from Sunday's NYT's lead editorial:
.....if Mr. Clinton and his staff understand the metabolism of a long-running Washington story. It is striking, for example, that the president's lawyers and political spokesmen keep relying on the scorched-earth tactics
that work in the compact time frame of a campaign. But the
rhythm of a governmental, as opposed to a campaign, scandal
is different. After Election Day, everything ends. Victory is
declared. Defeated victims become impotent ghosts, not
potentially hostile witnesses," the newspaper said in an editorial
yesterday.
"A full-blown crisis is different. Like a biological life, it
moves not toward a date certain, but toward a natural, organic
completion that happens when it happens ... and that when the
process starts, it overwhelms the classic defensive responses.
One such response is a war on 'leakers,' such as that launched
on Friday by Paul Begala and David Kendall. Another is the
sliming of both the press and turncoat witnesses.
"That tactic is particularly demeaning to this president. Since
his veracity is widely viewed as suspect, his appeals to grand
jury secrecy look more like a fear of truth than a defense of
legal process."
nytimes.com |
