Clinton and Independent Counsel Robert Ray
Ray, who with about 24 hours left in Clinton's term apparently realized that getting a jury to convict an ex-president with 65 percent job approval ratings of perjury and obstruction of justice in a civil suit was going to be a fruitless enterprise. So he and Clinton struck a deal, which was then leaked to the media Friday morning, sans details. Friday afternoon, in the middle of George W. Bush's three-day inaugural festivities, Clinton filled his end of the bargain — with press secretary Jake Siewert mouthing the words.
"I tried to walk a fine line between acting lawfully and testifying falsely, but I now recognize that I did not fully accomplish that goal and that certain of my responses to questions about Ms. Lewinsky were false," Clinton (Siewert) said. "I've apologized for my conduct and I've done my best to atone for it with my family, my administration and the American people. I have paid a high price for it, which I accept, because it caused so much pain to so many people."
"I hope my actions today will help bring closure and finality to these matters."
That they do. The Whitewater investigation, which begat the Paula Jones case, which begat Monica, who begat the first U.S. impeachment in a century and just about everything else that's shrill, strident and entertaining about politics these days, is all done, and Bush will come back to office with one less hot potato. As Siewert said in his own words, the deal effectively means the end of the OIC's work "without the filing of any criminal charges, the obtaining of any plea or the acknowledgment of any criminal conduct."
And Bill Clinton, whose transgressions (and pursuers) were mostly political — and for whom lawyering in Arkansas could not have been further down on his post-presidency to-do list, is left with a mostly political punishment, one already served. For the rest of America, this TV crisis ended years ago. Now it's official.