Mullings A Political Cyber Column By Rich Galen

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Wagging the Hog

Monday, February 19, 2001

The attack on radar sites in Iraq the other day points out the biggest problem Bill Clinton has: He can't change the subject.

In the good old days, if times got tough - like when the House was about to vote to impeach him - he could do things like order up a small military action knowing that Christiane Amanpour would be reporting from the site for CNN.

The best he can do now, is to:
  - Move to Harlem
  - Have someone write a 1,600 op-ed piece for Sunday's NY Times
on his behalf
  - Send former Chief of Staff John Podesta, former Press Secretary
Joe Lockhart, and former White House Special Counsel Lanny
Davis out to the Sunday shows to do damage control.

If you don't think this is continuing to go in the wrong direction for Mr. Clinton, Time Magazine piles on this week with a cover titled, "The Incredible Shrinking ex-President." The cover story, by Karen Tumulty, is titled, "How Can We Miss You If You Never Go Away?"

And this isn't only hurting Mr. Clinton. It's having a tremendous positive effect on the still-accreting Bush administration. R.W. Apple, never known as the house conservative at the NY Times wrote:

"Mr. Bush has, of course, made some adroit moves that have helped smooth his way - meeting with legislators from both parties in a number of settings, indicating his willingness to compromise on major issues like taxes and health care and, in general, comporting himself with more dignity than Mr. Clinton, without making too big a point of it. Editorial writers and the top Democrats have done that for him, with help from the former president."

That's not to say that everyone is hopping aboard the Bush Bandwagon. At a meeting of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, board member Julian Bond said that Bush, "selected nominees from the Taliban wing of American politics, appeased the wretched appetites of the extreme right wing and chose Cabinet officials whose devotion to the Confederacy is nearly canine in its uncritical affection."

After that, NAACP president Kweisi Mfume "said he would request a meeting with Bush soon."

Yeah. Let me just get a peek at the schedule, here. Oh, look! We have some time for you to meet with our chief devotee of the Confederacy, Colin "The Canine" Powell. He'd like to meet you. In the parking lot behind the State Department Building. Right after sixth period study hall.

More pardon aggravation. Newsweek's Michael Isikoff along with Daniel Klaidman have a piece in this week's magazine that the Presidential pardon of Roger Clinton was accomplished by going around the normal FBI background check.

Why? According to the report Roger was under investigation for a scheme in which the President, through an Arkansas intermediary, tried to get Roger a consulting contract in return for having a senior government official show up at a meeting to promote a regional airport.

The amount of the contract? Thirty-five grand. A month. The guy trying to set up the meeting said, "That's a pretty big consulting fee for someone who plays in a rock band."

Howard Fineman points out in that same magazine that Clinton's story about flying into LaGuardia Airport and walking up 125th street while he was a student at Oxford had a familiar ring: "He told a similar story on the campaign trail in New York in 1992. Only the airport was JFK, the neighborhood was Astoria, Queens, and the audience was Greek."

Well. I for one, feel a LOT better. I was afraid he had just made that story up.

Wanna smile? President and Mrs. Bush did a drop-by at the welcome home party by the citizens of Crawford, Texas. About 250 of the 700 residents turned out for their own "inaugural ball" which was planned before they knew the Bush's would be in town for the weekend.

Read the AP and Reuters account of the event as well as links to the Time and Newsweek stories on the Secret Decoder Ring page.

The Roswell speech went very well, thank you. I returned safely despite having to fly twice on an airplane operated by "Mesa Airlines." I named one of the guys flying the plane, "Skippy the Co-Pilot" who I swear was studying for an Algebra I exam during the flight. No alien would dare fly on Mesa.
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Copyright © 2001 Richard A. Galen

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