NEW WHITEHOUSE DEFENSE: "WHAT IS REALITY ANYWAY, MAN?" Iowa Hawk's Twisted News 9/11/98 Iowa Hawk Washington, DC (APUPI): In what was seen as a bold new defense for President Clinton in the Monica Lewinsky matter, presidential attorney David Kendall argued today that "reality is just an illusion, man." The new defense is based on an ancient metaphysical argument regarding the very nature of existence and reality, an issue central to the philosophies of Descartes, Kant and Schopenhauer. In the new White House argument, reality itself, including truth, is ultimately unknowable. Therefore, according to the argument, any charges against the President are illusory and cannot be proven, because proof does not exist. In fact, according to Kendall, "Like, we can't even be sure if there is such a thing as Bill Clinton, man." The new defense strategy was forged during late night strategy sessions at the White House. "Everybody was bummed over the Monica thing, and really tense. A real buzzkill. So we were getting mellowed out on some primo Maui Wowwy and Tai Stick," says a senior advisor to the President. "As soon as somebody put [the cult band] Phish on the stereo, the President just starts this riff about how there's no reality. We just flipped out man, it was so deep. That's when we went into motion." The normally taciturn Kendall went forth last night to explain the new defense on CNBC's "Geraldo Live" with host Geraldo Rivera. "Like, you have your reality space, man, and I've got mine. How can you know what's in my reality space, `cause, dig this man, you could be just an illusion in it, you dig?" Kendall asked Rivera. Obviously impressed, Rivera replied, "whoa, dude, that is so far out." Kendall continued to note that "it's like the same thing with Clinton, dig? You see, he's got his own reality space, dig, and like you and me and Ken Starr and Congress and the whole universe is only like a, a, a, a, a, a, an illusion to him." Program guest and former prosecutor Cynthia Alksney agreed, noting "I hear you man." "It's like, nobody, man, can know what is `truth' in Bill Clinton's reality space except Bill Clinton, you dig, man?" asked an agitated Kendall. The question provoked Rivera to bury his head in his hands. "Dude, stop f___ing with my head! You are blowing my mind man," said Rivera, giggling to himself. Suddenly snapping upright, Rivera said that "like, the whole universe, including Ken Starr, could be a tiny molecule inside my finger." Kendall nodded assent. "Duuuude." Rivera, Kendall, Alskney and guest Wendy Murphy then shared a marijuana cigarette, with Alksney cautioning Murphy, "don't bogart it, you skank." Surprisingly, the "no-reality" argument has found widespread approval among trendy "Postmodernists" and "deconstructionists" in the academic world. "Derrida, Lacan, Foucault; all have shown the flimsiness of truth," sniffed Stanley Fish of Duke, referring to an influential group of French deconstructionists. "Truth is a construct that is culturally and individually bound." The interview was abruptly ended when a drunken band of Delta Sig brothers stumbled into Professor Fish's office and beat him senseless. The President is said to be working on a backup metaphysical defense, one that is more risky. According to a senior strategist, he will claim that "everything I say is a lie, including what I just said." "Dude, don't you see what that means? It means he has to be telling the truth, see, but it was a lie at the same time, you dig?" marveled the strategist. "It is so freaking far out." Copyright 1998, the IowaHawk. Must credit www.freerepublic.com