My Bladder Made Me Do It

I have recently been reminded of a story from early in my marriage.

There were four couples at our church in Nashville that were all married within about a 7 month period. We spent a lot of time together in those early days of our marriages. We always went to dinner together after Wendnesday night classes.

It just so happened that the first Valentine's Day for all of us fell on a Wednesday night. We all got together and thought it would be fun to go to a fairly nice restaurant together after class. So we made reservations, we arranged to have the restaurant leave flowers at the place settings for the ladies. Us guys were really proud of ourselves.

So we get to the restaurant and had to wait a little longer than we had planned. When we got to our table, the restaurant had forgotten to put the flowers out. We should have know then what lay in store. Let's just say that the quality of service that night went down hill from there. Service was really slow. Orders came out wrong...multiple times. If I remember correctly, one person had to send her food back to the kitchen not once, but twice. The service really was deplorable.

We finally complained to a manager about how awful the service had been. The manager promptly fixed the problems and gave each of us a $25 gift certificate ($50 per couple)! Not long after we complained our server came to the table and apologized. Now, normally, that would be a very nice gesture. However, the words that came out of the server's mouth blew us all away and just topped our night. Our server said "I'm sorry, it's been a busy night and I've had to pee for the last three hours." We were floored. We still chuckle today about that night and about our waiter's excuse for the poor service.

I am reminded of this incident because of this week's revelation that Hillary Clinton flat out lied about the circumstances surrounding her visit to Bosnia in 1996. I don't relate the two stories because our server was dishonest or anything, but because of his lame excuse. I first came across the story on Tuesday and I was shocked at the lack of discipline Hillary showed in making her statements. It's not like the Clintons to be that undisciplined. Of, course, the Clinton campaign is trying to call it a "misstatement" as if Hillary made a slight error.

But what really gets me is that Hillary is blaming the misstatement on sleep deprivation. The absurdity of both excuses is frightening. While both the waiter and Hillary may have been telling the truth, the absurdity comes from the lack of a logical connection to the behavior that is blamed on the physical condition. A strong desire to pee does not excuse a waiter from making sure an order is right before taking it to the table and the lack of sleep does not excuse one from making up an experience out of whole cloth.

Now, I could understand the situation if Hillary had stuck to simply saying there was a lot of security because of snipers in the area. Many news reports this week have confirmed that snipers had previously been active in the area around the airport. I could see trying to pass that off as "innocent" embellishment of a 12 year old memory. But what I can't see is stretching the truth beyond any resemblance to the facts. You can't completely contradict the facts and then pass it off as faulty memory.

How could you not remember the difference between running to a car to take cover and a nice leisurely stroll down the tarmac with some locals? The explanation in my mind is not a misstatement, but a flat out lie. What's more, she was the FIRST LADY. Did she really think there was no documentation of the trip? Did she think the press was not with her on that journey?

I don't know what makes Hillary tick, but I do know she has lost all credibility because of this. I was never a supporter in the first place, but I don't see how anyone but the most intentionally blind can vote for her now.