“If you were a right-wing conspiracist,” Andrew Sullivan asked Hardball’s Chris Matthews on January 23rd, “could you have devised a more typical ending for the Clinton administration – pardons to a lot of criminals and then vandalism by 20-somethings in the White House? It’s like Gary Aldrich’s fantasy.”
Well, yeah. It did sound a bit like an Aldrich fantasy, now didn’t it? Sullivan is still harping on the Marc Rich pardon story and embroidering it into a thick quilt of anti-Clintonism. And, frankly, who can blame him? The Rich pardon looks pretty ugly.
But what happened to that other last-days-of-Clinton scandal – that whole business with the pranks and vandalism at the White House? (What we at Talking Points have taken to calling smear-gate). Should we still be waiting for more ‘proof’ of the vandalism to emerge? Or is Sullivan going to admit he may have gotten duped by the Bush spin machine?
Or would it be quicker to wait for OJ to find the ‘real killers.’
The Washington Times reports this morning that congressman Bob Barr (he of Council of Conservative Citizens speech-making fame) has asked the Government Accounting Office to investigate Clintonite vandalism at the White House. This is a procedural matter and a request from a congressman obligates the GAO to commence a preliminary investigation, which they have now done.
Could I be embarrassed if it turns out that the rumors were all true? Sure. But I’m happy to let the chips fall where they may.
