I Cogitate

Sometimes it pays to look back. It affords the opportunity to see how far we have come, or not. The power brokers of Washington D.C. sure seem to have some peculiar notions...about themselves, their work and their place of record. Let's just say consistency isn't a strong point. You will especially enjoy the indignation expressed by Joe Lie-berman (Ind. - Bagdad), Chris Matthews David Broder and the like.

I will not defend Clinton's behavior. The point is why no rising chorus of fury directed towards George W. Bush by these same insiders? He has lied repeatedly to the country, started a war with no end, broken the military, politicized every function and area of government he could get away with (so far), bankrupted America, let down wounded and maimed vets,  yada, yada, yada and yet...nothing even approximating the anger directed at Clinton. Again, them is some values.

F. Scott Fitzgerald was right with his line about the wealthy: "...the rich they are different from you and me" but he failed to include the powerful. They have an odd sense of proportion.

I am so glad that Lie-berman is working ever so hard to get to the bottom of the uncountable Bush scandals because his "What is troubling is the deceit, the failure to own up to it. Before this is over the truth must be told" admonition towards Clinton is oh so applicable. Lie-berman's self-professed righteousness is yet example  #542786 that there's no 'there' there with him. He's a huff and puff surface skimmer lacking depth or conviction -- just what official D.C. loves -- decorum above all else.

In Washington, That Letdown Feeling
Sally Quinn
Washington Post
November 2, 1998

"This beautiful capital," President Clinton said in his first inaugural address, "is often a place of intrigue and calculation. Powerful people maneuver for position and worry endlessly about who is in and who is out, who is up and who is down, forgetting those people whose toil and sweat sends us here and pays our way." With that, the new president sent a clear challenge to an already suspicious Washington Establishment...

...But this particular community happens to be in the nation's capital. And the people in it are the so-called Beltway Insiders -- the high-level members of Congress, policymakers, lawyers, military brass, diplomats and journalists who have a proprietary interest in Washington and identify with it.

They call the capital city their "town."

And their town has been turned upside down...

...1. THIS IS THEIR HOME. This is where they spend their lives, raise their families, participate in community activities, take pride in their surroundings. They feel Washington has been brought into disrepute by the actions of the president.

"It's much more personal here," says pollster Geoff Garin. "This is an affront to their world. It affects the dignity of the place where they live and work. . . . Clinton's behavior is unacceptable. If they did this at the local Elks Club hall in some other community it would be a big cause for concern."

"He came in here and he trashed the place," says Washington Post columnist David Broder, "and it's not his place..."
 
...Just as many men are angry that Clinton's actions inspire the reaction "All men are like that," Washingtonians can't abide it that the rest of the country might think everyone here cheats and lies and abuses his subordinates the way the president has...

...This is our town," says Sen. Joe Lieberman of Connecticut, the first Democrat to forcefully condemn the president's behavior. "We spend our lives involved in talking about, dealing with, working in government. It has reminded everybody what matters to them. You are embarrassed about what Bill Clinton's behavior says about the White House, the presidency, the government in general..."

...2. THE LYING OFFENDS THEM. For both politicians and journalists, trust is the coin of the realm. Without trust, the system breaks down.

"We have our own set of village rules," says David Gergen, editor at large at U.S. News & World Report, who worked for both the Reagan and Clinton White House. "Sex did not violate those rules. The deep and searing violation took place when he not only lied to the country, but co-opted his friends and lied to them. That is one on which people choke.

"We all live together, we have a sense of community, there's a small-town quality here. We all understand we do certain things, we make certain compromises. But when you have gone over the line, you won't bring others into it. That is a cardinal rule of the village. You don't foul the nest."

"This is a contractual city," says Chris Matthews, who once was a top aide to the late Speaker of the House Thomas P. "Tip" O'Neill. "There are no factories here. What we make are deals. It's a city based on bonds made and kept." The president, he went on, "has broken and shattered contracts publicly and shamefully. He violates the trust at the highest level of politics. Matthews, now a Washington columnist for the San Francisco Examiner and host of CNBC's "Hardball," also says, "There has to be a functional trust by reporters of the person they're covering. Clinton lies knowing that you know he's lying. It's brutal and it subjugates the person who's being lied to. I resent deeply being constantly lied to..."

..."His behavior," says Lieberman, "is so over the edge. What is troubling is the deceit, the failure to own up to it. Before this is over the truth must be told."

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