Tuesday, June 22, 2004

And the Academy Award Goes To. . . .

Bill Clinton, of that fabulous acting duo of Bill and Hillary.

Before the hoopla surrounding Clinton's new memoir arose this week, I was actually starting to change my opinion of the former president. I began to look back at his accomplishments, and acknowledge, that he was a fairly successful president.

Now however, I am once again reminded why I dislike him so much. Clinton, like his wife, is an egomaniacal, mendacious, Megalomaniac. For a man who could remember absolutely nothing for eight years, he suddenly has an awful lot to say.

Although I have not read the book (and will not waste my time doing so), I have read enough about it to know that it contains nothing revealing, and that if anything it is just another frantic attempt by Clinton to cement his legacy. Clinton does not confront his decision to pardon Mark Rich, a billionaire charged in 1983 with evading $48 million in taxes as well as running illegal oil deals with Iran during the hostage crisis. Rich fled to Switzerland to evade the charges, but essentially bought a pardon with the help of his wife. The pardon was heavily criticized by both Republicans and Democrats.

Clinton also fails to discuss the 1996 funding scandal involving Johnny Chung, a Chinese businessman who used his business connections in China to funnel millions of dollars into Clinton's campaign fund for the 1996 election. In exchange for the money Clinton altered US Arms sales restriction laws to allow US companies to sell China military technology. Democratic senator Joeseph Lieberman later said: "The fundraising scandal of 1996 was a very real tragedy, with very real consequences for our democracy."

Finally, in an attempt to keep up with Hillary, Clinton also compares himself to Nelson Mandela. (Hillary compared her forgiveness of Bill with Mandela's forgiveness of White South Africans). If this does not smack of Megalomania, I do not know what does.

So, for those of you still believing this is the best administration of the century, I leave you with this: his rap sheet.

2 Comments:

At 10:53 PM, Blogger jeff said...

Clinton's rap sheet certainly does point out a lot of things he did wrong that demonstrate poor leadership. I fully understand why you would want to take him off your top 5 presidents list now. Using the same site that had Clinton's rap sheet, I also found several reasons to not like Reagan. You should probably take him off your top 5 list, too.

 
At 12:03 AM, Blogger Arminius said...

True, but as Reagan's sheet points out, the Clinton administration still takes the cake as the most corrupt ever, with almost 50% more convictions.

 

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