It's All Bill Clinton's Fault (10/12/06)
by Dean Hartwell
The Republicans are united these days: Everything is Bill Clinton's fault.
It is Clinton's fault that North Korea has gotten the bomb. He followed a policy of negotiating with North Korea during his Administration. President Bush ended the negotiations shortly after his first inauguration.
The Bush Axis of Evil, led by Secretary of State Condi Rice, has placed the blame on Clinton, saying we needed a tougher stance on North Korea back then. Silly South Korea, the nation now most at risk with North Korea nukes, for telling Bush to continue Clinton's policy.
Under Clinton, North Korea had no nuclear weapon capability. Under Bush, they have plenty. Oh well, we hadn't had a new member to the world's nuclear club in a while.
It is Clinton's fault that we haven't caught Osama bin Laden.
Never mind Clinton bombed the Sudan and Afghanistan in 1998 to try to kill bin Laden after the attacks on U.S. embassies in Tanzania and Kenya. He was just "wagging the dog" to distract everyone from Monica Lewinsky.
Instead, we should credit Bush for blowing opportunities to capture bin Laden in Tora Bora. Bush needs bin Laden and his videos to scare the U.S. public. This contrasts sharply with the Clinton years, where the relative peace was making the military start to feel useless.
It is Clinton's fault that the United States is now respected less by other nations than before Bush.
After all, Clinton got involved in an affair and lied about it. The amusement of people around the world about the ensuing impeachment showed their immaturity.
All Bush has done is lie about his decision for going to war and authorize warrantless spying upon U.S. citizens. If Bush lied, he must have had a good reason for it since he says he is a Christian and because he is faithful to his wife. As for the spying, who cares about civil liberties in a time of war? We must give up our rights before the terrorists take them from us.
We can also remove the Impeachment Clause from the Constitution. Obviously, we needed it to show the world we wouldn't tolerate President Clinton's perjury at a deposition even though it isn't a crime. Bush's crimes of authorizing the warrantless wiretaps and lying to Congress don't matter. Talk of impeaching Bush is just another example of those partisan Democrats getting in the way of our President.
But, seriously, folks, we can forget about the days of presidents like John Kennedy who took full responsibility for other presidents' mistakes. Forget about the civility of presidents like Clinton who did not speak ill of previous presidents. Forget about speaking softly and carrying a big stick.
This is the Bush era. Instead of ushering in an era of responsibility, his pledge as a candidate, Bush has brought us a blame game more dangerous to us than to Bill Clinton.