Move On, Al

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Move On, Al
by Linda A. Prussen-Razzano

Despite my current political disposition, at the beginning of the Clinton Administration I did not wish the President any ill will. I was a moderate Democrat then, only three days away from voting for him myself, when I found I could no longer tolerate the half-truths coming from his camp. Not satisfied with Bush and no longer comfortable with Clinton, I voted 3^rd party for the first time and threw my lot in with Perot.

Nevertheless, when Clinton won, I had high hopes for his presidency. No one who truly loves their country hopes for a disastrous President; what hurts the office of the President inevitably hurts the country as a whole. Because of the truth shading and spin during the campaign season, I did not afford Clinton the same high level of optimistic trust I might have afforded another individual, but I did apportion some and waited for his term to unfold. If you look back, you can judge for yourself how much trust, if any, you afforded him, too.

It is this gift of faith, made on the part of the American people, which he squandered flagrantly. Whether through deliberate maliciousness, blind ambition, or gross stupidity, the Administration took steps that damaged the lives, careers, reputations, and security of innocent Americans in all areas of public service. One scandal eventually lead to another, sometimes with several running concurrently. Surrounded by loyal enablers, riding high on an economic boon, and pandered to by a slavishly favorable media, the Administration’s scandals were often trivialized and its "initiatives," real or in theory only, were trumpeted loudly.

When the 1996 season came to a close, America was divided into several groups of people. First were those who never afforded Clinton any trust and who pointed towards the scandals as validation for their disgust. Next were folks like myself, who afforded him some trust only to have him overdraw on the account. Then came the folks who, either knowing all about the scandals and not caring, or not knowing and not caring, still held him in high regard. Finally, there were those who saw him as the victim of an endless vindictive crusade and trusted him implicitly.

Having expended almost all the funds in his "public trust account," the President relied on credibility loans from friends and supporters to win back independents and disgusted Democrats. His biggest loan came from Al Gore who, at that time, was still relatively unscathed. One might haven taken issue with his political positions or the changes he made in them, but as an individual Gore was still clean enough that his dead pan "macarana" joke drew genuine belly laughs, even from me. Clinton squandered their loans, too, and then burned the IOUs in front of them.

Democrats are no longer laughing.

In the last few weeks, several ghosts have come back to haunt the Administration. Even though the Independent Counsel’s office told Americans to "move on," that there was no evidence of unlawful activities against the Travel Office employees, the report also made it clear that Hillary Clinton is as unfamiliar with truthful testimony as her husband. Even though the White House told Americans to "move on," that there was no evidence of unlawful activities at Waco, the surviving Branch Davidians are moving ahead with their lawsuit. Even though the Justice Department told Americans to "move on," stating that there was no evidence of unlawful malfeasance in the 1996 campaign fund-raising season, Al Gore’s Buddhist temple tryst is again under investigation. Even though Bill Richardson told Americans to "move on," that all the breaches of security had been sealed at the labs, nuclear secrets are still ridiculously accessible to unauthorized personnel. Even though Janet Reno told Americans to "move on," Elian is going back to Cuba where he belongs, a sentiment of incredulity still lingers in the Cuban-American community.

News reports on the latest polls suggest the Gore camp should be concerned. "Clinton Fatigue," as it has been popularly termed, has taken hold. While pundits and talking heads like to speculate that gas prices or a cooling of the economy are to blame for Gore’s poor poll numbers, they are ignoring the bigger picture. An ever-expanding portion of Americans might not understand all the details of every Clinton scandal, but they are now so sick and tired of the word "scandal" even a whiff of it makes them groan in dismay. Al Gore, who at one time was cemented to Clinton’s side, is now vainly trying to distance himself from the White House’s stench.

For seven and a half years, any time Americans protested against the smell of impropriety, ignorance, negligence, maliciousness, or destructive machinations, the Administration told them to "move on." Recent news reports suggest that Americans are tired of moving on, of hurrying downwind to escape the odor or pretending everything is wonderful when inside they know it’s not.

If this is the case, someone will definitely be moving on…Alpha Male or not.