It's None of Your Business

Chelsea Clinton has somehow been declared off limits to the US press, and there was discussion this morning on one of the early talk shows regarding the nation’s press and its relationship with the Clintons and their insistence that Chelsea not be asked questions by the US media even though she is an adult and is actively campaigning for her mother. I am no fan of the Clintons, but I will say that Chelsea’s refusal to answer a particular question by responding with a rather sharp rebuke was right on target.

Chelsea was at Butler University in IL and was asked by a student if father Bill’s relationship with Monica Lewinsky during his tenure as president had somehow hurt mother Hillary’s credibility. Chelsea seemed genuinely surprised at the question and finally told the student that “it is none of your business”.

The talking heads on this morning’s TV discussion of the Clinton’s imposed restrictions regarding access to Chelsea seemed to entirely miss the point. I will concede that the Clintons can ask of the media to lay off Chelsea, but I will also say that Chelsea is fair game while on the campaign trail. She is a grown-up, seems poised and mature, and is quite capable of standing up for herself. If she does not want to answer a question, she doesn’t have to but it is unreasonable and downright arrogant for the Clintons to issue some sort of proclamation that the very public activities of their daughter can somehow be exempt from media scrutiny.

That issue notwithstanding, however, Chelsea’s sharp but polite response was on target for the question which was, in my humble opinion, out of line and extremely out of date. The Lewinsky deal was some 10 years ago. The questioner was probably close to 10 years old when it took place. The Lewinsky deal was also exclusively a public issue for which then-President Clinton was required to account since Monica was “the help”. I know many will take exception to this particular thought, but the marriage betrayal thing was not the public issue. The CEO of the nation carrying on behind closed doors with an intern was very much the public’s business. The president was, again my own opinion, rightly called to account by the US Congress because it was far more than a “private matter between two consenting adults”.

That particular issue must surely have been, for Hillary and Chelsea, an extraordinarily trying time. How it actually affected Hillary one way or the other politically or otherwise truly was, and is, no one’s business outside the Clinton family. Daddy Bill publicly humiliated himself and his family; he was impeached as a result. What happened between Bill and his family as a result, however, was not for public scrutiny.

The media can enjoy whatever relationship it may have with Hillary and/or Bill during this campaign and if they want to respect the Clinton’s wishes that Chelsea be “off limits”, then so be it. The media, however, can make its own choices regarding that restriction, but they need not berate Chelsea for keeping private what was, and is, clearly a family matter they have long since put behind them. There are plenty of other issues for Hillary to contend with on the campaign trail and Chelsea may have to do a little more growing up if she is going to continue to roam the nation on behalf of a very public campaign, but let’s stay on target. This, America, is not an issue.