Letter to a Lame Duck by ZACK NGUYEN Monday, September 11, 2000 FT. WORTH, TX It's been a long time since I've written about the Clintons. After his conviction failed in the Senate, allegations concerning the raping of Juanita Broadderick surfaced, and evidence began to roll in concerning the firesale giveaway of our nuclear secrets to China, so there seemed little else to say. Certainly this lie was put to those who cried during impeachment: "He's a lame duck and can't do anymore harm; just let him go." Au contraire. Clinton has done a great deal of harm. In fact every day he stays in office continues to be a catastrophe for America. There are doubtless many things he has done, both seamy and salacious (and certainly illegal) that we as yet know nothing about, and will know nothing about for several years.

RELATED LINKS... Yahoo! Full Coverage Common Cause Project Vote Smart Road to the White House Al Gore's Site George W. Bush's Site Zogby.com Jump to the FRONT PAGE of... .

It took decades before it was finally revealed that that other paragon of Presidential virtue, John Kennedy, had given tens of thousands of dollars to mafia kingpen Sam Giancana, possibly in connection to massive voter fraud in the 1960 election. Kennedy made the transfer by handing a large bag full of cash to Giancana's girlfriend (with whom Kennedy was also diddling at the time), and telling her to scoot along to Sam's house. Give Kennedy some credit -- Clinton would never have had the stones to make that sort of transaction himself. He would have used one of his lackeys in the West Wing, or perhaps a shadowy Arkansas "FOB". Anyone willing to ruin his own reputation or bankrupt herself with legal fees (or go to prison!) would do -- all for the sake of a President who happily cuts them loose as soon as their purpose has passed. So what has Bill Clinton left behind? His supporters (and there are a great many remaining) would claim that he leaves behind an economy that is cranking at full speed, with near full-employment. When asked how Clinton accomplished this incredible feat, the economic plan of 1993 is invariably mentioned. How Clinton, by raising taxes on a recession-fatigued citizenry (including Social Security taxes on senior citizens), managed to stimulate the economy to near record levels is perhaps unexplainable. It is unexplainable because it is hogwash. The economy was recovering before Bill Clinton took office; and he had nothing at all to do with the tech stock surge in the middle of the decade that has driven the DOW to record levels. Then Clinton flew to Los Angeles for the Democratic Convention, snatching millions of dollars in donations for his "library," money that would have otherwise been given to his Vice President's floundering Presidential campaign. And, in the process, he grabbed days of news headlines (from his heir apparent!) with yet another "confession" that reminds voters all over again why they found Clinton distasteful, not to mention that he was Gore's boss for eight years. In general he is making it next to impossible for the news to focus on anything but him. Al Gore is often delegated to a distant third behind "Hillary!" and Bill's latest publicity hog-fest. Because of this, Clinton is a political liability and is helping Gore lose the election. And he doesn't much care what hurts Gore, except as it relates to him. Just as he doesn't care that, because of him, the Democratic Party has lost the House, the Senate, a majority of Governorships, and numerous state-legislatures. This will result in the redrawing of legislative and Congressional districts in 2002 that will result in Republican domination in dozens of states for years to come. The decimation of the Democratic Party doesn't weigh heavily on Clinton's heart. However, the overwhelming effrontery of millions of voters turning against him, rejecting him personally in a stunning defeat bothers him a great deal. Leading a leftist Democratic Party into the 21st Century never appealed much to him anyway. And when leftism/progressivism lost its electoral allure, he dropped it like a live grenade and was happy to take a sledge hammer to his political base while adopting enough conservative positions (and rhetoric) to grab a few percentage points of the mushy middle in 1996. He did this without electoral risk. Clinton was well aware that the leftist base in the party would tolerate almost anything he did. Clinton enjoys a political advantage that no recent Republican presidential candidate has held: a perpetually enraged political base consumed with hatred for the enemy, but not hung up on principle. Clinton is less a "political genius" than he is the benefactor to a core group of voters who have no qualms about voting for a scoundrel -- because for them the alternative is too horrific to think about. Apparently anything less than 1.2 million abortions per year is simply too great a hardship to stand. The genius of the Clinton "spin machine" is rather overrated as well. Though they deserve credit for being highly motivated and effective, spin is easy if you are willing to lie. Any fool can do that. It is even easier if you have an "opposition" press that is willing to parrot that lie ad nauseum across the country, and is willing to fashion "news reports" that look for all the world like a DNC press release. Every once in a while the truth does come out. In a rather unguarded moment, David Brinkley gave millions of viewers a highly accurate assessment of Bill Clinton. Mr. Brinkley did not know his conversation was being broadcasted nation wide, and began by summing up Clinton's '96 acceptance speech with: "We all look forward with great pleasure to four years of wonderful, inspiring speeches, full of wit, poetry, music, love and affection -- plus more [EXPLETIVE] nonsense...He has not a creative bone in his body. Therefore, he's a bore, and will always be a bore." Though the courtly Mr. Brinkley was terribly embarrassed at his faux pas, there we found more truth than has come out of ABC in a long time, with one exception. Clinton is indeed a boring politician, and he is without a creative bone in his body. He tittilates a few half-wits in the media and the entertainment industry, but if he had not achieved the Presidency, he would have been free to act out his perversions and scams in an lesser office with much fewer consequences to society at large. But because he has achieved the most powerful governmental office on earth, Clinton is a very boring politician that has wreaked havoc upon the American Republic. Clinton's corruption has penetrated our bureaucracy (and our culture) deeply, and woe to his would-be successor, George W. Bush, if he does not rip it out by the roots.

Send your comments to Coffee Shop Times columnist Zack Nguyen.