Is He Gone Yet?
by JCH
February 27, 2001

OK, so I don't make time to write these rants like I said I was going to start doing. But we've been over that before. This is actually a rant in two parts. As the date approached for W. to become president and Clinton to "slip out of the limelight," I decided it was time to put the Clinton Years into perspective. Let's face it: good things happened to this country while Bubba was in office. And Clinton used his last few State of the Union addresses to force that down our throat.

At some point, this rant was going to be sugary sweet. I was going to go over the Clinton presidency with a broad stroke and say, "We're better off now than we were eight years ago." And you know what? We are. But in the final analysis, Clinton probably divided us in ways we're not even aware of now.

Now I am not saying that Ken Starr and his cronies were right. I'm not about to jump on the Republican SUV bandwagon and talk about family values and character and integrity of the office and all of the other words and phrases they throw around without really thinking about what they mean.

But let me make it clear: Bill Clinton is getting on my nerves. I was one of his most ardent supporters for a long time. But his last few weeks in office and the time since then has made me realize that he was nothing more than a slimy, egotistical son of a bitch out for his own satisfaction, power, money and, well, sex.

I'm not really sure what took me so long to realize that.

Now understand what I'm saying. I'm not saying that Clinton was not a good president. I'm saying he is not a good man. One need look no further than the pardon of Mark Rich to see what I mean.

Clinton is like the quarterback of the high school football team who keeps coming back to the school for a few years after to catch the glory that has passed his by. Nixon at least had the realization that he needed to have something substantive to say before getting in front of the camera. Clinton, on the other hand, sees a camera and goes for it like a maggot eating road kill.

But I cannot yet fathom that the man was always like this. I still remember the 1992 election. I thought he was different. I thought these would be better years. I guess I was naive enough to believe that there was a politician out there who was not like all of the other politicians. Maybe I had just watched watched a special on RFK. Maybe I was hoping that the 90s were the 60s and we -- that is, my generation -- could go back and fix what the hippies (who then morphed into yuppies) fucked up.

1969: "All You Need Is Love"
1984: "What's Love Got To Do With It?"

(Looking back, I'm not sure how someone from the 60s generation was supposed to do that.)

Now my fear is that I will be too cynical if there comes a man -- or woman -- who is not like the rest. Will we even notice? Harry Browne would probably tell you we won't notice at all. But then you'd probably just ask who the hell Harry Browne is. Which, I guess, might prove his point.

But at what point did Clinton change? Was it when he proved in 1992 that it was the economy, stupid? Was it in 1996 when the Republicans could do no better than offer 73 year old Bob Dole as Clinton's competition? Was it the Whitewater investigation, an investigation into, essentially, nothing? Or was it when that investigation turned into the Monica Lewinsky affair, also an investigation into nothing?

In the final analysis, it doesn't really matter. What I hope happens is that Clinton wises up, steps back and lets the Democrats concentrate on two things: 1.) offsetting any inane policies that Bush comes up with and 2.) find someone who can win in 2004 that isn't Hillary or Gore.

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And now, just for fun, is what I had on the original rant before giving it up:

Man, that was odd. Typing in 2001 for the first time. So I guess Art Bell was wrong? There was no Armageddon. Nor did the government declare martial law on January 1 of either this or last year. I'm glad I never bought the Art Bell Millennium Survivals Guide that he was hawking for most of the latter part of the 90s then.

But that wasn't what I wanted to write about now. In just a few days, Bill Clinton will slip out of Washington and out of the limelight to decide where to go next. Something tells me he will not step out of the public arena completely. Here is a man in his mid-50s with his most productive, most celebrated days behind him. Then again, the man has to sigh a breath of relief. Many people thought his presidency would end after being defeated in his bid for re-election. Or that he'd be assassinated by another lone nut gunman that was so busy in the 60s. Luckily for the nation, neither of those happened.

Here we see President Clinton just realizing that he did not win re-election in 2000. Photo at the re-dedication ceremony of the AFL-CIO headquarters building in Washington, January 8, 2001. (REUTERS/Larry Downing )

Here President Clinton demonstrates to reporters outside the White House how he would ring George W. Bush's neck if the new president doesn't pardon him. (REUTERS/Mike Theiler) Though as Bush said, How do you pardon a man who's never been indicted for anything? You see, that 50 million dollars Kenny Starr squandered came up with NOTHING substantive to use against Clinton.

Bill Clinton was born William Jefferson Blythe in 1946 in Hope Springs, Arkansas. His father had died in a car accident a few months before he was born. Blythe's widow, Virginia Dell Blythe, married Roger Clinton, an alcoholic, and despite their unstable union (they divorced and then remarried) her son eventually took his stepfather's name.

Clinton declared his candidacy for president while governor of Arkansas. He was first elected to that post in 1980. However, two years later, he was defeated for re-election. His critics said he came into office with an impractical agenda and a little too much arrogance. Admitting his failures and apologizing for them, he then served three more terms as governor.

Clinton overcame several crisis's while on the campaign trail, among them the fact that he opposed the Vietnam War and actively sought to get out of serving as well as the Gennifer Flowers fiasco. A "60 Minutes" piece after the Super Bowl in which he and his wife appeared admitting that their marriage was not perfect. The ticket of Clinton and Gore won the election with 43 percent of the popular vote over incumbent George Bush's 38 percent and Ross Perot's 19 percent. The electoral college was won 370 to 168, with Perot not winning a state at large.

The new president got off to a shaky start. One of Clinton's first acts as president was an attempt to fulfill a campaign promise to end discrimination of gays and lesbians in the military. This deeply controversial move angered those in the military ranks as here was a "draft dodger" who had somehow slimed his way into the presidency telling THEM how to run the Armed Forces. They were none too pleased.

A compromise was proposed known as "don't ask; don't tell." This was viewed by both sides as being unfavorable. Gays and lesbians felt that Clinton had lied to them. The military were still fuming that he tried to dictate this policy to them. Also, many people thought it to be unconstitutional.

His first two nominees to the post of Attorney General were rejected on issues of ethics. His third, Janet Reno, then stormed the Branch Davidian complex in Texas, a move that many people on all sides of the law and religion found utterly appalling. Despite taking responsibility for what had occurred in Waco, Reno apparently never felt the inclination to resign her post and Clinton never asked for it.

Next came the administration's plan for universal health care, another of Clinton's campaign pledges. Clinton appointed his wife to chair the task force, a move that angered many who were resentful of the fact that Mrs. Clinton not an elected official, nor had she been added to the cabinet, but here she was in a position of power and influence. Couple this with the fact that the health care plan was too complex for its own good, the initiative died under its own weight before it was ever submitted to Congress.

In spite of these early missteps, clinton could be credited with several positive acts. Even though Ross Perot spoke of the "giant sucking sound" of US jobs being lost to Mexico as a result of the North American Free Trade Agreement, Congress passed the measure and Clinton signed it into law, thus creating a "free trade zone" between Canada, the United States and Mexico.

Clinton also changed the face of federal government, appointing women and minorities to significant posts throughout his administration, among them the aforementioned Reno as Attorney General, Jocelyn Elders as surgeon general and Madelin Albright, the first woman to become secretary of state. Furthermore, he nominated Ruth Bader Ginsburg to the Supreme Court replacing the retiring Justice Byron R. White. White was nominated to the Court by President Kennedy in 1962, one year before Clinton met Kennedy and shook his hand in that now-famous photograph.

The 1994 Republican Revolution did not speak well for Clinton's chances for re-election. At one point, the president held a press conference to announce that he was still relevant. No one really believed him. Most considered it a repudiation of Clinton's policies. For whatever reason, Clinton began moving to the right. Either he saw that the American people were more moderate than either liberal or conservative or he really wanted to win in 1996. Two of Clinton's proposals were a more aggressive deficit reduction and a massive overhaul of the government's welfare program.

Ultimately, the uncompromising and confrontational behavior of the new Republicans had the opposite effect of its sympathy and Clinton won considerable sympathy. The government shutdown of 1995 was considered by most to be the fault of the Republicans. Quickly, Clinton's presidency had new life.

Clinton had to prove his worth in the area of foreign policy. He made great strides along the way to do just that. In 1994, the military under his leadership reinstated Haitian President Jean-Bertran Aristide who had been ousted by a military coup in 1991. He also had a leading role in the ongoing attempt to bring peace to Bosnia and Herzegovia. Finally, right to the end of his second term, he tried to help Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin and Palestine Liberation Organization chairman Yasir Arafat bring peace in the dispute between Palenstians and Israelis.