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Politics : Clinton's Scandals: Is this corruption the worst ever? -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: DD™ who wrote (875)	8/9/1998 3:15:00 PM
From: Michael Sphar	Respond to of 13994

THE HIGH ART OF LYING, or ON WITH THE SHOW: Clinton Keeps Lying & We Love Him for It . . . By SUSAN FERRARO Some say President Clinton will come clean when he faces Kenneth Starr this month. They believe he will - he must - tell the truth about Monica Lewinsky, whatever it is. Maybe so. But the unspoken truth seems to be that many of us, including a number of prominent women, love it when this man lies to us. And as long as he keeps it personal, the bigger the lie the better. If Clinton's a sex addict, the public has become his enabler. Sure, it's easy to sympathize with a man beset by attack lawyers. Clinton came into our lives feeling our pain, and now we feel his. A lot of people think that some questions may not deserve truthful answers if they are nobody's business. There's the awful matter of what were, until now, simply unimaginable allegations we wouldn't wish on our worst enemy. Is there DNA proof of presidential peccadillo on an off-the-rack GAP dress? If this is what romantic mementos have come to, take me back to the world of pressed flowers. We seem, too, to have grown up, or at least grown weary of embarrassments. Flawed by all-too-human urges (apparently he can't say no), Clinton is a potentially tragic hero born into an action-figure world. Most Americans think he probably had an affair with the sultry Lewinsky. Most don't care. What does seem to matter is that Clinton, like a classic hero, tries to do good despite his imperfections. Risen high from painfully humble beginnings, he remains a model even as he fumbles because he wants, as most of us do, to be better. But maybe we let Clinton lie because it means he needs us. Popular opinion is the enabling wife of a man married to his country. If we don't believe in him, Clinton falls. Going along with his prevarications may seem, to some, a lot closer to participatory democracy than casting a vote. Then there's the entertainment factor. Watching Clinton float lies is like seeing a high-wire act juiced with international importance. He may be a scalawag, but he's ours, and he's good at it. We've seen him dance through evasions about Gennifer Flowers. We've laughed out loud but let him sidestep the marijuana issue when he insisted he "didn't inhale." America dotes on men who pit brain and brawn against the establishment - and win. Outsmarting enemies who appear to be puritanical, political opportunists like Judge Starr, only makes it better. Think Arnold Schwarzenegger in just about any profitable movie he's made. Think Steve McQueen in "The Great Escape" and Kevin Costner in "Silverado" or even "Robin Hood" (which we liked so much we forgave awful acting). Think legends like Sinatra, who did everything his way. Think Clinton. He makes his own truth, then tells us what we strongly suspect are barefaced lies about assorted women with unwaveringly genuine, mesmerizing sincerity. Given such a performance - such a star! - politics becomes theater as never before. We're spellbound as the tension mounts. Will Slick Willie, the political Houdini who talks his way out of certain political death again and again, escape the ever-tightening net of circumstantial and physical evidence? Settle in with the remote and find out! Indulgence, of course, has its limits. If the economy turns sour, Clinton will disappear in a cloud of allegations. For now, though, we can afford the luxury of presidential follies - and watching a master of the art wiggle out of them. We feel a bit sorry for the most powerful man in the world, and luxuriate in the possibility that our tolerance helps keep the government going. Is enabling the President in his private affairs the right thing to do? No. It's no more our business than it is Starr's. But if Clinton can come up with anything even remotely plausible, we will probably suspend disbelief one more time. Just like in the movies. And he knows it. Ferraro is a Daily News features writer. Original Publication Date: 08/09/1998