■ A check of our records reveals that Robert Hanssen, the apparent FBI straight arrow and accused spy, took out a subscription to NATIONAL REVIEW soon after his espionage allegedly began. We are sorry whenever our arguments fail to convince a reader, though we are glad that reading them is taken to be a sign of patriotism.
■ In an extraordinary New York Times Op-Ed piece, Bill Clinton attempted to explain why he pardoned fugitive tax- evader and traitor Marc Rich. Clinton regurgitated the arguments made to him by Jack Quinn, the former White House counsel who represents Rich: the charges were excessive, two respected tax experts said Rich did nothing wrong, etc. None of it washed. Answering the ex-president in the Washington Post, Rich prosecutor Morris Weinberg cited the dozens of witnesses who would have testified in detail about Rich’s financial wrongdoing. Weinberg also pointed out that the two tax experts who exonerated Rich were hired by none other than Marc Rich himself. And then there was Clinton’s biggest whopper of all. “The case for the pardons,” Clinton wrote, “was reviewed and advocated … by three distinguished Republican attorneys.” As it turned out, none of the “distinguished Republicans” reviewed or advocated the pardon case. And now the scandal has expanded to include the pardons of Glenn Braswell and Carlos Vignali, among others. Clinton’s spin on those? Maybe he’ll tell us in the Times.
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