To the Editor:
Lynn Chu’s article [“What Did the Clintons Know & When Did They Know It?,” March] was a very good summary of the Whitewater scandal, but since its publication many more details have come out—enough to make it possible that Bill Clinton will not last out his term in office.
The Clintons have always had a shallow core constituency. They have no reliable agenda. They have shown a pattern of betraying lifelong friends. Unlike Ronald Reagan or even Lyndon Johnson, who was a power before becoming President, the Clintons have no reservoir of good faith. They have no safety net.
Clinton became President in a three-man race by running as a “New Democrat” and pulling unusually strong support from the business community. Coming from Arkansas, he was never the darling of liberals. He did get liberal support because he promised that, if he were elected, the country would get a “two-for”—Hillary would be his partner. Hillary was the great hope of the feminists, minorities, and gays. To further shore up liberal support while he was posturing as a moderate, Clinton chose Al Gore as a running mate. (Picking a running mate who is more popular with the core of your party carries grave risks.)
Hillary and Gore, in their respective ways, are key to President Clinton’s future demise—which will be carried out not by conservative Republicans but by liberal Democrats. Despite her skillful performance at her press conference in April, Hillary remains neck-deep in scandal. Her effectiveness as the spear-thrower for liberal causes has been destroyed. Gone are Foster, Nussbaum, Hubbell—her personal appointments. . . .
Now liberals will see they have the chance of a lifetime to get a genuine liberal, unelectable through normal channels, to become President. Gore, the authentic liberal, is on deck. So the important thing to watch from now on is not the Republicans: keep an eye on the liberal media and the Democratic leaders—that is where the action will be.
The following can be expected to make headlines over the next few months:
Once the televised hearings begin, members of the Rose Law Firm, bitter about the Clintons destroying the firm’s image, will eagerly step forward to provide new evidence of wrongdoing. Members of the White House staff, many of whom are young and idealistic, will be served subpoenas, resulting in their having to hire criminal lawyers and pay for them out of their own pockets. (Federal law prohibits pro-bono services to federal employees.) They, too, will be a ripe source of sordid details. The friends of Bill and Hillary, many of whom benefited, participated, and/or witnessed a pattern of corrupt practices over many years, . . . will become another source of leaks and information and, of course, be the subject of numerous subpoenas and grand-jury appearances.
Once the hearings get going, they will be difficult to stop, and all the questions raised by Lynn Chu will surface again, as the special prosecutor’s investigation moves forward. The Democrats will feel increasingly threatened facing this November’s elections. A Democrat has not won a major governor’s or mayor’s race since Clinton was elected. . . .
Richard Nixon resigned when the Republican leadership walked into the White House and told him he had lost all credibility. The next day he was on a chopper—phlebitis and all.
Some day, sooner than November 1996, the Democratic leadership will take the walk to the White House. The precedent has been set. . . .
Herbert Watson
New York City
