It's Still About Clinton

The durability of Bill Clinton as a Republican scapegoat is one of the marvels of our age. Republicans felt acute separation anxiety when Clinton's term ended, but their fears proved groundless: He may have left the White House, but he had not left the front page or the consciousness of those who regarded him as the model of what not to be.

He surfaced at the White House recently when presidential spokesman Ari Fleischer tried to blame him for the intensified violence in the Middle East. He called Clinton's vigorous, persistent intervention "an attempt to shoot the moon . . . an attempt to push the parties beyond where they were willing to go . . . [which] led to expectations that were raised to such a high level that it turned into violence."

Even some of the Bush inner circle -- from whom Fleischer may have overheard such chat -- recognized this as "shooting the moon" in Clinton criticism; Fleischer took it back. Not long after, demonstrating his versatility as a target for tsk-tsking, Clinton was again under fire -- a new and "final" report from the independent counsel, Robert Ray. It was yet another recounting of the sordid, twice-told tale of the president and the intern, Monica Lewinsky, supposedly spruced up by Ray's contention that he could have indicted Clinton, which was stipulated by Clinton's exit statement. Almost simultaneously, Lewinsky appeared on an HBO special that showed her shaking her hair out of her face and trying to "clear up some misconceptions." It was another step in her ceaseless quest for "privacy," which we must assume will go on.