<Perhaps the disparity in reportage which you decry stems from the plain and simple fact that Whitewater was much ado about exactly nothing - while Enron is by all accounts the largest bankruptcy in U.S. history.

Remember that the $63 billion in assets reported during the bankruptcy filing were from the 10-Q filed on 11/19/2001. How much of this is real money remains to be seen. If, like everyone is saying, the company was pretending to be worth something while it was really worth nothing, then it won't be a very large bankruptcy at all.

As for Whitewater being about nothing...

The Whitewater investigation resulted in the conviction of 12 defendants, including a former governor of Arkansas, and Susan McDougal, who all but stapled her own mouth shut to keep from saying anything to incriminate Clinton. Perhaps some people, on both sides of the aisle, think that the investigation was a waste of time and money since the Clintons were not convicted.

It's worth remembering that the Iran-Contra investigation took seven years and $50 million. How many convictions did they get? I don't remember any at all, at least any that weren't overturned in other courts (North and Poindexter.)

Did the Clintons skate? Sure they did. They were careful people. Does anyone doubt for an instant that if Monica had not had that DNA-soaked dress that Clinton would have denied her statements until the end of time, and Monica would have ended up in the same political loony bin occupied by Juanita Broaddrick and so many other women who have complained about Clinton's behavior?

Do you judge people by their behavior or by how many convictions are under their belt? I can think of a LOT of people who are sleazebags who have never faced a judge in court at all.

In my opinion, this open letter, written in 1998 by Eric Jowers, a retired Army officer from Alabama, pretty much says it all:

Dear Mr. President:



It’s not about sex. If it were, you would be gone.

Like a principal or teacher who had sex with a student teacher half his age at his desk during school hours, you would be long gone. Or, just like Army Sergeant Major Gene McKinney, while found not guilty, was forced to resign amid accusations of sexual abuse.

Remember the Air Force general you refused to nominate as chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff because he admitted an affair 15 years before while separated from his wife? Unlike you, he wasn’t accused of having a starry-eyed intern my daughter’s age perform oral sex on him while on the phone and with his wife and daughter upstairs.

If it were about sex, you should be subjected to the same horrible hearings Clarence Thomas was because of Anita Hill’s accusations. He was accused of only talking dirty to her. He didn’t leave semen stains on her dress.

No, it isn’t about sex. It’s about character, lying, arrogance and abuse of power.

It’s about dodging the draft. When it came up in the campaign, you concocted a story nobody believed, but we excused you and looked away.

It’s about smoking dope. “I didn’t inhale,” you said. Sure, and when I was 15 my buddies and I swiped some beer from an unwatched refrigerator. We drank it but didn’t swallow. “I broke no laws of the United States,” you said. Right. I guess you smoked it overseas where you were demonstrating against the USA. Nobody believed you, but we excused it and looked away.

It’s about selling overnight stays in the White House to any contributor with untraceable cash.

It’s about Whitewater, Jim and Susan McDougal, Arkansas former-Gov. Jim Guy Tucker, Vince Foster, Gennifer Flowers, Paula Jones, Kathleen Willey and countless others. It’s about removing records from Foster’s office while his body was still warm and “not noticing them” in your bedroom for two years.

It’s about illegal political contributions. It’s about soliciting contributions and selling influence at Buddhist temples and in the same White House where Lincoln and FDR led their country through the dark days of wars that threatened our nation. But we excused you and looked away.

It’s about hiding evidence from Ken Starr, refusing to testify, filing legal motions, coaching witnesses, obstructing justice and delaying Judge Starr’s inquiry for months and years, then complaining that it has gone on too long. Thank goodness, Starr didn’t excuse you or look away. He held on like a tenacious bulldog.

Your supporters say you’ve confessed and asked forgiveness. A confession in the face of overwhelming evidence isn’t a confession at all. And you certainly didn’t apologize. Not that it would matter. A confessed murderer is still a murderer. When your “confession” didn’t sell, even to your friends, you became more forthcoming, but you’ve misled us too much already. Voters can’t believe what you say, and neither can your cabinet, Congress or world leaders.

When a leader’s actions defame and emasculate our country as profoundly as yours have, it is no longer a personal matter among you, your family and your God.

I don’t believe Hillary was unaware of your sexual misadventures, abuses of power and pattern of lying. I believe she has been a party to your wrongdoings since long before Whitewater and Gennifer Flowers. Why? So she could share in the raw power your office carries. You two probably lied to Chelsea, but that is a matter among you, your family and God.

Remember the sign on James Carville's desk in the 1992 campaign? It said, “It’s the economy, stupid!” Put this sign over your desk: “It’s about character, stupid!”

No, it’s not about sex. It’s about character.

But we must live with your lies and arrogance a while longer. Your amorality and lack of character have been as pervasive as they have been despicable, and we have no reason to believe you’ll resign and go away. You’ll count on half-truths, attack dogs and spin doctors to see you through, the country be damned. You think we’ll excuse you and look the other way.

No more. We’ve had enough.

When every parent, grandparent, uncle, aunt, teacher, minister, elected official and diplomat has to apologize for your actions, you’ve lost all moral authority and the right to lead.

Now go away and let us show everybody that our country was not without morals; only you were. Let us show them America wasn’t the problem; William Jefferson Clinton was.

Go away, Mr. President. Leave us alone.

And when you leave, know that your legacy to the USA will be a stain on the office of president that is as filthy as that on Monica’s dress. It will take a lot of scrubbing to make it clean again, and you’re not qualified for the job.



* * *

Integrity has an exact meaning. It is the description of a person's character that declares that he is a single unit, that his convictions and principles extend across every aspect of his life.

The example I have used in the past is that of the convenience store. You are shopping at a 7-11 and see the president of your bank there, the bank where you keep all your money. The bank president, not realizing you are watching him, picks up a small, ten-cent candy bar, quickly pockets it, then buys a newspaper and leaves.

Okay, what is your gut feeling about keeping your money at that bank? A "modern" thinker, a perceptual thinker, the kind who says "it was only sex," would say that it was only a candy bar, that it has nothing to do with how he does his job as president of a bank, that there has never been any evidence of wrongdoing at his bank job, and that it is stupid to make such a big deal over ten cents when the man deals with millions every day.

A person who believes in the concept of integrity, might come to a different conclusion.

* * *

Update on Clinton's legacy.

I am trying to ignore the man, but am getting a little tired of history being warped out of shape to "rewrite" his presidency.