Washington Times-May 24, 2000
Tarnished legacy
By Tony Blankley
From Monday's New York Times: "With time running out for a
Mideast peace accord or a new arms deal with Russia, the outcome
of the [China trade] vote has taken on huge importance in the
president's mind. 'He hates the word, but it's the legacy thing,
in a big way,' said one Cabinet member."
Meanwhile, Monday in the Supreme Court of Arkansas: "[Y]ou
are hereby notified of the decision of the Arkansas Supreme Court
Committee on Professional Conduct to initiate disbarment
proceedings against attorney William Jefferson Clinton. This
action is being taken against the respondent attorney as a result
of . . . the findings by a majority of the committee that certain
of the attorney's conduct as demonstrated in the complaints
constituted serious misconduct in violation of . . . the Arkansas
Model Rules of Professional Conduct."
Can you hear the rude belly laugh of tragic history
repeating itself as farce? A quarter of a century ago Richard
Nixon was disbarred by a New York court after resigning as
president over the Watergate scandal. Nixon's defenders, then,
argued that his historic breakthrough to China should outweigh
his Watergate disgrace. But it didn't (nor should it have) even
though Nixon's opening to China was a genuine world historic
event that he had carefully crafted over several years.
Surely, President Clinton's stumbling incompetence on behalf
of his more narrowly gauged China initiative will not outweigh,
nor negate, nor even ameliorate his towering disgrace that is now
beginning to come to judgment in the Supreme Court of Arkansas.
It is fitting that the state of Arkansas should be taking the
first step to vindicate the honor of the presidency so stained by
its once-favorite son.
Just as Nixon did, Mr. Clinton is now claiming his China
initiative to be his primary legacy. It is only fair, then, to
compare the two presidents' China efforts.
Nixon, having planned his China move years in advance,
published an article in Foreign Affairs magazine more than a year
before he became president in which he risked undercutting his
own partisan political support with the observation: "We simply
cannot afford to leave China forever outside the family of
nations, there to nurture its fantasies, cherish its hates and
threaten its neighbors. There is no place on this small planet
for a billion of its potentially most able people to live in
angry isolation."
Mr. Clinton, on the other hand, in the election year 1992,
in order to gain partisan advantage even at the price of our
national interest, attacked then-President Bush's effort to
engage the Chinese by accusing him of "coddling dictators."
Whether Mr. Clinton was intentionally undercutting his own future
China policy or merely had failed even to formulate it yet, we
may never know. But, as the New York Times reported: "[Clinton's]
first 18 months in office were spent digging his way out of his
own campaign rhetoric. His comments had inflamed the Chinese."
In 1969, when Nixon saw an opportunity to reach out to China
during Soviet-Chinese fighting along the Ussuri River in Siberia,
Nixon (in Henry Kissinger's words) "made two extraordinary
decisions." He put aside America's historic dispute over Taiwan,
and he warned the Soviets that the United States would "not
remain indifferent" to a Soviet attack on China.
But in 1995 the ever feckless Mr. Clinton once again
undercut his own China policy by allowing Taiwan's president to
make a private visit to this country because he was afraid of the
politics of denying the visa. As one of Mr. Clinton's foreign
policy advisers has been quoted observing: "He [Clinton] knows he
blew it in 1995."
Once again in 1970-71, when our invasion of Cambodia had
threatened Nixon's China outreach, he took the bold step of
sending Henry Kissinger to carry out secret negotiations with
China, which resulted in the historic prize of an accord with
China.
But contrast Nixon's steady and deft hand with Mr.
Clinton's. In April 1999, when Chinese Prime Minister Zhu was in
Washington, ready to sign this historic trade bill that had been
13 years in the negotiation, President Clinton once again stuck
his finger into the political wind and at the last moment refused
to agree to the accord.
"As in so many things," Democratic Sen. Patrick Moynihan
said, "[Clinton] too often let the politics of last month or next
month affect decisions toward China that go to half-century
strategic issues."
Mr. Clinton cannot even claim credit for the success of the
important vote scheduled later today. He has been carried along
by policies conceived by other and better men before him. He has
undercut and delayed by years this important trade bill's passage
by his craven and partisan maneuvers. It will be passed into law
by the overwhelming vote of his Republican opposition, while his
own Democratic party has deserted him. It is to his Arkansas
Supreme Court that he should look for the first outlines of his
true legacy.
Tony Blankley is a columnist for The Washington Times. His column
appears on Wednesdays.
=================================================================
Kadosh, Kadosh, Kadosh, YHVH, TZEVAOT
FROM THE DESK OF: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
*Mike Spitzer* <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
~~~~~~~~ <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
The Best Way To Destroy Enemies Is To Change Them To Friends
Shalom, A Salaam Aleikum, and to all, A Good Day.
=================================================================
<A HREF="http://www.ctrl.org/">www.ctrl.org</A>
DECLARATION & DISCLAIMER
==========
CTRL is a discussion & informational exchange list. Proselytizing propagandic
screeds are unwelcomed. Substance—not soap-boxing—please! These are
sordid matters and 'conspiracy theory'—with its many half-truths,
misdirections
and outright frauds—is used politically by different groups with major and
minor
effects spread throughout the spectrum of time and thought. That being said,
CTRL
gives no endorsement to the validity of posts, and always suggests to readers;
be wary of what you read. CTRL gives no credence to Holocaust denial and
nazi's need not apply.
Let us please be civil and as always, Caveat Lector.
========================================================================
Archives Available at:
http://home.ease.lsoft.com/archives/CTRL.html
<A HREF="http://home.ease.lsoft.com/archives/ctrl.html">Archives of
[EMAIL PROTECTED]</A>
http:[EMAIL PROTECTED]/
<A HREF="http:[EMAIL PROTECTED]/">ctrl</A>
========================================================================
To subscribe to Conspiracy Theory Research List[CTRL] send email:
SUBSCRIBE CTRL [to:] [EMAIL PROTECTED]
To UNsubscribe to Conspiracy Theory Research List[CTRL] send email:
SIGNOFF CTRL [to:] [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Om
