Wednesday, June 09, 2004

Presidential Values

My local paper, apparently unable to bear any longer the outpouring of adulation for President Reagan, today ran a front-page article on his failings as a father. The headline, "Reagan championed family values, but had complicated relationships with his own children," all but accuses the late president of moral hypocrisy. Now, how are Mr. Reagan's supposed parental shortcomings related to his accomplishments as a president? They're not, as far as I can see. But the liberal press simply cannot stand by and let Mr. Reagan pass into history unsullied.

If Mr. Reagan's personal life is irrelevant to his performance as president, why was there all that fuss about Bill Clinton's extra-curricular activities with Monica Lewinsky? Democrats persist in saying that the impeachment of Clinton was "just about sex." But it wasn't.

Clinton was impeached for lying under oath before a federal grand jury and for obstructing justice in the Paula Jones case. Whatever Jones may have said publicly after she settled her suit against Clinton, she had nevertheless chosen freely to sue him. Her suit became a federal case, under the laws that Clinton had sworn implicitly to uphold in his capacity as president.

Oh, but Clinton wasn't guilty because the Senate didn't convict him on any of the articles of impeachment. Wrong! Clinton was guilty, but he wasn't convicted because Democrats -- to a man and woman -- effectively refused to hear the evidence. They had made it clear from the beginning that the trial would be a farce. And it was. Some Republican senators, knowing that Clinton couldn't be convicted, chose to vote "not guilty" out of political expediency. Clinton would have been convicted if Democrats had acted in good faith.

If you need more evidence of Clinton's guilt than the articles of impeachment, consider this: In the aftermath of the impeachment trial, Clinton was disbarred in his home State of Arkansas and by the U.S. Supreme Court.

Now, tell me why the media must flaunt Mr. Reagan's purported failings as a father.