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Jewish World Review August 26, 1999 /14 Elul, 5759
Chris Matthews
After Monica, the president had a lot of "I'm
sorries" to say. What better way to say them then
with the gift of a Senate seat? How better to
change the subject than a switch from his guilt to
her ambition? The timing of her candidacy, coming
right on the heels of his acquittal, makes the whole
matter suspect.
It is hard to imagine the politics of an entire state
turned on its head and a White House
transformed into a campaign machine in a
president's desperate attempt to atone for his
adultery. It smacks of Henry VIII switching
Britain's religion and triggering a hundred years of
civil war in order to divorce his wife.
These tokens of his remorse are increasingly less
touching and more intrusive. The most recent was
his decision to pardon the Puerto Rican terrorists
of the FALN. Anyone who doesn't believe the
timing, and likely the substance, of Bill's decision
was linked to Hillary's courtship of New York's
large Puerto Rican vote is too naive for politics.
Some of the president's courtship gifts have been
symbolic, like getting Israeli Prime Minister Ehud
Barak to pose with his wife for a photo, or inviting
the Yankees to the White House. Since Hillary's
new favorite baseball team had completed its
record-setting championship season more than a
year before and the photo op was announced only
a few weeks after Hillary decided to consider
running in New York, the timing was blatantly
political. Clinton's conference on Violence and
Children at the White House, which featured
Hillary in the lead role, also smacks of his ardent
desire to show her how helpful he can be.
The president was similarly generous in granting
Hillary a place at his side in the ceremonies at
Columbine HS. Seizing on the opportunity
afforded by the Colorado tragedy, he used the
event to promote his wife's candidacy in a way
that a president less bent on getting back into his
wife's good graces might not have done.
But other of his presents are more substantive. His
decision to initiate a federal investigation of police
brutality in New York in the wake of the Diallo
shootings was blatantly political. What better way
to win Hillary's affection than to savage her
opponent through the Justice Department? And
the president's largesse to New York in federal
funding of pork-barrel projects of late should
really be counted as taxpayer contributions to her
campaign.
Most disturbing has been his willingness to put the
power of the presidency at her disposal in
campaign fund-raising. From Texas to Nantucket,
the first lady may be raising funds by trading on
her husband's ability to help those who are helpful
to his wife. We won't know for a while, because
Hillary contrived to begin her fund-raising after
July 1, 1999, thereby avoiding any necessity to
report her sources of contributions until just
before the end of the year.
A clue to Clinton's attitude came last week, when
he told his companions at a dinner party that he
had promised Hillary, as he carried her across the
White House threshold in 1993, that the 20 years
after he left office would be devoted to her career
since she had devoted that long to his. Clinton
may not be faithful to Hillary, but he is loyal to her
- especially now that he has so much infidelity for
which to atone.
The gifts keep on coming. The president has
virtually signed over the White House staff to the
first lady's campaign, ostensibly "on their own
time" after rendering 40 hours a week of service
to the nation. Of course, this fiction ignores the
obvious fact that no one in the White House (since
Reagan) has ever worked only a 40-hour week.
To a certain extent, his vigorous support of her
Senate candidacy is itself an "I'm sorry" gift.
Still, the Clintons' very, very public reconciliation
dates from her formation of an exploratory
committee to raise money for the Senate race.
Nobody wants to give money to the wife of the
president if the marriage is headed for divorce
court. The insincerity of their newly kindled
romance and the blatant opportunism in her
forgiveness are evident only to those who know
them best.
Bill is always trying to win Hillary's favor, all the
more so after his missteps have caused her pain.
The unspoken deal between them is her tolerance
for his adultery in return for his advancement of
her career goals. In asking her forgiveness for the
ultimate cheating, he offers the grandest of prizes:
a seat in the United States Senate.
It sure beats a heart
08/25/99: The seemingly inexhaustible strength of America's free enterprise
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