His Life As a Victim

The New York Times has posted a piece about Bill Clinton's memoir, My Life. Should we laugh, cry, or scream at Weeping Willie's latest outrage? You be the judge.

Let's start with the Jones case, which led to Clinton's impeachment. The Times says that Clinton

takes the whip to [among others] the Supreme Court, which ruled unanimously in 1997 that Paula Jones's sexual harassment case against him could go forward while he was in office. He called that one of the most politically naive and damaging court decisions in years.

Of course, he would place himself above the course of justice. You know, the person who holds the presidency is only holding a job temporarily. He's not indispensible; in fact, he's rather easily replaced. It was Clinton's fault that he was sued for sexual harassment. If he couldn't defend the suit and do his job at the same time, he had two options: resign the presidency or step down temporarily under the provisions of Amendment XXV of the Constitution.

Then there's this compelling bit about terrorism:

Mr. Clinton defends his record on terrorism, arguing that he pressed the allies for more of a focus on counterterrorism and citing speeches in which he called terror "the enemy of our generation."

He also notes that in 1996 he signed two directives on terrorism and appointed Richard A. Clarke to be the administration's terrorism coordinator.

That's telling 'em, boy. But I guess bin Laden wasn't listening to Bill's speeches or reading his directives. Osama damn sure wasn't impressed by Dick Clarke.

Whitewater? Oh, that:

[Clinton] explained the sudden appearance of Mrs. Clinton's legal billing records in the White House residence as the product merely of sloppy record-keeping in Arkansas.

Huh?

Finally, we come to the "new, new, new" Clinton:

Mr. Clinton closes the book with a short meditation on the lessons he has learned about accepting personal responsibility, letting go of anger and granting forgiveness. He said that in the many black churches he had visited he had heard funerals referred to as "homegoings."

"We're all going home," he wrote, "and I want to be ready."

Well, he ain't ready yet, as these snippets from the Times article attest:

[the] autobiography...is by turns painfully candid about his personal flaws and gleefully vindictive about what he calls the hypocrisy of his enemies....The book's length gives the former president plenty of room to settle scores, and he does so with his customary elan....He reserved special venom for Kenneth W. Starr....

Of course he did. Starr's determined effort to uphold the rule of law finally resulted in a small measure of justice when Clinton was disbarred by the State of Arkansas and the U.S. Supreme Court. Such is Clinton's "legacy".