sky-TV triggered a
bristling revulsion. It was, simply, too much.
Today, instead of the calculated Diana cult that was
to sweep the nation leftward, there's an embarrassed,
edgy silence. The gormless Tories have done
unexpectedly well in recent elections that were
supposed to bury them forever.
Even Clinton Democrats shouldn't overlook the real
lesson of the tragedy -- that life doesn't always take
us where we planned to go.
A VIEW FROM HERE archive
America's One China, Two Alka Seltzer Policy -- July 22, 1999
The Politics of Speaking Ill of the Dead -- July 19, 1999
The Nasty Legacy -- July 15, 1999
All in a Slow News Week... -- July 12, 1999
Traps For The Young -- July 8, 1999
Remembering Michael Dukakis -- July 5, 1999
R.I.P., O.I.C. -- July 1, 1999
Mr. Clinton's Post-War Vengeance -- June 28, 1999
Guns, Cuisinarts and the Bill of Rights -- June 24, 1999
Attack of the Concerned Advocates -- June 21, 1999
FTC Nation -- June 17, 1999
The Very, Very Coincidental World of Bill and Hillary Clinton -- June 14, 1999
Water-boiling in Our Time -- June 10, 1999
Crisis and Peace -- June 7, 1999
Reinventing God -- June 3, 1999
On This Memorial Day -- May 31, 1999
The Un-McCarthy Era -- May 27, 1999
Unspeakable Spin -- May 25, 1999