Here’s an argument that has much credibility in Democratic circles and was recently given voice by David M. Shribman, the respected columnist for the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. He was writing on the 10th anniversary of the Clinton impeachment.
His take:
First, the Clinton Administration could have accomplished much more had it not had to circle the wagons and defend the president against GOP-driven impeachment procedures.
Of course. Theoretically, the Clinton Administration might very well have spent its time determining that the high-tech bubble would be bursting and that Osama bin-Laden was worth catching or killing.
Second, it was no big whoop; it was personal. “The whole episode was more a crime against Clinton’s family than against Clinton’s country,” wrote Shribman. It was a “B-movie drama.”
I disagree. Would that it were merely a sordid, “B-movie” drama. Or just moral failings. Even setting aside perjury, the overriding issue — one that is typically short-shrifted — is that of national security. That kind of sleazy, intimate access to the president is rife with frightening blackmail scenarios.
As a country, we obviously learned nothing from the Kennedy years. Recall that it was President John F. Kennedy who not only slept with Chicago mob boss Sam Giancana’s girl friend (Judith Campbell) while president, but also used his assistant Dave Powers as his personal procurer.
It wasn’t merely a family affair then – or a decade ago.
Too bad Clinton’s boyhood hero was John Kennedy – and not Harry Truman.