Niggardly City nytimes.com;
Ever acerbic Maureen Dowd splits her column today, the first half is about some really strange PC semantic brohaha in local D.C. politics. But then it's her turn to go after the current dignified spectacle unfolding before us.
"Niggardly" has a lot of resonance in Washington these days. Despite a moving plea from Dale Bumpers and a biblical lecture by Lawton Chiles's daughter, at a memorial service for the late Florida Governor and Senator, Republicans and Ken Starr are showing no mercy. Minginess and small-mindedness are rampant.
The senators banned laptops from the floor, fearing it would hurt decorum, but now they're eager to ponder Monica's gifts.
Fearing his prey may wiggle out of the trap with a Senate acquittal, the independent counsel is mulling bringing criminal charges against Mr. Clinton while he's in office. According to The Times's Don Van Natta Jr., Mr. Starr has concluded he has constitutional authority to indict Mr. Clinton before his term ends.
This is all about ego, vengefulness and arrogance. The public is begging for release from Monica madness, but all Ken Starr and the Republican House managers want is to save their own heartless faces.
Even if Mr. Starr forgoes a Presidential indictment, he has lots of other people on the hook. Mr. Clinton may have invented the permanent campaign, but Mr. Starr invented the permanent prosecution. It's impossible to keep track of how many times Webster Hubbell has been indicted. We can look forward to yet another trial of Susan McDougal. And Mr. Starr's office was in court last week trying to muzzle poor Julie Hiatt Steele.
Mr. Starr's wife has even joined the ranks of the niggardly. In an interview with The Ladies Home Journal, she noted cattily: "I'd rather not be married to someone who doesn't love me enough to remain faithful." Mocking Mrs. Clinton's tonsorial diversity, she said: "I admire all her hairdos. Personally I've had the same one for the last 20 years."
According to my dictionary, the word "niggardly" derives from an old variation of a word meaning "to scrape," as in the bottom of a barrel, which is where we are now. |
