You can say this for George Stephanopoulos: He’s emerged from his brush with Bill and Hillary Clinton in much better shape than have a lot of others. He’s gainfully employed, unindicted, able to pay his legal bills, with full-time work, and now has a New York Times bestseller to his credit. Not bad for a young man who served the most dangerously seductive of politicians in the most dangerously seductive of places, the White House.

His book, All Too Human, is subtitled “A Political Education,” and that’s an apt description. Stephanopoulos is not the only top Clinton aide who managed to escape without irreparable harm. Leon Panetta did too. So did Mike McCurry, who stayed later and in a more public role. But they were both veterans of the Washington wars who had seen politicians and presidents rise and fall, and they knew the dangers. Stephanopoulos was a very smart former Capitol Hill aide who suffered acutely the master-of-the-universe illusions that naturally afflict people who have just helped elect a president. He had a lot to learn.