Tim Rollins Photo courtesy of Beth Rollins

In the nearly eight years that Bill Clinton has been President, a lot of things have changed in America, and few of them have been for the better. For a large part of that, we can only blame ourselves in the collective. The economy is sailing smoothly, and most people are too fat, dumb and happy to care, and with few exceptions such as the close of business yesterday, the Dow Jones Industrials have been over 10,000 for the past few years. But there is another side of the story that are only now getting attention in some circles, and that would be the changing attitudes of Americans in many areas – changes that have occurred based directly on Clinton’s behavior.

The FIRST part of Bill Clinton’s legacy is his pathological lying and selective memory losses. Think about the grand jury questioning of Clinton by Independent Counsel Kenneth Starr’s office, during which the President had too many memory losses to keep track of. Or the way he tap-danced around the 81 written questions posed him by House Judiciary Committee Chairman Henry Hyde (R-IL).

The SECOND part of his legacy is having others propagate his lies. This was done by Clinton telling all his Cabinet members go out and tell America that their President was innocent of these "terrible things" that were being said about him. Think of the lying on January 26, 1998, when in the Roosevelt Room of the White House, Clinton said that he "didn’t have sexual relations with that woman, Miss Lewinsky." Well after seven months of hemming and hawing and after finally being forced to fess up, he went on television and admitted that what he did was ‘wrong’.

Take note here that he only admitted wrongdoing, but that he did not apologize – the fact is the only reason he was sorry was because he got caught. Then to get the public’s attention diverted, he bombs an aspirin factory in the Sudan in a scenario right out of the movie "Wag the Dog".

The THIRD part of his legacy is that he has become the only sitting President to be found in contempt of court. Think of the word contempt. You do not say it – you spit it out. Much like the American people will when Clinton finally leaves office – unless he invents a crisis in order to keep his power. This truly has been an imperial presidency in which Clinton seems to have appointed himself king. After the dust settled from the impeachment trial, Judge Susan Webber Wright fined Clinton $90,000 for perjury and contempt of court and has recommended to the Arkansas Supreme Court that Mr. Clinton be disbarred from the practice of law. Clinton has had a string of sexual escapades and scandals. Gennifer Flowers, Paula Jones, Kathleen Willey, Paula Ward Gracen – and those are just the ones that we know about. In addition, Clinton paid out nearly a million dollars in damages to Paula Jones in an out-of-court settlement of her claim.

As for Clinton’s ways with women: They could best be described in the words a friend of mine in Delaware who describes Slick Willie as a satyr - which is a male nymphomaniac. To make matters worse, Clinton is alleged to have brutally raped Juanita Broaddrick in Arkansas in 1978, which I believe is the year before his daughter Chelsea was born. The man is a predator in every sense of the word. He destroys everything in his path, and Hillary is a carbon copy in too many ways. When our youth and young adults see the President get away with anything and everything, they feel that they can take larger chances too and have a greater chance of escaping the consequences of their misconduct and irresponsible behavior.

The FOURTH part of his legacy comes out in the form of a recent survey completed in California said that 78 percent of high school students cheated on exams and that 25 percent of young people would lie in order to get a job. This behavior is indicative of a diminishing sense of personal honor and integrity, and it shows no sign of letting up anytime soon.

The FIFTH part of Clinton’s legacy shows up in an article in the Albuquerque (New Mexico) Journal for October 14th in which Chief U.S. District Court Judge James Parker told prosecutors that it was unfair to go for a severe prison term for a perjurer they were prosecuting. He used Bill Clinton as a precedent in that Clinton is asking the Arkansas Supreme Court to be lenient on him and show him mercy, and as such, the prosecutors should cut this guy some slack as well.

The SIXTH part of Clinton’s legacy is that vows and promises do mean anything. Take a closer look at Bill and Hillary. Theirs seems to be marriage of political convenience for the mutual gain and advantage of one another. One cannot help that all the womanizing over the years is going to catch up with him on January 21, 2001 – the day after he leaves office. Such would be an excellent time to serve him with divorce papers, and such action would not be totally unexpected.

So when you get right down to it, we are left with but one question: What will be Clinton’s real legacy – his gutting of our military forces and their combat readiness? His failure to be a suitable role model? His inability to keep promises to anyone but himself? Will it be his failure to achieve peace in the Middle East or when all is said and done, will it just be the stain on Monica Lewinsky’s dress?

You decide.

• File photo courtesy of Greg Gibson of the Associated Press.

Copyright © 2000 by Timothy Rollins.
All Rights Reserved.

-Published with permission