The Week

Why did Rep. Jim McDermott go through all the trouble of intercepting Republicans’ phone calls with a scanner, when he could have just looked up the transcripts in their FBI files?

Spectators shivered, the choir sang “Amazing Grace” and “America,” and William Jefferson Clinton was sworn in at the nation’s 53rd presidential inaugural. In a speech which, for all its brevity, was heavy with boilerplate, Mr. Clinton did enounce his political position. “Government is not the problem, and government is not the solution. … We need a government humble enough not to solve all our problems for us, but strong enough to give us the tools to solve our problems for ourselves.” Possession-theories of his political success ignore his characteristic tropism toward a pragmatic-sounding centrism, a spot to the right of left. In practice, Clintonism may be as porous as a colander (what tools? what problems?). But the political counterarguments have to be made. If Clinton’s enemies will not make them, they face a frustrating four years.

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Why did Rep. Jim McDermott go through all the trouble of intercepting Republicans’ phone calls with a scanner, when he could have just looked up the transcripts in their FBI files?

Spectators shivered, the choir sang “Amazing Grace” and “America,” and William Jefferson Clinton was sworn in at the nation’s 53rd presidential inaugural. In a speech which, for all its brevity, was heavy with boilerplate, Mr. Clinton did enounce his political position. “Government is not the problem, and government is not the solution. … We need a government humble enough not to solve all our problems for us, but strong enough to give us the tools to solve our problems for ourselves.” Possession-theories of his political success ignore his characteristic tropism toward a pragmatic-sounding centrism, a spot to the right of left. In practice, Clintonism may be as porous as a colander (what tools? what problems?). But the political counterarguments have to be made. If Clinton’s enemies will not make them, they face a frustrating four years.