Letter to the editor.
I know something about
defending a president who's
been caught lying. Let me tell
my friend Ari Fleischer that
he's only making things worse
for President Bush. After The
Post reported on Mr. Bush's
many fabrications regarding
Iraq and homeland security,
Mr. Fleischer sent a letter to
the editor in which he refers to
President Clinton's false denial
of an affair as a "crime that
shook the nation" [Oct. 24].
The lawyer in me is compelled to point out that President Clinton
has never been charged with nor convicted of a crime. The same
cannot be said of President George W. Bush who, of course, was
convicted of drunken driving many years ago. To his shame, in the
2000 campaign Mr. Bush falsely denied ever having been convicted
of a crime.
The political veteran in me knows that lying about a long-past
drunken driving conviction -- or an affair -- is understandable, if
not excusable. What is not excusable is misleading the country --
repeatedly, as The Post and others have noted -- about going to
war. There is something odd about a White House that thinks
misleading people about sex is a crime, but misleading us about
war is good public policy.
PAUL E. BEGALA
