CLINTON'S COCKINESS
BARNES, FRED
Clinton's Cockiness by Fred Barnes THE DAY AFTER HE WAS IMPEACHED, President Clinton gathered with several hundred friends at the White House for a Christmas party. He acted like a man who'd just...
...He believes he didn't lie," a Clinton adviser told me...
...This was also after 70 hours of bombing Saddam Hussein, but never mind...
...To punctuate the point, he recounted the famous story of President Lincoln's response to complaints that Gen...
...Think about that anecdote for a moment and you'll understand why the president himself is the biggest impediment to his short-circuiting a trial in the senate and escaping with censure...
...Ha, ha, ha...
...Having forgiven his critics, he really believes he's more sinned against than sinning...
...The White House interpreted the numbers as enthusiastic support for Clinton in the impeachment process...
...Don't get your hopes up, Mr...
...Imagine how hard it will be for the senator to back censure if the president continues to act as if an "up" arrow is firmly attached next to his name...
...He told the president to butt out...
...So here's the situation: As crisis engulfs his presidency, Clinton thinks he's doing fine...
...His presidential approval rating crept above 70 percent in some polls after his impeachment, and that told Clinton all he needed to know...
...There's a groundswell for censure in the Senate, but not for granting censure to a cocky, unrepentant defendant...
...He acted like a man who'd just received an honor, not a rebuke...
...Ulysses Grant had a drinking problem...
...By this, Baer and indeed everyone else in AS CRISIS ENGULFS HIS PRESIDENCY, CLINTON THINKS HE'S DOING FINE...
...And i have invited members of Congress to work with us to find a reasonable, bipartisan, and proportionate response...
...Then censure becomes O.J., Part II...
...The White House should have learned the lesson that when it's up is the time to be the most magnanimous and reach out to your opponents," says Don Baer, the former communications director for Clinton and a current defender...
...What is he suggesting in the Lincoln story...
...i have accepted responsibility for what i did wrong in my personal life," he declared at a White House pep rally on December 19, a few hours after he was impeached for perjury and obstruction of justice...
...Whatever he's drinking, make sure the other generals get some, too," Clinton quoted Lincoln as saying...
...Other Democratic senators thought the pep rally on the South Lawn was a serious mistake, putting a defiant Clinton on display...
...Even some Clinton advisers think he's taken the wrong tack since the impeachment...
...This is not the attitude senators are looking for...
...Press secretary Joe Lockhart insisted the polls "indicate that the American public has a full understanding of what the House did, that this was a partisan effort which had more to do with politics than it had to do with the Constitution, and that they did do a disservice to the House...
...Notice the word "up...
...Robert Byrd, Democrat of West Virginia, was furious at the president for piously lecturing the Senate...
...But Clinton thinks he's on a roll...
...Even if Clinton cleans up his public act, he'll still be the chief impediment to censure...
...Does any other interpretation make sense...
...And he isn't just whistling past the graveyard...
...By the way, we have Elizabeth Shogren of the Los Angeles Times to thank for reporting on the Clinton party, which she attended as a guest...
...In other words, mild censure...
...He's only the second president in American history to be impeached by the House, he may be ousted by the Senate, the public seems indifferent to his fate, and he still faces possible criminal prosecution...
...Bauer didn't give it...
...One conservative Republican senator called Gary Bauer of the Family Research Council to ask for his blessing if the senator opts for censure...
...HE THINKS HE'S ON A ROLL, MORE SINNED AGAINST THAN SINNING...
...Okay, he's being a bit lighthearted and jocular...
...Still, the message is that he's as successful a president as Grant was a Civil War general, so others should do what he's being condemned for—having sex with a young intern...
...And he noted that attacks on an opponent's personal failings are a common tactic in politics...
...Yet this is required by moderate Republican senators like John Chafee of Rhode Island as part of a censure deal...
...Lockhart said the cover of Time with Clinton and Independent Counsel Ken Starr as men of the year was appropriate, "the leader of the Democratic party and the Republican party...
...For Clinton, poll numbers are holy and determinative...
...The trouble is nobody else believes that, least of all members of the Senate...
...Every Clinton aide, adviser, and lawyer under the sun says the president won't admit he lied about his relations with Monica Lewinsky...
...i think not...
...A censure that appears to let Clinton off easy won't wash, especially with Republicans and perhaps with as many as two dozen of the 45 Democrats...
...He joked about Larry Flynt, the porn publisher bent on exposing Republicans as philanderers...
...Fred Barnes is executive editor of THE WEEKLY STANDARD...
...John Breaux, Democrat of Louisiana, zinged the White House for considering a challenge in federal court to the impeachment counts...
...Clinton's orbit means up in public opinion polls...
Vol. 4 • January 1999 • No. 16
