Clinton And His Enemies

by Randolph T. Holhut

Are you happy that a $40 million investigation turned a private act between consenting adults into grounds for possible impeachment? Are you happy that the Presidency is perhaps permanently diminished? Are you happy that now no one but a saint or a fool will run for public office, and that anyone with any sense at all will not want to be subjected to the kind of pounding that Bill Clinton has taken over the last five years?

I get the feeling that all the people who have wanted to nail President Clinton are not satisfied. His public humiliation isn't enough. Rendering him politically impotent isn't enough. They want his complete destruction. And it appears likely that it will happen, even if the majority of the American people feel that it shouldn't.

It's not that I think Clinton is a paragon of virtue. He's not, and never has been. But he was elected president twice for one very important reason -- as bad as he might be, the Republicans are even worse.

That's the sentiment that Clinton counted upon when he made his nationally televised speech after being subjected to nearly five hours of grilling before Kenneth Starr's grand jury. I thought his speech was brilliant. It had just the right combination of remorse and defiance.

But of course, the people with a vested interest in seeing Clinton go down -- Starr, the Republican Congress, and the lap-dog press that has fanned the flames of scandal -- immediately reacted with anger. The President was supposed to go quietly, and not question the poisonous climate in Washington that turned his private conduct into a public matter.

Because Clinton wasn't contrite enough to satisfy the conservatives or the press, the impeachment proceedings could begin in a few weeks. The cries for Clinton's resignation will grow louder. The GOP will demand Clinton's head -- not out of a need for justice, but for revenge.

Whitewater, Filegate, Travelgate and Troopergate didn't work. The campaign finance scandal didn't work. Vincent Foster's alleged "murder" didn't work. The myriad of trumped-up scandals that Starr and the Congressional committees chased after for the last five years yielded nothing but partisan attacks and blather against the President.

Will the Republicans really impeach Clinton? A couple of months ago, I thought they'd be nuts to try it. I still think it would be ill-advised, but they still believe they can pull it off.

The only thing that could possibly stop them is the people, who are sick to death of hearing about Monica Lewinsky, Linda Tripp, Kenneth Starr, Paula Jones and the rest of the cast in this farce.

Clinton is not perfect. Surprise, surprise, surprise. And neither are his accusers. But I think he has paid the price for his transgressions, and I share the revulsion that most people have over all this. I am disgusted with the press, which showed that not having facts or on-the-record sources could keep them from reporting a story. I am disgusted with the courts, which could've slowed or even stopped Starr's investigation, but chose not to. And I am disgusted with politics in general, which is now a bloodsport of the worst kind.

Remember that Clinton didn't use government agents for break-ins and other covert operation against his political foes, like Nixon. Clinton didn't sell arms to a terrorist nation and use the proceeds to fund a secret army to overthrow another nation's government, like Reagan. Clinton will never be in the same league as Nixon or Reagan for criminal behavior.

As the Asian and Russian economies go into the toilet, as the Middle East and Northern Ireland peace efforts stall and as Iraq continues to defy the U.N. inspectors, we need a president who not the object of a lynch mob. As the domestic agenda gets hijacked by the conservatives who want to privatize Social Security, kill campaign finance reform and let the tobacco companies continue to profit from peddling poison to children, we need a president who'll fight for the interests of the American people.

Enough with this tawdry scandal! Enough!