Clinton Did It Too
John
Bender | January 6 2006
George Bush
managed to do something, had I not seen it done, I would have never believed
possible. He turned Bill Clinton’s presidency into the gold standard
that other administrations are measured against. At least, he, and his,
spin machine, turned it into the standard to measure his administration
against.
In this latest scandal, the Bush administration, and his sycophant, pseudo-conservative
apologists in the print and broadcast media, are claiming Clinton authorized
warrantless wiretaps on Americans too. It is a tactic they use repeatedly.
Bush went to war against Iraq. The Cool-aid drinkers
screamed that Clinton went to war against Serbia and nobody complained.
Bush went nation building in Liberia. They repeated the mantra, that Clinton
went nation building in Haiti. Bush ignored the invasion of millions of
criminals across our southern border, and they told us Clinton ignored it
too.
The list goes on and on. Every chance they get, the
Bush spin machine points out that Clinton did the same thing Bush is doing.
They jump at any opportunity to justify George the Younger’s actions
by saying Clinton did it too.
Were it not so pathetic, and so tragic for our republic,
it would be funny. These same people railed against Clinton when he did
these things, but use him as justification for Bush’s actions. They
seem to relish the idea that Bush and Clinton act the same way in so many
situations.
Judging from the way the Bush Republicans (we used
to call people like them Rockefeller Republicans) praise Bush for following
Clinton’s lead, they must hold Clinton in very high esteem. Given this
curious fact, one can be excuse for wondering how we ever got Clinton impeached.
It does offer an explanation as to why the Bush Republicans in the Senate
refused to convict him.
Of course, these same Bush Republicans get upset when
conservatives point out that Bush increased non-military discretionary spending
far more than Clinton did. They also get upset when conservatives point
out that Bush added people to the taxpayer financed assistance programs,
while Clinton signed Republican legislation that reduced the number of people
feeding at the taxpayer provided trough.
They hate it when someone points out that Clinton reduced
the number of non-military federal employees while Bush increased that number.
And they really hate it when conservatives point out that Bush reversed
all the gains the nation made under the Contract With America.
In the case of this latest scandal, Bush’s Attorney
General, Alberto Gonzales sounds very much like Clinton’s Asst. Attorney
General, Eric Holder sounded after he and Reno ordered the home invasion
and seizure of Elian Gonzalez. Both sound just like the bandit in the Treasure
of Sierra Madre when he tells Humphrey Bogart, “Badges? We don’t
need no stinking badges!”
“Warrants? We don’t need no stinking warrants.”
When Judge Andrew Napolitano, a retired federal judge,
a constitutional scholar, and Fox News senior legal analyst, had the following
exchange with Eric holder the morning after jackbooted thugs broke down
the door and took Elian at gunpoint.
Napolitano: “Tell me, Mr. Holder, why did you
not get a court order authorizing you to go in and get the boy?”
Holder: “Because we didn't need a court order.
INS can do this on its own.”
Napolitano: “You know that a court order would
have given you the cloak of respectability to have seized the boy.”
Holder: “We didn't need an order.”
Napolitano: “Then why did you ask the 11th Circuit
Court of Appeals for such an order if you didn't need one?”
Holder: [Silence]
Napolitano: “The fact is, for the first time in
history, you have taken a child from his residence at gunpoint to enforce
your custody position, even though you did not have an order authorizing
it."
When asked why they didn’t follow the law and
get warrants for their domestic spying program, Bush and his crony Gonzalez
sounded much like Holder.
At a year-end news conference on the Monday after the
scandal was exposed, Bush said, "As president of the United States
and commander in chief, I have the constitutional responsibility and the
constitutional authority to protect our country."
Alberto Gonzalez also worked the media on that Monday,
trying to defend the domestic eavesdropping effort, The Washington Post
reported: “He said Congress authorized domestic surveillance in its
Iraq war resolution. He said such powers also derive from the "inherent
powers" of the president as commander in chief.”
By Thursday, when it was clear that neither the public,
nor the Congress was buying the spin, the Bush spin machine shifted gears
and claimed that Clinton did it too. They play the “Clinton did it
too” like the ace of trump. They throw it out as though if Clinton
did it, it must be the correct, moral, and legal thing to do. Unfortunately
far too many Bush Republicans seem to agree with that thought.
When Clinton was exposed as a criminal, his approval
ratings soared. After it was revealed that Clinton committed perjury and
obstructed justice, his poll numbers climbed significantly. Bush’s
poll numbers also rocketed skyward when the news hit that he broke federal
law.
Hopefully, the Congress and the courts will not settle
for that disgustingly low standard of conduct for this and future presidents.
###
John Bender is a freelance writer living in Dallas, Texas. He can be reached
at jbender@columnist.com
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