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Jewish World Review / Sept. 25, 1998 /5 Tishrei, 5759

Cal Thomas

Cal Thomas The Clinton strategy and the Clinton legacy

THE CLINTON STRATEGY IS CLEAR. He seeks to wear us down. He wants to spend so much time on what boxing champion Muhammad Ali called a "rope-a-dope'' strategy that we tire of the fight and either give up or become vulnerable to a right cross or, in Bill Clinton's case, a double cross.

The House will move ahead with hearings on whether articles of impeachment should be filed against the president. The hot rumor was that a "deal'' short of impeachment could be struck, but House Speaker Newt Gingrich rejected that notion. The president and his supporters most certainly will attempt to gum-up the process so that even if he is impeached and a Senate trial is held, the outcome will remain in doubt until the last minute, preferably Inauguration eve, 2001.

The legacy of this president is now set. He has corrupted nearly everyone who has worked for or is associated with him.

He has corrupted the law. What would be perjury for anyone else is not perjury for him. Various investigations may lead to new evidence of illegalities for which Clinton will offer new obfuscations and excuses.

He has corrupted the truth. While swearing to tell the "whole truth,'' he tells anything but the truth. He blames others for his predicament, while acknowledging "inappropriate'' acts that he refuses to detail and, when pressed, claims to have participated in activities that are sex to everyone but him. Millions of us have had to explain to our children and grandchildren kinky sexual practices (which corrupts the formerly innocent).

He has corrupted women. Personally and culturally, women are worse off because of Clinton. Men who would stray from their wives have a role model for wandering and presenting a corrupted father-image before their daughters.

He has corrupted the language. Words have meaning unique to Clinton. He doesn't split hairs. He splits rhetorical atoms. Reading through the transcripts of Clinton's testimony before a grand jury (or watching the tape) is an exhausting experience. Instead "of letting your 'yes' be 'yes,' and your 'no' be 'no,' '' Clinton takes us on a semantical forced march at the end of which we don't know where we've come from or where we are. All we know is that we can't take much more, and we want to escape while we still have our senses.

He has corrupted our highest office. Like despotic armies that pillage those they seek to conquer, Clinton has gone through the presidency in a manner that should shame civilized people. It was said of Ronald Reagan that he had so much respect for the presidency he never removed his suit coat while in the Oval Office. Clinton respects it so little he has trouble keeping his pants on there.

He has corrupted our politics and his party. Instead of debating issues such as the size of government, taxes and the social agenda, Clinton has forced us to focus on Clinton. Since he's been in office, his party has lost power and influence at every other level of government. If Republicans win big this November, as now seems likely, Clinton, "the new Democrat,'' will have done more to eviscerate his party than Republicans could ever have imagined they could do with their best candidates and issues.

He has corrupted himself. Surrounded by enablers and others who care only about political power and not the higher things -- such as honor, integrity, duty and country -- a corrupt Clinton continues his search for "a way out.'' Clinton always has people exploring avenues of escape so he can avoid ultimate accountability for his wrong, illegal and immoral acts.

Our politics and our nation need a bath after Bill Clinton. Or perhaps an exterminator. Or, best of all, an exorcist, because the demons in him have invaded too many of us and are now an uncountable legion.

Up

9/18/98: Stopping him before he sins again
9/15/98: Repenting when the end is near
9/11/98: Faithfully executing: Congress vs. the President
9/10/98: The degrees of separation between Dan Burton and Bill Clinton
9/08/98: Joe Lieberman and the Democrats' conscience
9/04/98: Clinton vs. Reagan and the struggle for power
9/02/98: If only Bubba had been a Boy Scout
8/31/98: Liberal clergy and the Lewinsky affair
8/27/98: Combating the terrorists among us
8/25/98: The president as 'Chicken Little'
8/20/98: That was no apology
8/18/98: Big government's crab grab
8/14/98:Untruths, half-truths and anything but the truth
8/12/98: Lying under oath: past and present impeachable offenses
8/10/98: Endangered species
8/04/98: In search of an unstained president
7/31/98: The UK is ahead of US in one area...
7/28/98: Murder near and far
7/21/98: Telling the truth about
homosexual behavior
7/17/98: One Nation? Indivisible?
7/14/98: Who cares about killing when the 'good times' are rolling?
7/10/98: George W. Bush: a different 'boomer'
7/08/98: My lunch with Roy Rogers
7/06/98: News unfit to print (or broadcast)
6/30/98: Smoke gets in their eyes
6/25/98: Sugar and Spice Girls
6/19/98: William Perry opposed
technology transfers to China
6/19/98: The Clinton hare vs.the Starr tortoise
6/17/98: The President's rocky road to China
6/15/98: Let the children go
6/9/98: Oregon: the new killing fields
6/5/98: Speaking plainly: the cover-up continues
6/2/98: Barry Goldwater: in our hearts
5/28/98:The Speaker's insightful remarks
5/26/98: As bad as it gets
5/25/98:Union dues and don'ts
5/21/98: Connecting those Chinese campaign contribution dots
5/19/98: Clinton on the couch
5/13/98: John Ashcroft: another Jimmy Carter?
5/8/98: Terms of dismemberment
5/5/98: Clinton's tangled Webb
4/30/98: Return of the Jedi
4/28/98: Desparately seeking Susan
4/23/98: RICO's threat to free-speech and expression
4/21/98: Educating children v. preserving an institution
4/19/98: Analyzing the birth of a possible new nation
4/14/98: What's fair about our tax system?
4/10/98: CBS: 'Touched by a perv'
4/8/98: Judge Wright's wrong reasoning on sexual harassment
4/2/98: How about helping American cities before African?
3/31/98:Revenge of the children
3/29/98: The Clinton strategy: delay, deceive, deny, and destroy
3/26/98: Moralist Gary Hart
3/23/98: CNN's century of (liberal) women
3/17/98: Dandy Dan
3/15/98: An imposed 'settlement' settles nothing
3/13/98: David Brock's Turnabout


©1998, Los Angeles Times Syndicate, Inc.