Whitewater Runs Deep

FROM UP CLOSE, the collection of scandals labeled Whitewater seems both complex and trivial, like a swarm of dots on a TV screen. But it is neither. With a few exceptions, all the alleged crimes and improprieties fall into four slots: Whitewater Development Corporation and Madison Guaranty S&L (the “piggybank”); the activities of Hillary Clinton and three of her partners at the Rose Law Firm; sex; or cover-ups of the first three. The four-pronged configuration of events reflects one reality: for 14 years, Bill and Hillary Clinton ran with a crummy crowd, nourished in part by state-capital mores, in part by yuppie corner-cutting. They were the Masters of the Universe, Little Rock division. In 1992, the crowd, and its habits, went national.

Some of the alleged misdeeds of the Clintons and their friends are simply sleazy or embarrassing. Some are criminal. On January 20, Janet Reno appointed Robert Fiske as special prosecutor to investigate the matter. But what we learn over the next year or two will depend less on Fiske than on the efforts of Congress and the press, and the curiosity of the public.

About the Author

Richard Brookhiser

Historian Richard Brookhiser is a senior editor of National Review and a senior fellow at the National Review Institute.

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FROM UP CLOSE, the collection of scandals labeled Whitewater seems both complex and trivial, like a swarm of dots on a TV screen. But it is neither. With a few exceptions, all the alleged crimes and improprieties fall into four slots: Whitewater Development Corporation and Madison Guaranty S&L (the “piggybank”); the activities of Hillary Clinton and three of her partners at the Rose Law Firm; sex; or cover-ups of the first three. The four-pronged configuration of events reflects one reality: for 14 years, Bill and Hillary Clinton ran with a crummy crowd, nourished in part by state-capital mores, in part by yuppie corner-cutting. They were the Masters of the Universe, Little Rock division. In 1992, the crowd, and its habits, went national.

Some of the alleged misdeeds of the Clintons and their friends are simply sleazy or embarrassing. Some are criminal. On January 20, Janet Reno appointed Robert Fiske as special prosecutor to investigate the matter. But what we learn over the next year or two will depend less on Fiske than on the efforts of Congress and the press, and the curiosity of the public.