He’s Baaaaaaacccckk……

Slick Willy Redux

by Patrick J. Shanahan
07/01/04

What a jump. My last column was a reflection on one of our great Presidents. I joined an entire nation in paying respect to a man of character, and honesty, and vision. Even the great majority of those who stridently opposed his policies came to see him as a remarkable man.

Now the nation and I have been jolted out of that respectful reverie by the reemergence of Bill Clinton as he shills for his new book. A greater contrast would be difficult to imagine. Watching and hearing Clinton bloviate brings the memories flooding back. Over the years I began to wonder whether I had really been “over the top” in my detestation and contempt for our 42nd President. Watching him again, I realize that, if anything, I was too nice on the guy.

What a blowhard, self-pitying, whining little momma’s boy. Nothing is his fault. Nothing. Even his most inexcusable personal acts of moral depravity are explained away as having been caused by a combination of his internal demons and Ken Starr. In his interviews with the pathetic Dan Rather and with Oprah, he neatly encapsulated the array of character flaws that made his presidency doomed to chaos. He lies. He brags. He blames. He evades. He seeks his own advantage above all else, and does not hesitate to attack and destroy those who would stand in his way. He reeks of false sincerity.

I have not doubt whatsoever that Bill Clinton is very much haunted by his demons. Genetics and his childhood experience created, in my opinion, a personality that learned early to avoid blame and bask in praise. A child for whom a crushing emotional vacuum created an unnatural drive for achievement. I can have a degree of sympathy with this Bill Clinton as a human being.

But he should have done something with his life other than become President of the Unites States of America. The personal failing and weaknesses that in other contexts would have created a sympathetic but pitiable figure, in a President created a destructive and dishonest figure. One need only reflect on the scandals that followed him throughout office to get a picture of his psyche.

Incidentally, those scandals were not the creation of a right wing attack machine. Each one of them were very real. They were indeed amplified and occasionally blown out of proportion by his enemies, but they weren’t made up. And many were very serious, despite the candy-coating they generally received from the media.

The Clinton scandals fall into three general categories:

Venal Corruption. Whitewater and the cattle futures scandal were examples of scam jobs perpetrated by fundamentally dishonest people. In fine liberal form, Governor Clinton and his wife could not stand not having money for personal and political use, and did what they needed to do to get it. I don’t think they are scam artists themselves, but they had no reservations about associating with all sorts of scum in order to move their fortunes forward. The only reason Whitewater did not bring the President down is that it is so complicated that very few people could figure it out.

Lust. It is hard to gauge the degree to which Bill Clinton’s problems with women are a function of his libido or a reflection of his combined need for and anger at females. Either way, he has behaved through his entire adult life with the moral restraint of an 18 year old frat boy. People tend to be either “users” or “givers” in life. Bill Clinton is a user. I would guess that he is a giant emotional vacuum, sucking in emotional energy from all around him. It is in his treatment of women that this is most obvious. He uses them for his gratification, then he tosses them aside. Sometimes he gets a little rough in the process. And he would always lie about it. One thing that liberals never understood is conservative anger about Clinton’s affairs. They prefer to write it off as “puritanical” disapproval of a lusty man’s natural proclivities. Which, of course, had little to do with it. That made many of us uncomfortable with his overall moral worldview, but what made us angry was the smirking lies he told about it. He was a cad and a scoundrel. He looked a nation in the face and lied through his teeth. And his eyes showed us the whole time that he knew he was getting away with it. Until he screwed up and lied in a courtroom under oath. That got him impeachment. He wasn’t pursued because of sex. He was pursued because a scoundrel who dissembles to a court about the meaning of “is” will lie about anything to anybody.

Pursuit of Power. Of all President Clinton’s corruptions, this was the most damaging. The political culture was damaged in a way from which it still has not recovered. Clinton and his advisors created the concepts of “triangulation” and the “perpetual campaign.” Together, this literally allowed him to be all things to all people all the time. The politicking never stopped. Every day at work was an opportunity to campaign. Winning and retaining power became the raison d’etre of his administration. Combined with his venal corruption it led to truly dangerous national security situations, such as very shaky fundraising relationships with the Peoples Republic of China. Although Clinton has been out of power for 3 ½ years now, he has bequeathed a cursed legacy to the Democratic Party. The pursuit of power for power’s sake, and the enthusiastic embracing of any actions to regain it, has hopelessly infected the Democrats.

The contrast between the Contract with America in 1994 and the Kerry campaign in 2004 is stunning. Newt Gingrich did not take over the House by campaigning against Clinton, he did it with an explicit policy-oriented campaign. The Republicans ran on ideas, and won. In 2004 the Democrats are running on fumes. They have a complete lack of anything but negative ideas and Bush-bashing. They are in the unenviable position of having to convince Americans that something is terribly wrong, but they have no ideas on how to fix it. That is the legacy of Clinton. Clinton could get himself elected in that sort of situation. Nobody else on the left side of the aisle can.

And to rub salt in the wound, here comes the former President to suck all the oxygen out of the room, stealing Kerry’s limelight. The timing actually couldn’t be worse. The contrast between Reagan and Clinton is striking, and emphasizes what a small man Clinton is by comparison. But the contrast between Clinton and Kerry reveals how much more talented a politician, a speaker, and a leader Clinton was than Kerry can ever be.

As usual, Clinton’s looking out for his own good is biting the Democratic Party in the keister. So be it. You can’t say that they didn’t ask for it.