The Watergate Legacy Lands on Clintons

As the White House lined up its defenses against the cascade of new Bill Clinton scandals, James Carville announced that “there’s gonna be a war.” Last week, General Hillary was dispatched to NBC’s “Today” show to fire the first shots.

It was a pathetic performance as the first lady whined about a “vast right-wing conspiracy” against her husband that was “using the criminal justice system to achieve political ends.” She attacked, cajoled and then finally pleaded: “If you have political differences, don’t try to destroy someone personally.”

But in fact, Bill Clinton has Hillary to thank for his current predicament. I overstate--but only to make a point. After all, Hillary Rodham sharpened her skills in Washington 24 years ago as one of the hyper-zealous cadre of staff lawyers for the House Impeachment Committee sitting in judgment on President Nixon.

It was then that the genie representing the culture of manic pursuit escaped its bottle. Hillary was a witness.

Those were the good old days for the left--when hatemongering, political use of the criminal justice system and destroying someone over “political differences” were fair game. “Facts” were merely inconvenient encumbrances to advancing the cause behind a protective shield of self-righteousness.

But the monster they created survives to this day and now threatens to devour those whom it was intended to serve. Determined prosecutors, frenzied media outlets and hungry political opponents are now the rule--not the exception.

Worried about partisan prosecutors? Today’s caterwauling complainers did not object when Nixon was being pursued by Special Prosecutor Archibald Cox--a former senior aide to JFK--and a half dozen of his staff which had come out of the Bobby Kennedy Justice Department. They not only bore historic political animosities, they had the subpoena power to apply them.

Concerned about hounding? They dragged Nixon’s two brothers in for questioning, loosened the investigative dogs on the president’s best friend--with no charges ever lodged--and furiously leaked dozens of false and scurrilous claims.

Those who wallowed in Watergate probably thought their noble goals would never have a rebound effect. But that savage chapter only whetted the appetite. The elixir of elevating, chasing and destroying public figures--or attempting to destroy them--was too enticing. A new set of rules had been created; what was thought to be an end was only a beginning.

So along the years it was natural, for this force to prey again--in the Carter years, in the Reagan and Bush years, and of course to this day.

Judge Robert Bork, among America’s most distinguished judicial intellects, was cast into these roiling waters for public drowning--the charges being political and ideological impurity. So the nation winked at Ted Kennedy’s political thuggery as he made the sick claim that if Bob Bork were elevated to the Supreme Court, women would be subjected to “back alley abortions.” (Many would argue that Kennedy is an odd arbiter regarding the health of women).

In 1988, as Dan Quayle was introduced as George Bush’s running mate for vice president, the frenzy renewed. It was claimed that Quayle got preferred treatment to enter the National Guard. False. He was worth tens of millions of dollars as the spoiled scion of a publishing empire. False. He smoked dope. False. He had an affair with a lobbyist. False. The tumult finally settled--but the damage to Quayle lingered.

Here in California, Barbara Boxer’s political campaign showed no contrition for its smarmy election-eve personal smears against her 1992 Senate opponent, Bruce Herschensohn. Boxer’s folks counted on media antagonism to Herschensohn’s conservative philosophy to muddy the waters sufficiently to stop the free fall she was in. The ugly stunt worked.

How ironic now for the Clintonistas and their wailing sympathizers to cry foul. Amateurs they are not. They are surely aware of the revered political adage: “What goes around comes around.” And now it is coming around on them with a vengeance.

The pious moralisms of the generation past are today unpleasantly reprised. The scandal, the chase, the sound and the fury are grenade explosions in a contained echo chamber, and their reverberations are consuming those who set them off in circumstances more congenial to their tastes.

That’s why--in due time--Bill Clinton’s only buddy will be Buddy.