The long political saga of Bill Clinton is now fast approaching its last tragic act.  Clinton was weaned in the corruptive hotbed of Arkansas state politics.  He saw how George Bush and his merry band of dope pushers turned Arkansas into a virtual vassal state.  Being politically ambitious, and with his eyes set on the White House, he knew he had to go along to get along.  So he made his pact with the devil.  He stood by and did nothing as the Reagan/Bush team and their narco-contras transformed sleepy Arkansas into Dope Inc.  His reward for this betrayal of the public's trust: the White House.  But now Clinton is learning that when you make your pact with the devil, the devil, sooner or later, will stab you in the back.

To hear Clinton's enemies, one would think Clinton was the most corrupt man ever to hold the presidency.  That's nonsense.  Even among recent presidents, Clinton  rates high on the integrity scale.  He has shown more integrity than Reagan and Bush combined, and then some.  Clinton may or may not have fondled any number of women, he may have the blood of an odd "hit" on his hands, perhaps the blood of the passengers of TWA 800.  But this pales in comparison to Reagan, and especially Bush.  It was Reagan, not Clinton, who signed Executive Order 12333, that placed the totality of U.S. intelligence under the control of George Bush.  It was Bush who abused this power, using it to flood America's ghettos with cocaine, with the CIA,  NSA, DIA, and U.S. Army all flying dope in by the plane load and shipping it in by the boat load.  It was Reagan/Bush that bears direct responsibility for the explosion of gang violence attendant with the increased drug trade, the tens of thousands who died through gang violence, the untold number of lives that have been torn apart as a result of the crack cocaine epidemic.  It was Reagan/Bush that flooded the Justice Department with corrupt prosecutors who have turned that agency into little more than an ongoing criminal enterprise.  It was Reagan who approved, and Bush who carried out, the October Surprise, with Bush meeting in Paris with Iranian representatives to secretly map out the overthrow of this country's duly elected government.  If the American people had any backbone left, both Reagan and Bush long ago who have been tried for treason, put before a fire squad, and shot. How ironic that Clinton is now about to go down, while Reagan and Bush get to ride off into the sunset. The fates can indeed be cruel.

Clinton got off to a good start.  In a little noted but crucial move, in his first term he announced that there would be no more "special relationship" between the U.S. and Britain, which had been the cornerstone of U.S. foreign policy for over half a century.  Clinton recognized that the axis of power had shifted in Western  Europe from Britain to Germany, and on a global basis, from Western Europe to Asia, and had begun to adjust his policies accordingly.  But this move set off alarm bells in London and among certain conservative circles here.  The two forces combined to wage an unrelenting war against the President in the media, with the goal of destroying his presidency.  Their efforts were futile.  At the start of last year, Clinton was riding high with an at least superficially booming economy, no major domestic crisis, no war.  All Clinton had to do was not do anything stupid, and his place in the history books would be assured.  But then, six months ago, things started to unravel.

The Queen of  England had a problem: a "loose cannon" princess would had a disturbing knack of giving hope to the hopeless, garnering unseemly amounts of publicity, and now was about to - heaven forbid - marry a man of color who was a Muslim to boot.  To top it off, the man's father was one of the wealthiest men in the world, and if Diana's marriage was consummated, Diana would be in a position to directly challenge the Windsor dynasty.  The Queen didn't need Clinton's help on the operational side.  Her Majesty's Secret Service, with the help of the French, could take care of it.  Instead, she needed Clinton's help to put the brakes on the American media so the palace could cover its tracks and get away scot free.  Clinton, without proper time to fully assess the situation, said yes.  It was a fatal decision, one that would destroy his presidency.

Let's be clear about this, because the major media is not saying one word about what's really going on in Washington: Clinton is being brought down because he failed to prevent the sanction against Diana.  The moving force behind this is Janet Reno, not Starr.  Starr, Lewinsky, and the whole sordid crew are merely the means at her disposal to bring Clinton down.  Reno evidently was prepared to put up with just about anything from the Administration.  Through Whitewater and  Travelgate, she said little.  The destruction of  TWA 800 and the subsequent coverup by the Administration caused her to utter nary a word.  Indeed, her Justice Department was part and parcel of the coverup.  But when Clinton failed to prevent the murder of Diana, and then when it occurred, failed to immediately unleash the American media who certainly could have blown the coverup sky high, Reno decided enough was enough.  Apparently, even in corrupt Washington there is a line you cannot cross.  Reno gave Starr the go ahead to investigate the President's relationship with Lewinsky, and at that point the President was history.

Woodrow Wilson once said that, "in politics, stupidity is worse than knavery."  He was right.  People will excuse knavery.  People won't excuse stupidity.  And the last six months, Bill Clinton has been stupid.  No rational U.S. polity ever would have countenanced a sanction by the British Crown against Diana.  In aligning itself with a corrupt and dying British Establishment, the U.S. has alienated the Arab world, driven Iraq and Iran together, forced Saudi  Arabia into a position where it will eventually have to distance itself from the U.S., and subjected American leadership to scorn and ridicule worldwide. How bitterly ironic for a man who started off his presidency declaring an end of the "special relationship," and now finds himself clinging to the Queen as they both hurl towards their doom.

Even at this late hour, Clinton remains doe-eyed as his enemies mass to take him down.  With one phone call, he could blow the whistle on the George Bush-run drug smuggling Enterprise of the 80's, and silence his conservative critics.  With one phone call he can set the American media loose to fully investigate Diana's death, expose the Crown's part in it, and shut up the likes of Evans-Pritchard and Richard Mellon Scaife for good.  Perhaps in his arrogance he feels he doesn't need to do it.  Perhaps he feels so invincible, that he can withstand even a coordinated attack such as he is now under and walk away unblemished.  Or perhaps he thinks he will wait until the last possible moment to play his aces in the whole.  If that's the case, Clinton will be making yet another grave error, because by that time it will be too late.  Starr (and Reno behind him) can already smell blood.  They are getting ready to move in for the kill.  Clinton will be lucky to make it to summer at this rate.

Don't weep for Bill Clinton.  He deserves what he is getting, first for consenting to the murder of Diana, and then for not immediately exposing it.  The real tragedy in all this is that once Clinton is forced out, we will have to endure the spectacle of drug dealer George Bush parading around the country, McGovern-like, crying about how even though he lost the election in 1992, he can hold his head high because, unlike Clinton, he conducted himself honorably while in office.  This is what American civilization has come to as we approach the new millennium.