Danny Boy and child support
What's the definition of irony?
On the last day of 1998, while 13-year-old Danny Williams was awaiting the results of a DNA test he and his prostitute mother believe will prove Bill Clinton is Danny's biological father, the president announced a sweeping new federal child-support crackdown designed to harness all the coercive power of Washington in squeezing America's deadbeat dads.
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| Danny Williams |
Now, in the interest of full disclosure, this is a story that has been kicking around for a long time. I first saw the photo of young Danny about six or seven years ago and was struck with the likeness to Clinton. But a face alone does not make for proof. Photos do lie. So do some down-and-out mothers. But, generally speaking, DNA tests don't.
That's why it will be very interesting to see what tabloid reporter Richard Gooding comes up with when Danny Williams' DNA is compared to the sample Clinton gave Independent Counsel Kenneth Starr's investigators in the matter of the semen-stained dress.
Danny has reportedly been told his entire life that he is Clinton's son. His mother, Bobbie Ann, says she conceived her son during a paid sex act with Clinton. She reportedly passed a lie-detector test.
How was a story like this bottled up for all these years? Thank the Clinton attack machine. When political consultant Steve Denari, director of Ross Perot's Illinois campaign, informed George Stephanopolous that he was ready to go public with the story before the 1992 election, he was warned he would never work in Democratic Party politics again.
"It's completely bull----!" barked Stephanopolous. "If you went on the radio and said that Bill Clinton is the father of an illegitimate black child, you will be laughed at. People will think you're crazy. ... You will be embarrassed before the national press corps. People will think, nobody will believe you, and people will think you're scum."
Stephanopolous also broadly hinted that, if the story went away, there might be something in it for Denari. Hmmmm. Maybe some dinero for Denari? Blackmail, threats, extortion. The Clinton slime machine has proved time and time again that playing hardball still works in American politics.
But that was then and this is now.
If the DNA match is positive, will Clinton's defenders be able to spin their way out of this web? Thirteen years without paying child support is a long time. What will the ensuing scandal mean to Clinton's staunchest bases of support -- America's black community and U.S. women? And how will the president's newest child-support initiative play politically after this revelation?
In announcing the crackdown on deadbeat dads, the White House said: "Despite record child-support collections, there are still too many parents who flagrantly ignore their obligations to their children, and the president will propose to spend $46 million to identify, investigate and prosecute these deadbeat parents."
"Since taking office, President Clinton has made child-support enforcement a top priority, and those efforts are paying off for children across America," the statement continued.
Danny Williams will, no doubt, be grateful to hear that. But will it take a DNA test, once again, to get Clinton to admit his offense? Or, this time, with Clinton facing an impeachment trial, will he ever admit anything? Is anything ever enough with Clinton?
Well, talk about being hoist by one's own petard, in June Clinton signed into law the Deadbeat Parents Punishment Act, creating two new categories of federal felonies for the most egregious child-support violators, a measure he had called for in his 1997 State of the Union address.
So, if it's more high crimes and misdemeanors the Senate is looking for, maybe Bill Clinton's mistreatment of Danny Williams and his mother, Bobbie Anne, for all these years will prove to be the last straw.
Under Clinton's new scheme, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services will establish investigative teams in five regions of the country to identify and investigate cases for prosecution. The Justice Department promises aggressive prosecutions and convictions of this new felony class of crimes. No word on whether Janet Reno will name an independent counsel to look into the issues surrounding the First Son.
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