WASHINGTON — They are back! I speak of the Episodic Apologists
who have been a phenomenon of the Clinton Saga since its earliest
days back when the Clintons were flipping real estate and
exchanging bad checks in Arkansas. The Episodic Apologists, like
the legendary Court Historians of Franklin Roosevelt’s time, are an
essential ingredient of the era in which they labor. The Court
Historians gave us Roosevelt’s “One Hundred Days,” “He Saved Us
From Communism,” and other legends of the 1930s — forget not, “He
Ended the Great Depression.”
The Episodic Apologists are admittedly somewhat different.
Drawn from the ranks of journalists, historians, and politicians,
they have contributed more actively to the soap opera of the
Clinton Saga than mere historians, for they are active participants
in the drama. After every disappointment that the Clintons
perpetrate these saps go into an emotional tailspin: with all their
trembling alases, forsooths, and oh-woe-is-me’s. The Clintons were
reputedly prodigies of public service; before he got caught with
the fat intern, or the Independent Counsel fingered Hillary lying
to the grand jury or scores of other scandals: Travelgate,
Filegate, Bill’s impeachment, the plundering of the White House,
the presidential pardons. Then there was his performance in the
2008 election.
After every major Clintonian scandal the Episodic
Apologists go through their sorry act. The boobs are crestfallen.
They denounce the Clintons in the firmest possible terms — terms
not easily erased from the public record. I have them all on file.
Then slowly, steadily, hope springs anew. Bill is “President of the
World,” according to MSNBC. Or Hillary’s 2010 was a “good year”
claims the Washington Post. Now along comes someone named
Chris Cillizza of the Washington Post to note that all
three Clintons have had their “Best year” in 2011 — “Mental note:
Stop counting out the Clintons,” he writes.
Cillizza brings in the hapless Chelsea who has just signed
a contract with NBC and been widely panned on her first interview.
He praises a “fully rehabilitated” Bill Clinton for his new book,
Back to Work: Why We Need Smart Government for a Strong
Economy, a repudiation of much of what Bill did right in
policy terms during his presidency when the Boy President said “the
era of Big Government is over.” Yet he saves his most sanctimonious
adulation for Hillary who never lied to anyone, never obstructed
justice, and now in 2011 “managed to stay gold” — yes, gold, not
golden. Actually, in foreign policy the problems are multiplying as
she flies around the world — “some 60 trips abroad and nearly
600,000 miles” — in her ineffectual bustling way. This secretary
of state is no Dean Acheson or John Foster Dulles or Henry
Kissinger. She might not even by a Cyrus Vance. She is a frequent
flier without a clue.
This week a day after our last combat troops withdrew from
Iraq the fragile coalition there is falling apart as the
Shiite-dominated government orders the arrest of its Sunni vice
president. North Korea’s tyrannical Kim Jong Il assumes room
temperature, making way for his 28-year-old son, and as John Bolton
says, “in defiance of all logic and history,” the Obama
administration continues to negotiate “food aide for more empty
promises to denuclearize.” Secretary of State Clinton has blundered
in Egypt and Libya and, having prevailed on Morocco to liberalize,
gives the King there no credit while awaiting the Muslim
Brotherhood to warm up to us. The Arab spring has come and gone and
winter is upon us with fewer friends in the area than
before.
Hillary famously tried to “reset” policy with Russia and
now has Vladimir Putin crudely badgering her for supposedly sending
“a signal” to marshal his enemies. Moscow has grown increasingly
authoritarian, committed aggression against the pro-American state
of Georgia, supported our enemies such as Venezuela and Syria and
in response Washington has pulled the plug on American allies
Poland and the Czech Republic for supporting an American missile
defense on their soil.
Then there is Iran. It is fast approaching the status of a
nuclear power. It is as intransigent as ever. It is aiding
terrorists intent on killing Americans. And Secretary of State
Clinton steadfastly insists “we want to see the Iranians engage….
We are not giving up.”
These Episodic Apologists were part of the Clintons’
supporting cast in the 1990s and they were inadvertently a lot of
fun. Now when they encourage Secretary of State Hillary’s
ineptitude in time of war, they are not so amusing.
