The Clinton Legacy

Yesterday in Little Rock Arkansas was the opening of the Clinton Presidential Library. Bill and Hillary Clinton were there along with both Presidents Bush and President Jimmy Carter.  All the living presidents except 91 year old President Gerald Ford.

The Clinton Library is an impressive modern building. It is located on the located in downtown Little Rock, on the Arkansas River. It is the figurative seventh bridge of Little Rock. The theme of the library is A Bridge to the Future. But as I look at the cantilever that extends partially across the river into space — I see only a bridge to nowhere.

Only time will tell whether the presidency of Bill Clinton is really a bridge to the future. What is absolutely certain is that Clinton presidency has a history.

The library has several alcoves devoted to thematic exhibits from President Clinton's life. The most controversial exhibit is the exhibit on scandals. The exhibit is called, The Fight for Power. The exhibit paints the  scandals and eventual impeachment as a partisan power fight. Ken Starr, Susan McDougal and even Monica Lewinsky are mentioned or pictured in the exhibit. An MSNBC article notes that the exhibit has sections called,  A New Culture of Confrontation and Politics of Persecution.

It just goes to show you — President Clinton still doesn't get it. What the exhibit does not say is that Bill Clinton was a man who ascended to the most powerful office in the nation. Along the way he became a serial adulterer. In the oval office, he took advantage of an intern. On television, he looked the American people in the eye and said, "I did not have sexual relations with that woman, Miss Lewinsky."

Of course when Hillary learned that Bill did not have sexual relations with that woman, she was relieved. Whe dscribes the incident in her book, Living History.

'I could hardly breathe. Gulping for air, I started crying and yelling at him, "What do you mean? What are you saying? Why did you lie to me?" I was furious and getting more so by the second.

Somehow he still doesn't get it. President Clinton used his office to take advantage of an intern. A manager in any company in the same position would have been fired for sexual harrasment. But Bill Clinton, was a victim. He calls it the Politics of Persecution — perhaps it should have been called Presidential Contempt. Contempt for morality, contempt for marriage, contempt for the office, contempt for a subordianate, contempt for the American people and contempt for the truth.

What I really want to know is — where is Monica's little blue dress?