The current hand-wringing among senior Democrats about the Clinton
midnight pardon massacre -- if it's sincere -- is a welcome development
for our nation.
These are, however, the same politicians and commentators
who have scorned and chastised those who spoke out earlier against the
wretched excesses of Bill and Hillary Clinton. And while they are now
quick to point out their former boss' contemptible behavior in his last
minutes of dialing for dollars, they have been strangely silent on
their own involvement.
Marc Rich's pardon -- for among other things trading with the enemy during
time of war -- bears not only Bill Clinton's signature as president. No,
it carries the signatures of each and every Democratic senator who voted
not to hear the evidence for Bill Clinton's impeachment.
Each of you signed that pardon in your own blood. You stood against those who spoke
the truth. You aided and abetted those who destroyed the honest men and
women who came forward to alert the nation to the desperately flawed
character of the man who occupied the Oval Office of the White House. And
you did it for your own personal and political gain.
Had even a few of you upheld your own oath of office and responsibility to this nation,
Bill Clinton would not have been the president. He would himself have
been petitioning for a pardon. Bill Clinton would then not be dragging
you back down into the gutter with him.
"Character doesn't matter -- it's all a private affair!" That was your
watchword and the first line of your defense during Bill Clinton's
presidency. And so it doesn't matter -- to those who themselves have
none. That's why Bill and Hillary Clinton -- and their pardons for cash
and senatorial votes, freeing drug dealers, thugs and international
financiers sleeping with the enemy -- is your legacy for the history
books.
It is frequently said that "a liar must first convince him or herself."
Foremost in doing the convincing were the boys and girls in the big name
press. Philandering, lying and questionable financial dealings were
swept under the Whitewater rug.
You listened to a series of baby-faced
spin doctors who told you what you wanted to hear: "The Clinton's never
inhaled the money; it's all a big lie by a vast, right-wing conspiracy."
So you wrote your first story that you knew was a lie. And the paychecks
kept coming.
Maybe character didn't matter, after all? You'd crossed over
the line. Soon there were so many lies associated with your byline that
you couldn't risk telling the truth -- and exposing yourself in print.
Not unlike Robert Hanssen, Russia's secret FBI spy, you'd betrayed your
nation's trust. Perhaps it's only fitting that the latest round of
newsroom dot.com layoffs have been announced by Disney. Camelot was never
as nice the second time around.
None of this self-righteous catharsis we see in the Democratic
politicians and the press has yet reached the Hollywood hills, however.
There, the current inhabitants of the glass menagerie are still
frantically recounting the votes in Florida -- revealing that they never
passed grade school math class.
"Al Gore won the election!" they shriek, taking turns in the role of
Chicken Little as they streak from glass house to glass house. Perhaps it
is too much to expect that those who make their living depicting fantasy
can ever come to grips with even a small dose of reality? Bill Clinton
was, after all, one of them. For a time he convinced the nation that up
was down, blue was yellow, and that the moral laws of the universe set in
place by God applied only to the other guy. In typical Hollywood fashion,
they never examined the character underneath the character.
For many of the rest of us, the process of examining the character
underneath the character of Bill and Hillary Clinton is a process that
has only just begun. For others of us who knew from the beginning who and
what Bill and Hillary were -- it's a time to reflect on God's power and
timing.
As Paul wrote to the Christians in Galatia: "Do not be deceived: God cannot be mocked. A man reaps what he sows. The one who sows to please his sinful nature, from that nature will reap destruction; the one who sows to please the Spirit, from the Spirit will reap eternal
life" (Galatians 6:7-8).
God took his time -- but a lot of eyes have been opened.