(Had a request from a reader of my book, Sideways in Sarasota, who wanted to know why this column, originally published in March 08, wasn’t on my online column site — so for that reader — here you go and thanks for asking. I don’t have the “send a friend” link you requested, but you can simply send them the link to this site.)

When Bill Clinton dilly-dallied with Monica Lewinsky in the shadows of the Oval Office — on many occasions while his wife Hillary was just minutes away in the White House –and then later lied about it, he may as well have flipped all of us the bird and been done with it.

Later, jabbing his angry, self-righteous finger at the television camera, fairly chastising Americans for even thinking him capable of such a thing – he delivered his “I did not have sexual relations with that woman,” line and went down in history as the worst kind of man you want in the Oval Office – a coward.

A lot of people wonder what it says about Hillary Clinton as a woman and a wife that she stood by her man despite his sexual escapades and lies. I’m less interested in what it says about Hillary the wife than what it says about Hillary the presidential candidate.

She chose to stand by her man; whatever her reasons, more power to her.

But what does it says about her that she wants to bring a prevaricator who played so fast and so loose with his marriage, his presidency, the public faith, and the truth — back into the White House to live and work once again at the very center of American government and power?

Surely she wouldn’t hire or appoint any non-family individual with such a public muddied past to any position on her staff? Yet she wants to bring her husband – the man who so carelessly debased the dignity of the American presidency — back into the building?

More than anything right now, our country desperately needs a president and an administration that can be trusted. A President and spouse capable of being seen as believable symbols of a renewed and invigorated American integrity both at home and abroad.

Hillary’s choice to stay married to Bill comes with consequences. And while his actions are possibly forgivable in the context of a marriage, they’re not at all forgivable in the context of the White House.

Are we really so desensitized as a nation by all the evidence of bad character in our politicians that we are actually considering granting Bill Clinton a mantle of honor as — for lack of better words — First Gentleman? Are we really supposed to feel the pride and historical significance of having a first female president — when she’s escorted by a man who brought disgrace to that very office?

If Hillary had made her run for office solo – if she had divorced or even disengaged her husband from a public role in that candidacy – we might not be asking these questions. But Bill has taken center stage on more than one occasion during her candidacy and we can only expect that trend to follow if the couple makes it to the White House.

Hillary has indicated that her role as First Lady played a significant part in readying her for the Oval Office. If true, then it holds that Bill’s role as First Gent would be at least marginally significant as well. And if it were Bill who was running for president right now and if it were Hillary that had had sex with a young intern and cuckolded a husband and a nation– I’m thinking there’s not a snowball’s chance in Florida that we’d find her a suitable character for all those photo-ops with young children and mothers that so many First Ladies are required to do.

Hillary’s asking an awful lot – too much, I think — of the American public by asking us to re-install into the White House a man who, when addressing an entire country if not an entire world, used all the weight and power of his own elected presidency to speak what he knew to be a lie.

If that’s not blasphemy of the most powerful secular pulpit in the world, I don’t know what is.