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Jewish World Review Dec. 23, 1998 /4 Teves, 5759

Thomas Sowell

Thomas Sowell World-class hypocrisy

(JWR) --- (http://www.jewishworldreview.com) AFTER HOUSE SPEAKER-DESIGNATE BOB LIVINGSTON'S resignation in the wake of impending revelations of his extramarital affairs, White House spokesman Joseph Lockhart deplored "this insidious politics of personal destruction."

Within hours, Bill Clinton was repeating the very same phrase: "We must stop the politics of personal destruction."

This is truly world-class hypocrisy.

ABC commentator Cokie Roberts -- hardly a member of the "vast right-wing conspiracy" conjured up by Hillary Clinton -- said that she had been told about Bob Livingston's extramarital affairs by a White House source. But she didn't break the story. That was left to the gutter press, epitomized by Larry Flynt's "Hustler" magazine.

Flynt
Now the White House is shedding crocodile tears over Bob Livingston. The new spin from the Clinton camp is that Livingston was done in by a right-wing religious faction within the Republican Party. How is that for chutzpah?

Bob Livingston is by no means the first victim of political character assassination by the Clinton White House. Nor is he likely to be the last.

There has been a whole campaign of character assassination against every single person who has either revealed Clinton's wrong-doing or taken action against it.

Remember how Paula Jones was depicted by James Carville as trailer-park trash who would do anything for a hundred dollar bill? Remember how Linda Tripp's confidential personnel files were illegally made public to reveal an accusation made against her when she was a teenager? Shortly after Monica Lewinsky's tapes became known, White House sources began depicting her as a "stalker" who had fantasies about Clinton. Only later did the strategy shift and they backed off.

The entire year has been devoted to character assassination against special prosecutor Kenneth Starr, featuring charges that were known to be false when they were made -- but which the White House also knew that Starr could not refute, because he was forbidden to reveal grand jury testimony.

Bill Clinton's own brother gave warning of all this on national television when he said that, if the president went down, he was going to take others down with him. Nor was this an idle threat in view of the hundreds of confidential FBI files on Republicans obtained illegally by White House aide Craig Livingstone, a former bouncer whom no one admits hiring.

Against this background, Hillary Clinton's calls for "reconciliation" and others' calls for "forgiveness" are hollow at best and further examples of the world-class hypocrisy that has long marked the Clintons, going all the way back to their days in Arkansas.

Bill Clinton is not simply a "flawed" man, as some of his apologists now say. He is a thoroughly corrupt man, cynical and shamelessly selfish. He has corrupted every institution of government that he has touched.

Arkansas health officials who threatened legal action against the Clintons' business partner Jim McDougal for not putting adequate sewage facilities into a project he was building were summoned to Governor Clinton's office and told that McDougal was "a supporter of mine." Shortly thereafter, these health inspectors were fired.

A state medical examiner who ruled the mysterious deaths of two teenage boys "accidental" was given a hefty raise by Governor Clinton, even though a later autopsy and grand jury investigation concluded that these deaths were homicides. Later the medical examiner was promoted to a job as consultant to Joycelyn Elders, even though a prosecutor linked these deaths to drug traffickers.

A convicted drug trafficker who had hired Clinton's brother was given a pardon by the governor. Earlier, Clinton had awarded this same drug trafficker a $30 MILLION state bond underwriting contract.

In short, the law has long taken a back seat to Clinton's own interests and agenda. Whether as governor or as president, Bill Clinton has attacked those who have tried to enforce the law and come to the aid of law-breakers ranging from a drug dealer in Arkansas to Webster Hubbell in Washington.

British statesman Edmund Burke said it all two centuries ago: "There is no safety for honest men except by believing all possible evil of evil men."

This has long been a thoroughly corrupt man and the only question now is whether he can corrupt the Senate.

12/21/98: The spreading corruption
12/17/98: Politically "contrite"
12/16/98: Polls and partisanship
12/14/98: The "non-profit" halo
12/11/98: Corruption and confusion
12/03/98: The health care "crisis"
11/30/98: Knowing what you are talking about
11/23/98: The impeachment legacy
11/23/98: Random thoughts
11/19/98: Tales out of bureaucracies
11/16/98: Scholarships based on scholarship
11/12/98: Forward march
11/09/98: Moral outrage
11/05/98: Will the Republicans ever learn?
11/02/98: A voter's duty
10/30/98: The poverty pimp's poem
10/29/98: Random thoughts on the election
10/27/98: "Partisan" and "unfair"
10/23/98: Ed-u-kai-tchun
10/21/98: McGwire, Maris and the Babe
10/20/98: MURDER IS MURDER!
10/16/98: Lightweight Boxer
10/14/98: A strange word
10/09/98: Impeachment standards
10/08/98: Alternatives to seriousness
10/07/98: Heredity, environment and talk
10/02/98: A much-needed guide
10/01/98: Starr's real crime
9/24/98: Costs and power
9/18/98: Are we sheep?
9/16/98: Judicial review
9/15/98: Hillary Rodham Crook?
9/14/98: Taking stock
9/11/98: Moment of truth
9/04/98: Random thoughts
8/31/98: The twilight of special prosecutors?
8/26/98: "Doing a good job"
8/24/98: America on trial?
8/19/98: Played for fools
8/17/98: A childish letter
8/11/98: Hiding behind a woman
8/07/98: A flying walrus in Washington?
8/03/98: "Affordability" strikes again
7/31/98: Random thoughts
7/27/98: Faith and mountains
7/24/98: Clinton in Wonderland
7/20/98: Where is black 'leadership' leading?
7/16/98: Do 'minorities' really have it that bad?
7/14/98: Race dialogue: same old stuff
7/10/98: Honest history
7/09/98: Dumb is dangerous
7/02/98: Gun-safety starts with
parental responsibility
6/30/98: When more is less
6/29/98: Are educators above the law?
6/26/98: Random Thoughts
6/24/98: An angry letter
6/22/98: Sixties sentimentalism
6/19/98:Dumbing down anti-trust
6/15/98: A changing of the guard?
6/11/98: Presidential privileges
6/8/98: Fast computers and slow antitrust
6/3/98: Can stalling backfire?
5/29/98: The insulation of the Left
5/25/98: Missing the point in the media
5/22/98: The lessons of Indonesia
5/20/98: Smart but silent
5/18/98: Israel, Clinton and character
5/14/98: Monica Lewinsky's choices
5/11/98: Random thoughts
5/7/98: Media obstruction of justice
5/4/98: Dangerous "safety"
5/1/98: Abolish Adolescence!
4/30/98: The naked truth
4/22/98: Playing fair and square
4/19/98: Bad teachers"
4/15/98: "Clinton in Africa "
4/13/98: "Bundling and unbundling "
4/9/98: "Rising or falling Starr "
4/6/98: "Was Clinton ‘vindicated'? "
3/26/98: "Diasters -- natural and political"
3/24/98: "A pattern of behavior"
3/22/98: Innocent explanations
3/19/98: Kathleen Willey and Anita Hill
3/17/98: Search and destroy
3/12/98: Media Circus versus Justice
3/6/98: Vindication
3/3/98: Cheap Shot Time
2/26/98: The Wrong Filter
2/24/98: Trial by Media
2/20/98: Dancing Around the Realities
2/19/98: A "Do Something" War?
2/12/98: Julian Simon, combatant in a 200-year war
2/6/98: A rush to rhetoric

©1998, Creators Syndicate, Inc.