JWR Jeff JacobyBen WattenbergTony Snow
Mona CharenDr. Laura
Linda Chavez

Paul Greenberg Larry ElderJonathan S. Tobin
Thomas SowellMUGGERWalter Williams
Don FederCal Thomas
Political Cartoons
Left, Right & Center

Click on banner ad to support JWR

Jewish World Review /Jan. 19, 1999 /2 Shevat, 5759

Cal Thomas

Cal Thomas Prophets without honor

(JWR) --- (http://www.jewishworldreview.com) WHAT THE HOUSE IMPEACHMENT MANAGERS experienced in their compelling presentation of the facts in the trial of William Jefferson Clinton, president of the United States, recalls the words of that good old boy in the film, "Cool Hand Luke.'' What they had there -- as they pleaded with many moderate and liberal senators and with the public -- was a failure to communicate to a generation unfamiliar with law, reason, history and an unchanging moral code.

It was a case of the philosophy of the elders handed down from previous generations versus that of the "youngers,'' who largely make theirs up as they go along.

Hyde
Rep. Henry Hyde (R-Ill.) repeatedly appealed to such things as "sacred honor'' to hold accountable a president who is interested only in saving his skin. Hyde invoked the example of all of the brave soldiers who died -- from the Revolutionary War to Desert Storm. But a president who evaded the draft and who manipulated the system is not about to be brought to his knees in contrition or accountability.

Hyde spoke of a "covenant'' of truth between a president and the people. Clinton used the word "covenant'' in his acceptance speech at the 1992 Democratic Convention. Mutual trust comes out of a covenant, said Hyde. Polls show a large majority don't trust this president, even while they approve of the job he is doing. But isn't trust the currency of a good leader?

The president's behavior, said Hyde, is about "the rule of law vs. the rule of raw power.'' But Clinton is a man for whom the law is just another obstacle he will surmount to get his way, even with an intern, or to compromise the integrity of others. "We are the heirs of 3,000 years of human history,'' said Hyde to a TV generation for whom history is the instant replay.

It was amusing to hear some Democrats express concern that witnesses might be brought to speak words never spoken before on the Senate floor about certain sexual practices. It would sully the Senate, suggested one. Such witnesses are necessary because of what was done on the Oval Office floor as the president of the United States "debased the presidency,'' in Hyde's words.

The letter from that young boy in Chicago asked a question that none of the president's apologists can answer. Why, wondered William Preston Summers, is he punished for lying and the president is not? Summers wouldn't understand, but it's because Democrats fear that removing Clinton from office would give Republicans a chance to grab the White House again and that the next president might reduce abortions, cut taxes, shrink government, slow the gay-rights juggernaut and challenge public schools by offering freedom of choice to parents. For Democrats, that is what this trial is about.

Still, laws, morals and honor are foreign concepts to many who burned their flag and their bras in the '60s and who believed that a marriage license was merely ink stains upon some line. A lot of them declared God dead and their own "liberation'' to create designer morals for this new generation, to be modified at will as circumstances dictate.

This is the gulf the elders must cross to reach the "youngers.'' We'll know they're making progress when Cosmopolitan magazine writes about something other than sex and Larry Flynt succumbs to the spiritual pleadings of Jerry Falwell and is converted. Meanwhile, men like Henry Hyde and his House impeachment managers are prophets without honor among most Democrats and, if the polls are to be believed, a substantial number of their fellow citizens as well.

Up

01/12/99: The Senate's predicament and opportunity
01/08/99: ‘Compassionate conservatism’ is redundant
01/06/99: Don't give my regards to 'Narroway'
01/04/99: In culture war, a parking space trumps sex
12/28/98: Until we've learned our lesson
12/24/98: Peace in Bethlehem!? Something to think about during Xmas
12/22/98: The slime machine brings Apocalypse Now
12/15/98: The 'moving finger'
12/11/98: This sorry president
12/09/98: The eclipse of principle
12/03/98: Destroying Jewry on the installment plan
12/07/98: Before the Age of Clinton
12/01/98: Apathy and ignorance
11/19/98: Ken Starr's moment of truth
11/19/98: The fall of journalism's empire
11/17/98: Republicans drift while conservatives float
11/13/98: Supreme Courtupholds freedom of school-choice
11/10/98: The revolting Republican 'revolution'
11/06/98: Hulk Hogan for president?
11/03/98: Clinton's greatest peril isn't Monica
10/30/98: Mother Teresa was right about killing
10/27/98: Clinton to Netanyahu: 'You're despicable'
10/21/98: A 'peace' agreement: Wye not?
10/19/98: Vanity Fair snubs some of the greatest women 'leaders'
10/14/98:The mean machine
10/09/98: Impeachment: an outside perspective
10/07/98: The corruption of the Secret Service
10/02/98: Land erosion in Israel
10/01/98: The race panel: lies in black and white
9/18/98: The Clinton strategy and the Clinton legacy
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.