Whitewater Under the Bridge

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Whitewater Under the Bridge
by James Hall, Associate Editor

March 19, 2002

"Leaning Left"

James Hall At $73 million plus spent, the Starr/Ray Whitewater Report becomes -- in the words of Clinton attorney David Kendall--"the most expensive exoneration in history." 'Lack of evidence' and 'insufficient evidence'--meaning no evidence at all -- forced IC Robert Ray to abandon any efforts to charge either Bill or Hilary Clinton with a crime after eight years of investigation. Ray was forced to come to conclusions that the Clintons "should have known" that something was wrong with their investments and made statements "factually inaccurate."

Most Americans had already realized this outcome and have moved on with their lives, but for the legions of Clinton-haters, congregating like torch-bearing peasants around Frankenstein's Castle, the news poured cold water over burning hopes--yes, the monsters will escape to live happily ever after.

The hatred that these people feel goes far beyond Clinton's admission of perjury in the Paula Jones civil lawsuit, the Lewinsky affair, or the game of hide and seek that the Clintons played with their opponents on the right. Personal conduct aside, Americans elected Bill Clinton to presidential office twice and New Yorkers elected Hilary Clinton to the Senate. Conservatives never could understand that Bill Clinton's personal conduct or Hilary's style never diminished their ability to do a good job of representing their constituents' interests.

The Clinton-haters should have known what most of us already knew--that the Whitewater investigation was always political from start to finish. It was a case trumped up and kept alive by George H. W. Bush's Justice Department during the 1991 presidential campaign against Clinton, shuttled to 'Independent' Counsel Ken Starr (Currently working on the Republican Party's legal effort to overturn McCain-Feingold campaign finance reform in court.), and finally to 'Independent' Counsel Robert Ray, who left the OIC to file for the Republican primary for Robert Torricelli's US Senate seat in New Jersey. The OIC was full of Republican lawyers who have since gone on to work for the new Bush administration and the RNC.

Nothing near the $73 million spent would have been authorized for any normal investigation of financial misconduct. But this was not an ordinary investigation. In its early days, it was intended to derail candidate Clinton's growing momentum in the 1992 Presidential campaign.

Once Clinton became president, the investigation was continued as a way to weaken and preoccupy him during his first and second administrations, and a way to force him out of office. This they were unable to do, and so it's no surprise that as Clinton's term of office came to a conclusion, the Whitewater investigation did too.

While criticizing the moral tone of the Clinton years, the Bush administration has not failed to pay close attention to their methods, applying Clintonian "triangulation" to topics like education, stem cell research, and campaign finance reform, and maintaining fidelity to the primary Clinton Doctrine--"It's the Economy, Stupid." The Bush people have made the same power grab for the center that Clinton did, though the jury's still out on whether or not it will work for them. Genuine Clinton-haters, who eschew truth to thrive on rumor and innuendo, will likely continue to try and keep alive the sacred memory of Whitewater. But the Republican political operatives who started and orchestrated the Whitewater investigation have moved on to new political campaigns and new political targets. It's all whitewater under the bridge, now. ***

Photo of the author courtesy of staff files