A Lie Waiting to Happen
By Doug Patton
May 20, 2002

"Bill Clinton has chosen the one area of American life he could enter without further lowering the tone of it."
- George F. Will, on recent rumors that the former president might host a daytime TV talk show

Like dreamers drawn to a recurring nightmare, we are compelled to remember how deeply into the cesspool of narcissism American politics sank during the presidential tenure of William Jefferson Clinton.

I do not pretend that politics has ever been a refined, genteel endeavor, and I will not rehash the litany of sins that earned Clinton the everlasting contempt of so many Americans. It is quite enough to know that he is a predatory sociopath whose presidency did immeasurable harm - perhaps the worst of harm - to our nation, and that his dalliances came at the expense of our national security.

But when it came to sheer will to win, Clinton was without equal. His world-class ego, combined with go-for-the-juguler political instincts, made him perhaps the most formidable adversary ever to put his name on a ballot. It was not enough that he should win; others had to lose. In fact, they had to be destroyed, and Clinton established new standards for sheer meanness while doing it. He destroyed opponents from one end of the political spectrum to the other, overturning every rock along the way to recruit the likes of James Carville and Paul Begala, who added their own special malice to the carnage.

Those of us who have worked professionally in politics know that it is a rough game. It is not for the squeamish or the thin-skinned. Stay in it long enough, and you will be attacked.

When the attack is on the issues, it can be the kind of honing experience that reminds you of why you took up the cause in the first place. But when it is personal, it can be a cruel distraction that discourages good candidates from running and drives voters away from the polls in droves.

Last week, the Democrats got personal. Following the example set by the morally bankrupt president they defended for eight years, they summoned all their political courage and - made up a lie.

After thrashing around for an issue - any issue - to carry them to victory in the November congressional elections, they thought they had found a chink in George Bush's armor.

Their fairytale went like this: Bush knew of the September 11th attack and did nothing to protect Americans from harm. The evidence of this? Daily briefings that told the White House that terrorists would like to hijack an airplane somewhere, sometime. That's it.

This paranoid accusation was easily dismissed when it came from malcontent Rep. Cynthia McKinney, D-GA. But when Dick Gephardt, Tom Daschle and the rest of the congressional leadership parroted it, it became news.

"What did the president know and when did he know it?" That tired, old question, first asked of Richard Nixon three decades ago, again reverberated across Washington, DC, with Democrats salivating at the prospect of a "smoking gun" that would somehow magically lower the president's astronomically high approval rating.

Ironically, one of the first to utter the question aloud last week was former First Lady and now-junior senator from the State of New York, Hillary Rodham Clinton. She spoke in slow, deliberate tones, as if to convey the message of how serious she was about this grievance against the president.

I have been critical of many decisions emanating from the Bush White House. Indeed, when it comes to homeland security, our immigration policies alone could destroy us. But I will not subscribe to the hysteria of liberals who attempt to score political points by hurling vile, baseless charges at my president - especially in a time of war.

Because of their faith in the failed dogma of socialism, Democrats for years now have had nothing to peddle to voters but fear, helplessness and class envy. They have become a lie waiting to happen.