Word: pardon
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What matters most is that in pardoning a fugitive tax cheater who flouted the U.S. judicial system for two decades and who got richer by trading with Iran, Clinton used an absolute power of the office in a way no President had before. U.S. history has seen its share of controversial presidential pardons: Andrew Johnson's of Jefferson Davis fueled his impeachment; Gerald Ford's of Richard Nixon helped cost him his re-election. But while Johnson and Ford paid a price in their time, history has also found larger purposes in those decisions. Even the elder Bush's Christmas...
...pardon without a rationale has demanded too much of those who rallied so dependably for Clinton from Whitewater through Monica. And it has revived the question that has confounded the Clintons' friends all along: How could a couple so attuned to the most subtle political rhythms be so tone-deaf when the issue is their behavior? A great many former allies are sick of trying to figure that...
...been nearly silent as well. "Total disgust," says a former Cabinet secretary, who has canvassed half a dozen others. "They want no part of it. They have had it--with both of them." Congressman Barney Frank, a Clinton stalwart throughout the impeachment scandal, told the Boston Herald the Rich pardon was "just abusive. There are people who forgot where the line was between public service and what was personally convenient for them...
While Clinton maintains he has no regrets for what he did, others have been compelled to say they are sorry for their contribution to the collateral damage: Roger Cardinal Mahony of Los Angeles, for lobbying for Clinton's pardon of a Democratic donor's drug-dealer son; Morgan Stanley chairman Philip J. Purcell, for paying six figures to hear the inaugural address of Clinton's ex-presidency. (Clinton has told friends that Purcell didn't seem to object to the standing ovation Clinton got, or the fact that he shook hands with Morgan Stanley clients for two hours afterward...
...million book deal; Bill is meeting with publishers to discuss his; and HarperCollins announced a new paperback edition of the 15-year-old, out-of-print Metal Men: How Marc Rich Defrauded the Country, Evaded the Law and Became the World's Most Sought-After Corporate Criminal. The pardon spree is also the first Clinton scandal to offer local angles to city editors across the country...