On the Right

Bill Clinton has a lot of friends. I have never met him, laid eyes on him only once, at a ceremony to which I was drawn not because the President was speaking, but because the late Sen. Tom Dodd was being celebrated. Yet at Christmas my wife and I had a greeting card from him. How does one parlay a Christmas card into a night in the Lincoln Bedroom? Mr. Clinton’s friendship has to be one of the most prehensile phenomena in modern times: the grip of your hand, if he can manage it, can result in your inclusion in a list of friends he so much esteems he invites them to bunk down at Motel 1600, as the wags began calling the White House early in the week.

It has been bravely reported even by newspapers that urged the President’s reelection that Mr. Clinton was anything but a reluctant player in the hard drive to convert the White House into a mint for producing cash. When, scared to death by the Republican landslide of 1994, an aide sent Mr. Clinton a memorandum recommending presidential “breakfast, lunch, or coffee” for guests who gave to the party or were prospective givers, Mr. Clinton scrawled on the memorandum, “overnight.” And the overnight invitations poured out. So consumed would the President be with his social agenda that the White House staff was warned of the need to cut down on the time consumed in briefing him on national affairs. On the other hand, who knows? H. L. Mencken observed in 1926 that the government hummed along nicely while President Coolidge napped. Perhaps the relative serenity of 1996 derived from the inattention Mr. Clinton paid to national problems.

About the Author

William F. Buckley Jr.

William F. Buckley Jr. founded National Review magazine in 1955.

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Bill Clinton has a lot of friends. I have never met him, laid eyes on him only once, at a ceremony to which I was drawn not because the President was speaking, but because the late Sen. Tom Dodd was being celebrated. Yet at Christmas my wife and I had a greeting card from him. How does one parlay a Christmas card into a night in the Lincoln Bedroom? Mr. Clinton’s friendship has to be one of the most prehensile phenomena in modern times: the grip of your hand, if he can manage it, can result in your inclusion in a list of friends he so much esteems he invites them to bunk down at Motel 1600, as the wags began calling the White House early in the week.

It has been bravely reported even by newspapers that urged the President’s reelection that Mr. Clinton was anything but a reluctant player in the hard drive to convert the White House into a mint for producing cash. When, scared to death by the Republican landslide of 1994, an aide sent Mr. Clinton a memorandum recommending presidential “breakfast, lunch, or coffee” for guests who gave to the party or were prospective givers, Mr. Clinton scrawled on the memorandum, “overnight.” And the overnight invitations poured out. So consumed would the President be with his social agenda that the White House staff was warned of the need to cut down on the time consumed in briefing him on national affairs. On the other hand, who knows? H. L. Mencken observed in 1926 that the government hummed along nicely while President Coolidge napped. Perhaps the relative serenity of 1996 derived from the inattention Mr. Clinton paid to national problems.