The Meaning of IS, by Bob Barr: on Principles & Values


Clinton echoed Nixon’s claim of being above the law

Like Richard Nixon, Bill Clinton was on his way to a one-sided victory [against Bob Dole in 1996], and like his similarly disgraced predecessor, he insisted on breaking the law anyway. The tip of what turned out to be a large iceberg emerged in the closing days of the 1996 presidential campaign. To make a long story short, the 1996 Clinton-Gore campaign incorporated the most vast and effective scheme to circumvent the law ever conceived and executed by an American presidential campaign. It was becoming readily and disgustingly apparent that the campaign operated under the same principle Richard Nixon articulated in a 1977 interview with David Frost. Nixon said, “When the president does it, that means it is not illegal.” That was dead wrong in 1977, of course, and it was just as wrong in 1996. Like Nixon, Clinton believed that he was the law and was therefore not subject to its constraints.
Source: The Meaning of IS, by Bob Barr, Chapter One Jul 2, 2004

  • The above quotations are from The Meaning of Is:
    The Squandered Impeachment and Wasted Legacy of William Jefferson Clinton,
    by Bob Barr    .
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