Sharp Words

Sharpton on Clinton: doesn’t know if he can “regain the trust of the American public”; Monica lie worse than Brawley affair; Jackson’s support “ironic”

In an interview with NR in his Harlem offices, Al Sharpton-of all people--joined the list of Democrats who are dumping on President Clinton. Sharpton says he finds it ironic that his good friend Jesse Jackson is now the one offering solace to the President.

“I feel there’s tremendous irony that Reverend Jackson, who Clinton, in the judgment of me and others, took a cheap shot at with the Sistah Souljah affair at our convention,” Sharpton says. “The people that advised him to use Reverend Jackson to, in my judgment, appeal to some race-based votes are the ones on TV talking about how they were betrayed by him and think he ought to step aside. And Reverend Jackson, who he dissed so to speak, is the one trying to give some comfort to his family. If that’s not one of the great political ironies of our time I don’t know what is.”

Sharpton doesn’t say Clinton should resign but thinks he might be finished anyway. “I don’t know if Mr. Clinton did something impeachable,” Sharpton says. “But I don’t know that he can regain the trust of the American public.” Sharpton then compared the president’s predicament to his own role in the Tawana Brawley controversy. It’s a sign of how bad things are for the President that he comes out poorly in the comparison.

“All public figures are called into question,” Sharpton says. “It’s one thing for me to say I believed Tawana Brawley. It’s another thing for me to say I didn’t do something myself. That’s the problem with Clinton. There’s no third party here. We can argue til I die whether I should have believed Tawana Brawley. That’s not the case with Bill Clinton. Mr. Clinton was the person in the room. He’s not talking about whether he believes something that was told to him.”

Chumps
They've had a whole week to do it, but not a single member of the Clinton administration has resigned in protest over the President's serial lying and perjury. There are certainly those, such as Secretary of State Madeleine Albright and Secretary of Defense William Cohen, who can probably convince themselves that their jobs are too important right now to abandon, even in the face of presidential misdeeds. Surrogate liars like Paul Begala don't have this excuse; their sole duty over the last seven months has been to propagate falsehoods. Their entire portfolio of responsibility has been to protect Clinton from those who would make him tell the truth, and to utter the most bitter invectives against decent people.

But isn't there somebody in the vastness of the executive branch who feels deeply embarrassed by maintaining an association with the Liar-in-Chief? Is there not even a single deputy assistant secretary for something-or-other who feels compromised working beneath a man with such a contemptible disregard for honesty and propriety?

Apparently not, or we would have heard about it by now.

Down For The Count
Census sampling for the purpose of Congressional apportionment is illegal, said a federal court on Monday (8/24). The Clinton administration won't be able to run the 2000 Census like a political opinion poll and create the demographic characteristics of 27 million Americans through complicated statistical techniques. That's great news for House Republicans, who worry that sampling is so vulnerable to Democratic political shenanigans that it could cost them their majority following reapportionment in the next decade.

The case almost certainly will be appealed to the Supreme Court, but Monday's surprise ruling--few Republicans sincerely believed the courts would save them from this political conundrum--throws the Democrats on the defensive for the first time since the sampling debate began.

Kudos to Matthew J. Glavin, president of the Atlanta-based Southeastern Legal Foundation, who filed one of the two key lawsuits that made Monday's legal victory possible.