Rodent Regatta

Clinton’s book about Clinton apparently is selling well. Drugs sell well. Divorce lawyers have little trouble selling their services. Things that sell well aren’t always good things.

In the noise level again rising around Clinton and his book, pundits are going out of the way to recast the legacy Clinton left us. If you need to separate signal from noise or to recalibrate your right-from-wrong sensors, take a look at Ken Starr’s factual and brief discussion of what really happened while Clinton was lying to a Federal Grand Jury. It ran in Thursday’s Wall Street Journal and you may need a subscription to read all of it.

Here’s an excerpt:

Mr. Clinton glosses over this enduring lesson about the role of the independent counsel, as well as sliding by many of the investigation’s undisputed findings. His epic-length reflections sweep aside not only the flinty facts, but the vital importance of history and tradition in our constitutional architecture. That impoverishment in the presentation reinforces the unfortunate sense that only personalities and (alleged) motivations count in modern public life, when in truth, it is the integrity of ideas and principles that have lasting consequences.

Mr. Kenneth W. Starr
My Job
The Wall Street Journal
July 8, 2004