The events of the last few days of the Clinton presidency are befitting to what was trumpeted to be "the most ethical administration in history." With only hours remaining in his presidency, Clinton negotiated a deal with Independent Counsel Robert Ray to avoid criminal prosecution.
Ray released an announcement confirming that in exchange for non-prosecution, "President Clinton ... has admitted that he knowingly gave evasive and misleading answers to questions in the Jones deposition and that his conduct was prejudicial to the administration of justice. ... He has agreed to a five-year suspension of his Arkansas bar license. And he has agreed not to seek attorney's fees in connection with this matter." Clinton also agreed to pay a $25,000 fine.
In response to questions, Clinton lawyer David Kendall gave what might be described as a knowingly evasive and misleading answer, by explaining that Clinton had in no way admitted that he lied.
Clinton himself issued a statement which sought to clarify his struggle with the truth: "I tried to walk a fine line between acting lawfully and testifying falsely ... but I did not fully accomplish this goal." Translation: Bill Clinton deliberately sought to deceive the court. We have in view the personal corruption which ensues when the law is used as a moral compass.
On Inauguration Day itself, ignoring a long-standing tradition of stepping aside and yielding the spotlight to the new president, Clinton fortified the impression of millions that he has an ego as big as Mt. Fujiyama by putting on a shameless display of boorish, camera-hugging, stage-grabbing, self-stroking behavior. His attempt to step on Bush's inauguration included but was not limited to a national radio address, the announcement of 140 presidential pardons, the issuance of hundreds of new regulations and mandates, a going-away ceremony at Andrews Air Force Base, including yet another in a countless string of "good bye" speeches, and, finally, a "welcoming" ceremony by a crowd of hundreds who greeted his plane upon arrival at JFK airport in New York City.
What comes to mind are those old television shows which featured amateur performers, some of whom were so self-absorbed and excruciatingly bad that they had to be unceremoniously "bonged" with a clanging bell and pulled off stage with a large hook attached to a wooden pole.
As backdrop to this sorry spectacle, Rev. Jesse Jackson was forced to admit that he had committed adultery and fathered a child with a female staff member of his Rainbow Coalition. It did not help that at the very same time Jackson was betraying his own family, he was giving spiritual counseling to President Clinton for betraying his.
Meanwhile, the Senate Judiciary Committee was meeting to evaluate whether John Ashcroft could possibly fill the large shoes of Attorney General Janet Reno. A number of ugly-spirited Democrat senators, representing a coalition of hard-nosed, narrow-minded special interest groups, deliberately set about the nasty business of smearing, that is to say "Borking" Ashcroft.
As the inquisition of Ashcroft continued, it became clear why he is unacceptable to left-wing extremists. They view him as seriously and irremediably flawed. He is, after all, a white, heterosexual, Christian male, a hated figure whose values stand between them and what they want to do and be.
Prodded by these shrill and intimidating party zealots, Ted Kennedy, chronic womanizer, college cheat, Chappaquiddick coward and erstwhile drunk, moralized that Ashcroft, apparently by virtue of his deep devotion to Christian principles, simply does not measure up to liberal standards.
So busy has the press been in clucking and brooding over all those religious fanatics and conservative extremists in the Republican Party, that they have not taken note that the Democrat Party has been hijacked by radical extremists of the far left. What a strange and revealing twist that the party of "inclusion" would be so dogmatically intolerant of diversity of thought and opinion on radical feminism, homosexuality, infanticide, racial justice and monopolistic unions -- and be applauded for it by liberal lackeys in the televised media.
Bill Clinton's legacy is a nation divided, splinterized into a loosely connected collection of special interest groups, quarreling factions and outposts of other countries and cultures at each other's throats and vying for government bounty, preferential treatment, lifestyle validation and advantage.
President Bush's election, against all odds, lends credibility to his belief that "an angel rides in the whirlwind and directs this storm." It lends credibility to the belief that America has been given an unmerited second chance to again become one nation under God, with liberty and justice for all.