THE president’s paranoia is showing.
As he fades toward retirement, arguably a successful president marred by a massive self-destructive streak, Bill Clinton resembles not the youthful man who bounded into office so many years ago.
He is more like Richard Nixon. An isolated figure, spending his lame-duck days drawing up lists of enemies. Waiting for redemption. Or at least, vindication. Railing against the wind that he is being treated unfairly.
Why me?!
Bill Clinton survived the impeachment trial, but not in one piece. It diminished his stunning powers of persuasion. Made him beholden to the wife whose skirts he hid behind. The wife who is passing him by on her way to Washington, as he fades into obscurity in Arkansas.
Today, he hides behind not Hillary’s trousers, but behind legalities. Hunting for loopholes to prove himself right, if not exactly righteous.
The dazzling speaker who charmed the pants off voters, then pulled the same trick on an insecure intern with a father problem, has spent so many hours convincing himself that his acquittal equals absolution.
He still cannot quite fathom that he did anything wrong.
He lied under oath, a pretty straightforward crime. Yet Clinton has chosen not to see it that way. And he can’t quite understand why no one else – save for his paid legal counsel – can see it his way, too.
The president didn’t lie in order to conceal a theft. He didn’t lie to conceal a murder.
And to Clinton, lying for the purpose of saving your sorry skin is not only acceptable, it is to be expected.
He made the same mistake of ego that has plagued many a powerful man.
He decided that what is good for him is good for the country.
He was above the law.
Clinton lied under oath about an affair with Monica Lewinsky. He lied in a court of law in an attempt to derail a lawsuit claiming he tried to have an affair with another underling, Paula Jones.
He came close to admitting his crime to none other than Tom Brokaw, while whining that he’s being, once again, unfairly persecuted.
“It’s not right,” Clinton complained about the decision by an Arkansas Supreme Court committee to recommend Clinton be stripped of his license to practice law – a disgrace that has been dealt only to one other president: Richard Nixon.
“My lawyers looked at all the precedents and they said there’s no way in the world, if they just treat you like everybody else has been treated, that this is even close to that kind of case,” he said.
Everyone does it. Everyone lies.
Hey, Rudy Giuliani got a pass on the woman thing!
So why, Clinton wails, am I the one being punished?
Why me?
Lying under oath about your affairs may not be sufficient grounds for a divisive and destructive impeachment trial. Yet a man with a proven record of concealing the truth should not be allowed to practice the law. So said the Arkansas committee.
The public may accept a liar as president. But the legal profession, so often derided for attracting liars and cheats, wants to draw the line.
The Arkansas bar doesn’t want Bill Clinton practicing law. It may seem a small punishment. But it may be worse than impeachment.
This is not some partisan campaign, but a signal that his peers reject him. And the president does not take rejection well.
So this is the Clinton legacy.
He got away with it. But it just wasn’t enough.
Paranoid, defensive, indefensible, he fades into the Arkansas sunset proclaiming his innocence.
He doesn’t get it.