Why Should We Care About Stormy Daniels?
By
Leonard Zwelling
Please let me be the first to say, that the answer to this question escaped me for weeks.
It is well known that the President of the United States was and probably is a womanizer. That was clear in the Hollywood Access tape that emerged during the campaign as well as multiple comments that Mr. Trump has made over the years, including those during the time in which he was a man about town in Manhattan, appearing on the gossipy page 6 of The New York Post with some degree of regularity.
It is, thus, not at all hard to imagine the current president running around with an adult film star prior to his political career and then realizing that she might do him harm with some of those with an inclination to vote for him like evangelicals. I doubt most of them would approve of such behavior, but they voted for him anyway. Go figure!
Now it seems that Stormy Daniels’ attorney is claiming that she was physically threatened, presumably by someone in Trump World, if she refused to abide by the non-disclosure agreement she signed (but Mr. Trump did not). Supposedly she was paid $130,000 for her silence although it is anything but clear whose money that was. If you believe that an attorney willingly parted with that much of his own money, I have a bridge to sell you.
Ms. Daniels’ attorney is now also claiming that there are at least six more women with similar stories to hers. I actually have no doubt except that I doubt it’s just six.
My point is reflected in the story of the scorpion who had to cross a river and begged for a ride from a frog to do so. The frog reluctantly agreed and just as the two reached the opposite shore, the scorpion stung the frog.
“You promised you wouldn’t sting me,” said the frog as he lay dying.
“You knew I was a scorpion when you let me ride on your back.”
Mr. Trump is like that scorpion. He is what he is. That he may be a liar, a womanizer, a misogynist, and a nincompoop is not exactly news. That the news media cannot get enough of his erratic behavior is equally unsurprising.
BUT—and there’s a big but, do we really want such a person representing us to the rest of the world? I don’t. So if Mr. Trump cavorting with adult film stars cripples his ability to continue to do some of the stupid things he tends to do and say, I guess that’s a good thing. In the end, the leopard still won’t change his spots until he hears the furrier coming and I don’t think Stormy Daniels or her lawyer count as furriers.
Robert Mueller? Now that’s a different story.
