Stop Blaming Clinton (3/2/03)

By Dean Hartwell

"Thank goodness we have a president with the courage to protect our country." - Former Senator Fred Thompson in a pro-President Bush advertisement.

In the movie Traffic. the outgoing drug czar gives some advice to his successor.  "If things go wrong, blame me."

It looks as though this advice has rubbed off on President Bush and his advisors.  Not only does Thompson make a thinly veiled reference to former President Clinton, others in the Bush camp have blamed the former president on a number of issues.

Thompson's charge that President Clinton did not care about protecting our country puzzles me.  Does he mean to suggest that President Bush's threat to use force against Iraq does protect us?

If so, then he should be thanking Clinton for ordering strikes on Iraq during December 1998.  Curiously, many Republicans accused Clinton of trying to divert attention from the impeachment trial going on in Congress at that time.

Perhaps Thompson means to say that Bush's use of force in Afghanistan protects us.  Has he lost his memory of the facts on this count as well?

President Clinton ordered strikes on Afghanistan and the Sudan in attempt to kill bin Laden in 1998.  And, several Republicans spoke out against these strikes, too, as a "misdirection" of attention from the impeachment proceedings.

Thompson isn't alone in his accusations.  Not long ago President Bush himself blamed Clinton for starting a recession that has carried over into the Bush Administration.  Is this charge fair?

Economists disagree as to when the current economic difficulties started.  But as for Bush's accusation, two can play that game.  Whose fault was it that Bill Clinton started his Administration with a recession?  Try Bush's father.

Republicans should quit wasting their time beating Bill Clinton like a piñata.  Instead, they should come up with  ideas more conducive to solutions to these and other problems.

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