In light of the conclusion of the Senate trial of the president, the editors of THE WEEKLY STANDARD asked 22 writers, thinkers, and political actors the following questions: “President William Jefferson Clinton has been impeached and acquitted. What have we learned? What should we do now?”
BILL CLINTON, the man who didn’t inhale, and didn’t consummate his relationship with the White House intern, may finally have gotten the punishment due him: He has been half, but not quite, impeached. That is, he has been impeached, but not convicted, as the case against him was strong, but not airtight. Of course, he has only been half a president, as he is not respected as an authority and has never been able to lead. He may cherish the illusion of having escaped scot-free from the fracas, but a more fitting simile is that voiced by a Democratic consultant: a car crash, where all walked away from the scene, still alive, but bleeding and staggering. He will stay on for two years, our half-guilty half-president, with his authority gone, not that he will ever miss it. And he will always — now and later — be a joke.
What the Clintons really have shown us is how hard it can be to convict an administration that presses up against the literal limits of the law. This latest obstruction and perjury scandal is of a piece with all of the others — Travelgate, Filegate, fund-raising, and Hillary’s futures — in which what common sense tells us must be a true story cannot quite be proven as fact. Five years ago, a prescient Jacob Weisberg forecast all of it in the pages of New York magazine: “The Clintons will never be indicted because they were too smart . . . to actually break the law. They were always thinking ahead and looking over their shoulders, considering how matters might look if they ever came to light. . . . As the investigation unfolds . . . Republicans will grow ever more frustrated as the First Couple eludes capture . . . and the Clintons grow ever more resentful as they struggle to break free of the web they helped to spin.” Republicans resent not bagging the rodent; democrats resent defending a man they can’t stomach; and the Clintons resent being resented by practically everyone. This sulfurous climate of multiform rancor, their own included, is the Clintons’ special bequest to the nation. Not really Camelot II.
That said, it may also be possible to make altogether too much of the particular stink of Bill Clinton. He is not a brilliant political mastermind — or maybe he is, but only at moments. His much-vaunted political skill is really a genius for damage-control, after he blunders his way into chronic disasters he should have avoided in the first place. It is also possible that he is not a generational symbol, bringing in a new age of moral corruption, but a very old type of sweet-talking sinner, who made his way into power by luck. Let us recall that he has never — in a primary, or in a general election — faced a truly strong rival, and that in his presidential races he never won 50 percent of the vote.
Let us recall, too, that elections are not endorsements but choices, often made reluctantly between unbeloved opponents. Let us recall, also that the choices served up by the Republicans were widely perceived to be poor. Whatever he was in 1991, George Bush by 1992 appeared drained and exhausted, and Bob Dole four years later was even worse. Republicans thus are half-responsible for Clinton, having twice failed to produce a credible alternative leader or run a coherent and forceful campaign.
As our half-president looks to his final half-term, having squandered the first half in scandal and diddling, even he may realize how much he has wasted, how hollowed-out his power and his prospects have become. As for his opponents, they have to develop what they have so far been lacking: a leadership that marries vigor to conscience, and does not depend upon technical niceties to keep itself out of the slammer. Then, please God, they will in 2000 take back the White House, and, after that, hose the place down.
Noemie Emery is a frequent contributor to THE WEEKLY STANDARD.
