Clinton’s fragmented presidency

By David Limbaugh

We need to take the White House back. No, I’m not talking about the
selling of the Lincoln bedroom or the debasement of the Oval Office. The
American people need to recapture the executive branch.

Presently, the executive branch is bereft of leadership and out of
control. It is being held hostage to the political interests of Bill
Clinton. The resulting chaos is a national embarrassment.

Surely even Clinton’s defenders would agree that he is nothing if not
a consummate political animal. From his incessant use of polls to
formulate policy to his exploitation of gun tragedies, from sabotaging
his own Medicare task force to orchestrating government shutdowns for
partisan advantage, Clinton consistently puts politics above principle.

The framers considered, but rejected the idea of multiple presidents.
They understood the importance of a single, energetic president speaking
with one voice.

Repeatedly, President Clinton has permitted dissenting voices to
disintegrate the slightest appearance of unity in the executive branch.

Take Hillary’s Senate run. The very idea of a first lady running for
high office and subjecting the interests of the presidency to internal
conflicts of interest would have been unimaginable before this
narcissistic couple graced the White House.

Before some of you get your backs up, I’m not referring to any gender
thing here. The same thing would apply if Hillary were president and
Bill were the First Husband — but while we’re at it, perish that
thought.

Remember when candidate Hillary was urging Bill to grant clemency to
the FALN Puerto Rican terrorists? Do you recall them pretending to
communicate through their public press releases and insisting they
weren’t discussing the matter privately, while they were weekending at
Camp David? It is more than unseemly for such disharmony to emanate from
the White House.

Since the self-indulgent Clintons got away with it, candidate Al Gore
thought he’d try it, too. So he publicly lobbied President Bill to
release the Strategic Petroleum Reserve — while I’m sure the two never
discussed it in private. Doubtlessly stricken by the utter novelty of
Gore’s ingenious suggestion, Clinton agreed to release the surplus oil.

Next, we had the president himself, publicly contradicting his top
two officials in the executive branch, Attorney General Janet Reno and
FBI Director Louis Freeh, about the handling of the Wen Ho Lee case and
Lee’s pretrial incarceration. Political Bill apparently experienced an
irresistible impulse to distance himself from Judge James A. Parker’s
stinging rebuke of the Justice Department and the FBI for misleading him
and mistreating Lee.

Then, we learned about candidate Hillary pandering to
Chinese-Americans in New York, decrying stereotyping and discrimination
in the Lee case. Hillary reportedly told her sympathetic audience that
government officials ought not to let their racial prejudices and
anti-Chinese emotions interfere with their duties.

Hillary made her disparaging remarks about her husband’s top
executive officials just a few days before some of those same officials
were defending their treatment of Lee in testimony before a Senate
Judiciary Committee task force. James Robinson, head of the Justice
Department’s criminal division, said the judge’s criticisms were
misguided because he was unaware of the extent of plea-bargaining that
occurred with Lee. Attorney General Reno went further. “Dr. Lee is no
hero. He is not an absentminded professor. He committed a very serious
calculated crime, and he pled guilty to it,” she said.

Well, which is it, Mr. President? Is Lee a victim of racial profiling
or a traitor? As long as Bill Clinton is president it will be impossible
for us to sort out the truth among the disparate voices. The Lee case is
a good illustration of the importance of leadership and character in the
chief executive. Above all else, we must be able to trust our president
on national security issues. But we cannot.

Can you imagine what would happen in a major company if top-level
executives and spouses were forever publicly undermining the CEO’s
authority? Heads would roll.

They won’t roll at the White House, though, because President Clinton
is deliberately allowing the dissemination of inconsistent messages. One
way or another, disunity serves his various political purposes.

It’s time to reunify the executive branch. It’s time to restore
leadership and trust to Pennsylvania Avenue. Hopefully, help is on the
way.

David Limbaugh

David Limbaugh is a writer, author and attorney. His latest book is "Guilty By Reason of Insanity." Follow him on Twitter @davidlimbaugh and his website at www.davidlimbaugh.com. Read more of David Limbaugh's articles here.