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?”
WHAT A DRAMATIC YEAR it has been for “spinning” since the Clinton scandal broke in 1998. The distortions began with the First Lady’s visit to NBC’s Today Show on January 27, 1998, during which she blamed the “vast right-wing conspiracy” for the vicious rumors that plagued her husband. That set the tone for the next 13 months. Of course there has never been any evidence that conspiracy had anything to do with the affair between the president and a girl the age of his daughter. Thanks to “the dress,” we now know he was lying through his teeth when he jabbed his finger at the cameras and denied having sex with “that woman . . . Miss Lewinsky.” I contend that Hillary was also less than honest at that point. She had to know from the beginning that her husband was lying. After all, she had lived with his philandering for 23 years — a period of time in which Bill Clinton implied to Monica Lewinsky that he had had affairs with “hundreds of women.” Hillary is far too bright not to have figured out what was going on. That suggests that her “right-wing conspiracy” theory was concocted by perhaps her own spin machine. It was a great strategy: When in trouble, blame an innocent bystander.
