A case of Clinton fatigue

It has a name. It is called “Clinton fatigue,” a phrase widely used
to describe how the American people feel about Bill and Hillary. It is
to say that the Clintons have finally worn out their welcome. There is a
prevailing sentiment that it’s time for them to go, and to take their
baggage with them.

This reality is self-evident and doesn’t need to be documented, but
it has been. A recent Zogby survey found that “a majority of likely
American voters prefer that Bill and Hillary Clinton retire from public
office and take a lower public profile after the presidential term ends
rather than see Hillary serve in the U.S. Senate.” The survey also found
that only 40 percent of those polled favor a “continuation of Clinton
administration policies.”

You have to feel a measure of sympathy for Democrats. They are, as
the saying goes in Arkansas, in a fix. The Clinton clock is winding
down, and the people are happy about it. Beelzebubba is running out of
time, and murmurs of “Thank God!” are clearly audible.

When Vice President George Bush ran for the presidency, he was
elected because the people wanted a continuation of Ronald Reagan. Gore,
by contrast, has the unpleasant task of trying to dissociate himself
from the man to whom he cleaved for the past seven years.

That will not be easy. There comes a time when loyalty becomes
complicity, when support of a friend becomes support of the wrong a
friend does.

Early American patriot and hero Thomas Paine described this
corruptive phenomenon with these words: “It is impossible to calculate
the moral mischief, if I may so express it, that menial lying has
produced in society. When a man has so far corrupted and prostituted the
chastity of his mind as to subscribe his professional belief to things
he does not believe, he has prepared himself for the commission of every
other crime.”

The real canker on the conscience of Democrats is that they always
knew their leader was a lout and a lecher. In the face of his infamy,
they had the choice of renouncing him or embracing him, that is to say,
a choice of acting out of principle, or out of political self-interest.

The shame of the Democrats is that they planted their party stake in
defense of evil rather than in its heart. They lied about Clinton to
themselves and to the people.

Democrats everywhere know that Al Gore is not electable, and they
know why. Their great fear is that the Clinton contamination will spread
to their representatives in the Congress, almost all of whom, in
goose-step conformity, defended every malfeasance, crime and obscenity
in the most corrupt and corruptible presidency in the history of our
nation.

The entire Democrat Party has earned a political identity that is
inseparable from that of Bill Clinton. What is true of the party in
general and Al Gore in particular is also true, and more so, of Hillary
Rodham Clinton.

It was embarrassing to see the liberal Democrats of New York prostate
themselves in obeisance to Ms. Rodham when she hinted she might agree to
becomes their senator. Their submissive groveling might have been more
understandable if she had a record of accomplishment so overpowering as
to warrant her anointing by the party.

But when one is asked what are her credentials, what comes to mind
are images of the money-laundering scheme known as cattle-futures, her
failure to make any improvement in the government schools of Arkansas,
the cruel dismissal of career employees in the White House Travel Office
to make room for her Arkansas cronies, long-sought billing records
suddenly appearing in the White House living quarters, her bungled
attempt to nationalize health care, her enabling role in her husband’s
adulteries, and her resounding silence when paid goons intimidated and
maligned the women who stepped forward to tell the truth.

Now that Rodham is no longer behind the scenes, but out front on
center stage, she is revealing herself to be a bad actor, whose mouthing
of scripted lines is unconvincing. She was caught dirty-handed in a
disgraceful scheme to achieve political gain by using presidential power
to grant clemency to unrepentant Puerto Rican terrorists. She is every
wrong thing her husband is, only not so good at it.

The Clinton legacy will be a massive Republican sweep in the
forthcoming election. The new Republican president will not make
everyone happy. But he or she will do the following: lower taxes, reform
government schools, restore the military and rescue it from
social-change agents, appoint Supreme Court justices who value what the
Constitution says and what it does not say, bring dignity to the office
of the president, and sign a ban on that form of infanticide called
partial-birth abortion.

It’s a start.