The Clinton Meltdown: Half Bright

IT was the domestic version of a fatal diplomatic faux pas: Secretary of State Madeleine Albright stood outside the West Wing of the White House on January 23, a few minutes after President Clinton had lied to her and the rest of his Cabinet about his relationship with Monica Lewinsky. “I believe that the allegations are completely untrue,” declared Mrs. Albright. Seven months later, with President Clinton begging the nation for its forgiveness, his loyal surrogate could not summon the kind of tough talk she routinely hurls at foreign leaders. “I feel that he is doing a great job as President,” she said on ABC News. Asked whether she felt ill used by Mr. Clinton, she replied: “I do not.”

For a hard-nosed woman with a penchant for flamboyant truth-telling, Madeleine Albright is strikingly demure when it comes to the Clinton scandal. Words have not often failed her since she joined the Administration in 1993 as U.S. Representative to the United Nations. When Cuban pilots shot down a civilian plane in international airspace two years ago, she boldly announced, “This is not cojones, this is cowardice.”

About the Author

John J. Miller

John J. Miller, a former national correspondent for National Review, is the director of the Dow Journalism Program at Hillsdale College. He is the author of A Gift of Freedom: How the John M. Olin Foundation Changed America.

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IT was the domestic version of a fatal diplomatic faux pas: Secretary of State Madeleine Albright stood outside the West Wing of the White House on January 23, a few minutes after President Clinton had lied to her and the rest of his Cabinet about his relationship with Monica Lewinsky. “I believe that the allegations are completely untrue,” declared Mrs. Albright. Seven months later, with President Clinton begging the nation for its forgiveness, his loyal surrogate could not summon the kind of tough talk she routinely hurls at foreign leaders. “I feel that he is doing a great job as President,” she said on ABC News. Asked whether she felt ill used by Mr. Clinton, she replied: “I do not.”

For a hard-nosed woman with a penchant for flamboyant truth-telling, Madeleine Albright is strikingly demure when it comes to the Clinton scandal. Words have not often failed her since she joined the Administration in 1993 as U.S. Representative to the United Nations. When Cuban pilots shot down a civilian plane in international airspace two years ago, she boldly announced, “This is not cojones, this is cowardice.”

About the Author

John J. Miller

John J. Miller, a former national correspondent for National Review, is the director of the Dow Journalism Program at Hillsdale College. He is the author of A Gift of Freedom: How the John M. Olin Foundation Changed America.