This is not an attack on Josh Marshall, for whom I have a lot of respect. But I want to take a look at his ruminations about Bill Clinton because I find them extremely telling. Marshall’s column is a kind of inner dialogue about his feelings about the Big Dog. As such, most of it isn’t up for debate…if that is how Marshall feels, then that is how he feels. What’s interesting is that he feels the way he does.
For starters, let’s skip down to near the end of his column:
With the exception of a few days in early January I’ve gone on the assumption for many months that Hillary Clinton will be the Democratic nominee.
Almost every major blogger has been operating under the same assumption, and that has, overall, had a crippling effect on the blogosphere’s ability to take an honest look at both the Clintons and the Clinton campaign. It’s a combination of not wanting to injure the eventual nominee and not wanting to get on the wrong side of power. In all my time blogging, nothing has frustrated me more than this sudden cowardice on the part of so many of my colleagues. But Marshall isn’t a coward. Marshall genuinely likes the Clintons.
To give you some perspective, I don’t think there are many people who are bigger fans of Bill Clinton than I am or who’ve expended more ink defending him and his presidency…
…If the constitution allowed it, I’d happily have [Bill] Clinton back. I’d happily have Hillary in his place. But I don’t want them both.
Here is where Marshall and I differ. The only ink I ever spent defending Bill Clinton was in email during l’affaire Lewisnky and I deeply resented having to lower myself to defend what I thought was a higher principle. I celebrated like crazy on election night in 1992. Twelve years of Republican rule had left a feeling of suffocation and, watching Clinton and Gore celebrating their victory, I felt like for the first time in forever I could breath again. The Clintons immediately provided something even more suffocating…Republican control of both Houses of Congress. But it was the fundraising scandals of 1996 that permanently alienated me from the Clintons. They did not get my vote in 1996 and I went to work for Bill Bradley to make sure that Al Gore didn’t continue the Clinton legacy.
Don’t get me wrong. I deeply resented the way the Republicans libeled and slandered the Clintons, and I couldn’t believe how hostile the press coverage was. The spectacle did engender some defensiveness. And I constantly marveled about Bill Clinton’s ability to communicate. The Clintons’ dishonesty, corruption, and, yes, tawdriness, paled in comparison with their political opponents. Nevertheless, defending the Clintons was an exhausting and ultimately unrewarding exercise. For those that defended him against the Lewinsky allegations (before he confessed), it was humiliating. The only thing that maintained any sense of good will towards the Clintons was the despicable tactics of their foes.
Somehow none of these feelings seem to shared by Marshall, whose opinion of Clinton seems to be slipping for the first time.
My relationship with Bill Clinton is as a member of the party that he is, as I’ve said, the leader of or at least the most revered elder statesman of. And I feel like he’s violating the compact that I have with him.
For me, that is like observing a bizarro world. Bill Clinton violated his compact with me repeatedly, both when he was president and, particularly, after he left office. When he reacted to the stunning losses of 1994 by hiring Dick Morris and violating every campaign finance law known to man, he violated his compact. When he forced me to defend obstruction of justice as, yes bad, but not impeachable, he violated his compact. When he decided to abandon leadership and befriend Poppy Bush (compare his actions to those of Al Gore) he violated his compact.
His campaign tactics over the last month are not some kind of break with the past and certainly no revelation. This is just a continuation of the broken compact I’ve had with Bill Clinton for over a decade.
As I look around, I am often stunned to see who is supporting the Clinton restoration. What’s becoming clear to me is that a lot of people never felt like the Clintons had violated their trust. They are only now coming to grips with the ugly face of Clintonism, and the scales are falling from their eyes. Even now, Marshall cannot make a complete break.
The presidency is a singular job. It should stay that way. And it’s precisely because I’m looking forward to supporting her if she is the nominee that I hate seeing her being overshadowed by her spouse and having her husband bigfoot the process which diminishes her and makes me think her presidency could be a 4 year soap opera where Bill won’t shut up and let her have a shot at doing the job.
You can see him struggling. After all, as he says, “I don’t think there are many people who are bigger fans of Bill Clinton than I am or who’ve expended more ink defending him and his presidency.” It’s hard to let go. But I can sense that Clinton’s comments last night, comparing Obama’s victory to Jesse Jackson’s have pushed Marshall to the brink. It’s creating a cognitive dissonance, as he comes to the realization that his own sense of ethics has been irreparably violated. Not so for me. I never expected anything better from Bill Clinton. I lost my respect for him and, more importantly, my trust in him, a long, long time ago.
