When the Burglar episode first broke, recall that Clinton’s explanation for Berger boiled down to the notion that this was just the way that lovable rapscalion ran the National Security Council. “The innocent explanation is the most likely one, particularly given the facts involved,” Clinton assured us. He told a newspaper reporter in Colorado “We were all laughing about it on the way over here.” He continued: “People who don’t know him might find it hard to believe. But … all of us who’ve been in his office have always found him buried beneath papers.”

Well, now that the innocent explanation isn’t the real explanation, presumably someone will assure us that this sort of thing wasn’t standard SOP back in those days.