The Week

The “budget deal” was in the news this week, as if anything the government ever attached either word to, was.

Being a disgraced Clinton official is one of the more lucrative jobs in Washington. It earned Webb Hubbell at least $400,000 and perhaps as much as $1 million in an eight-month period. Was this “hush money” to keep him from cooperating with Ken Starr? No, no, the White House assures us. Defense #1: President Clinton, asked at a January press conference about a Lippo Group payment to Hubbell, said, “We did not know anything about it.” Reality: Lippo honcho James Riady was hanging out with Clinton in the days before the Hubbell arrangement, and with other Clinton associates for whom finding “work” for Hubbell was a favorite pastime. Defense #2: Everyone was just trying to help out an old friend. Reality: Some of those involved in fashioning Hubbell’s golden parachute, like Erskine Bowles-then head of the Small Business Administration, now White House chief of staff-knew him only slightly. (And if the payments were an exercise in compassion, why didn’t the White House brag about them instead of hiding them?) Defense #3: No one at the White House knew Hubbell was in serious trouble with the law, and so there was nothing strange in finding “work” for him. Reality: Two close Clinton associates knew the seriousness of the charges, and in fact worked to persuade the White House that Hubbell needed to resign. Defense #4: There is nothing to hush up. Reality: On another Whitewater front, the Administration is struggling to withhold from investigators the content of two conversations between White House lawyers and Hillary Clinton (who Starr says has changed her sworn testimony over time). What is so unnecessary to hush up that the White House will go to such lengths to keep it secret?

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The “budget deal” was in the news this week, as if anything the government ever attached either word to, was.

Being a disgraced Clinton official is one of the more lucrative jobs in Washington. It earned Webb Hubbell at least $400,000 and perhaps as much as $1 million in an eight-month period. Was this “hush money” to keep him from cooperating with Ken Starr? No, no, the White House assures us. Defense #1: President Clinton, asked at a January press conference about a Lippo Group payment to Hubbell, said, “We did not know anything about it.” Reality: Lippo honcho James Riady was hanging out with Clinton in the days before the Hubbell arrangement, and with other Clinton associates for whom finding “work” for Hubbell was a favorite pastime. Defense #2: Everyone was just trying to help out an old friend. Reality: Some of those involved in fashioning Hubbell’s golden parachute, like Erskine Bowles-then head of the Small Business Administration, now White House chief of staff-knew him only slightly. (And if the payments were an exercise in compassion, why didn’t the White House brag about them instead of hiding them?) Defense #3: No one at the White House knew Hubbell was in serious trouble with the law, and so there was nothing strange in finding “work” for him. Reality: Two close Clinton associates knew the seriousness of the charges, and in fact worked to persuade the White House that Hubbell needed to resign. Defense #4: There is nothing to hush up. Reality: On another Whitewater front, the Administration is struggling to withhold from investigators the content of two conversations between White House lawyers and Hillary Clinton (who Starr says has changed her sworn testimony over time). What is so unnecessary to hush up that the White House will go to such lengths to keep it secret?