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Editor's
note: This piece appeared in the New York Post earlier
this week.
 n abandoning pricey
Midtown for Harlem as the site of his
future office, Bill Clinton — formerly known as "America's
first black president" — looks to be morphing into "America's
first white O.J."
Here we have two men who have each been exonerated in one adjudicated
body, yet found their obvious misdeeds exposed in later action —
official and otherwise.
Their cool and hip friends, worshippers and sycophants of years
past have disappeared. It seems only one community willingly accepts
them with no questions asked.
How did it come to this? How has it suddenly turned that the rock-star
lifestyle anticipated for the ex-president may not turn out quite
as planned?
Yes, Hillary Clinton has her book deal and Bill has one in waiting.
But life for last month's undisputed Washington star couple (president
and senator) has veered terribly off-track.
For William Jefferson Clinton, life after the White House was supposed
to be like George Jefferson's — "movin' on up" to that
"deluxe apartment in the sky." He thought he had found his "piece
of the pie" just off Central Park South.
Instead, the self-inflicted humiliations heaped upon the former
first couple have been nonstop: Suspicious pardons — fugitive
financier Marc Rich's being the most egregious — started up
multiple congressional probes (and the i-word being used again);
questionable gifts and furniture have the new senator trying to
explain when she should be trying to announce new legislation; at
$800,000, his prized office space in spitting distance of the Russian
Tea Room was deemed obscenely expensive, and the General Services
Administration refused to approve the rental.
Monday saw insult added to injury: Morgan Stanley's chief executive
admitted in an e-mail to his upscale clients that
| “He
thought he had found his "piece of the pie" just off Central
Park South.” |
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inviting
the former president to give a speech at a Boca Raton conference
was a "mistake." Already, clients of rival Credit Suisse First Boston
are registering complaints over Clinton's appearance set for that
bank's conference later in the month. Worse, the legions of defenders
in the press and Hollywood seem to have run for the hills. High
approval ratings as president aside, Bill Clinton is, like O.J.,
in danger of becoming a pariah in "polite" circles. Thus, like fellow
golfer Simpson, as Clinton's fortunes fade, he seems to have no
where else left to turn, except — what else? — the black
community.
Following the criminal and civil trials examining the deaths of
Nicole Brown Simpson and Ron Goldman, O.J. found that nearly all
of his mostly white celebrity friends abandoned him — as did
corporate America. But lawyer Johnny Cochran's artful use of race
in the criminal trial reconnected Simpson to a black community that
the ex-football jock had, for all intents and purposes, abandoned
during his football, acting and endorsing careers. An almost completely
black jury acquited Simpson in the criminal trial. To this day,
blacks are the only group where a majority believe him to be innocent.
Similarly, blacks almost unanimously backed Clinton through impeachment
while the rest of America was deeply divided. (That unparalleled
political adoration also helped tighten the presidential race, with
90 percent of black voters thanking Bill one last time by voting
for his vice president, Al Gore.)
Clinton's move to Harlem also helps paper over what could have been
potential stumbles in his relationship with the black community.
While many black elected officials wanted former Atlanta Mayor Maynard
Jackson installed as Democratic National Committee chairman, Clinton's
choice was his own favorite fund-raiser, Terry McAuliffe, who got
the job. On top of that, while in Florida, Clinton went golfing
at an all-white country club. Tsk, tsk. But, hey, all is forgiven
now that the man who lived in the White House has really
"moved on up" — to the de facto capital of Black America.
Who knows? Next time Clinton heads to Florida, perhaps he can compare
notes with O.J. and ask if he can help him do a search of his own
for the "real killers" — of his legacy.
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