Tuesday, February 25, 2003

Howie Keeps on Spinning


I'm afraid I disagree. Yes, Whitewater resulted in no charges against the Clintons (though other folks, like Arkansas's governor, were convicted) and the coverage was, in my view, overblown. But the administration did a lot of sleazy things in its '96 fundraising, including courting donors with White House coffees and Lincoln Bedroom sleepovers, and taking money from people who turned out to be crooks and were later convicted. And, of course, Clinton did mislead the country on the Lewinsky matter. Enron is a legitimate story, but there is no evidence that the Bush White House lifted a finger to save Kenny Boy's company from bankruptcy (though its policies have certainly favored the oil industry). So it's important to make distinctions about these things.


I won't even get into the rest of it. But while it is true that the Arkansas governor was convicted, connecting Jim Guy Tucker to Whitewater is like connecting Monica Lewinsky to Whitewater (which, of course, Ken Starr managed to do). I'll let my alter ego Gene Lyons do the talking here:


The indictment had no relationship to Whitewater, Madison Guaranty, or the Clintons. At the time of the allegedly suspect transactions, Tucker was a private businessman and attorney. Longtime political rivals, he and Bill Clinton were closer to being enemies than friends. Every Arkansas reporter knew that. Their mutual dislike had been acknowledged for years. They had never had any private business transactions.


(from Fools for Scandal, and obviously written before Jim Guy Tucker's conviction.)