Salon | Newsreal: The Reich stuff?

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T A B L E+T A L K
Nicole Bobek, Ekaterina Gordeeva, Rocky Marvel. Who's the sexiest skater? All nominations welcome in Salon's Olympic Village.

D A I L Y+Q U O T E
Anywhere but Ealing, even Baghdad!

R E C E N T L Y
The horny dilemma
By Fred Branfman
Former Gary Hart aide speaks up for sexually satisfied presidents
(02/10/98)
Germ war games
By Jeff Stein
If the U.S, finds itself back in the desert against Iraq, get out your gas masks
(02/09/98)
The lady is not a tramp
By Jenn Shreve
The lurid coverage of Monica Lewinsky's sex life tells us more about aging geezers in the press corps than it does about a young white house intern
(02/06/98)
The roots of the Clinton smear
By Gene Lyons
How Gennifer Flowers and other fast buck artists spawned the Clinton smear
(02/05/98)
Men in black (robes)
By Bruce Shapiro
Looking for an anti-Clinton arch-conspirator? Try the Chief Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court
(02/04/98)
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________________^{^{| | |}}__T H E___reich__S T U F F ?
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PRESIDENT CLINTON'S FORMER LABOR SECRETARY THINKS HIS OLD BOSS IS OFF COURSE -- AND NOT IN THE WAYS KENNETH STARR THINKS
BY ANDREW ROSS | The main reason, according to conventional wisdom, that President Clinton appears to have emerged whole from the alleged Monica Lewinsky sex scandal is that he has stuck by the slogan that got him elected in the first place: "It's the economy, stupid." The president's record high approval rating among voters, say the pollsters, correlates with statistics indicating the American economy has rarely been stronger. So strong in fact that Clinton confidently predicted on Tuesday -- the day the Dow Jones reached never-before-attained heights -- that the U.S. could withstand any economic shocks coming out of Asia.
It is one of the ironies that while Clinton has benefited handsomely from the economy, some of his closest political friends have been putting considerable distance between themselves and their former boss in the wake of the Lewinsky affair. George Stephanopoulos has as good as called for the president's impeachment; former Press Secretary Dee Dee Myers has grumbled darkly about Lewinsky's alleged 37 visits to the Oval Office; former Chief of Staff Leon Panetta openly wondered whether it might not be a good idea for the president to step down and give Al Gore a chance.
You won't find that kind of fair-weather talk from one of Clinton's oldest political friends, Robert Reich. The former Labor secretary in Clinton's first term has remained discreetly quiet about the allegations. But he is much blunter about an issue that has been all but drowned out in the current sex-scandal frenzy: the growing divisions between haves and have-nots in Clinton's America, and the failure of the president to address it.
Salon talked with Robert Reich about the economy, sex scandals, the labor market and other issues at Salon's San Francisco office.
Have you been subpoenaed by Kenneth Starr yet?
No.
Do you expect to be?
Absolutely not.
Does that disappoint you? So many former administration officials have been. Doesn't it make you feel left out?
(Laughs) You mean like being on the FBI's list in the 1960s: If you are not on it, there's something wrong with you. I was recently looking at a photograph of the original cabinet that the president put together in 1993. I was astounded to realize that about half of that cabinet either died or was investigated or indicted or convicted of something. Those are pretty bad odds. Had somebody told me that I was getting into something that carried with it those bad odds, I might have thought twice.
You have been a friend of the president's since your days together at Oxford University. Have you been in touch with him during this current crisis, and if so what have you been telling him?
I have been in touch with the president but I can't disclose our conversations. Let me just say this: The president has been under attack many times before. His view is that the best way of dealing with this is to stick to the basics, to focus the public's attention on what is real and important. He delivered a State of the Union address about health care, child care and education, about saving Social Security and raising minimum wage, all of these issues that Americans care deeply about. And I believe that the public is getting a little bit tired of Monica Lewinsky.
How about Kenneth Starr? Do you think they are tired of him?
Maybe. The special prosecutor statute has to be changed. There is a broad consensus emerging that we simply cannot allow elected officials to be victims of star chamber proceedings that have no accountability.
But do you agree with Leon Panetta and George Stephanopoulos that if it turns out the charges are true, that the president should step down?
Certainly, if it turned out that the charge of suborning perjury were true, than the president should step down. But that is a huge "if." If it were the case that the president committed murder, if he ordered people to jump off of 20-story buildings for no apparent reason, then he ought to step down. We can come up with countless possibilities here, but there is no proof that the president did this.
But if he were to become so entangled in dealing with these various legal problems, might he not become so incapacitated politically and unable to follow through on the agenda he has laid out, that it would be better to hand off the administration, so to speak, to Vice President Gore?
It's difficult to answer that question because embedded in it is a kind of self-fulfilling prophecy. If the president were to start thinking that way, then other people could think that way and that in itself would reduce his capacity to get on with the business of government. I think what we saw during the State of the Union speech was a president determined to move ahead with an agenda. That determination had a self-fulfilling quality in the opposite direction. People saw a president determined and began to think, "Well, maybe he'll survive."
You have written in your book, "Locked in the Cabinet," what a rough town Washington has become since Clinton became president. The first lady has suggested that there's a "right-wing conspiracy" to bring down the president. Do you agree?
I don't think there is a conspiracy, in the sense that I simply don't believe it is possible to conduct conspiracies in an open society like ours. But I do see a lot of evidence of people trying to knock this president over.
Why? Why has this president been such a lightning rod?
It's hard to say. Perhaps because people on the right recognized early on how effective he could be, given his charm and intelligence. He is a brilliant politician, which the right, to its consternation, saw right away. Also, remember in the 1992 election, certain issues, like the draft and Gennifer Flowers, weakened him. It didn't cost him the election, but he only got 43 percent of the popular vote. It's entirely possible that the right saw potential vulnerabilities here and have played on them ever since.

N E X T+P A G E+| America in a straitjacket

T H E C L I N T O N C R I S I S T A B L E+T A L K Nicole Bobek, Ekaterina Gordeeva, Rocky Marvel. Who's the sexiest skater? All nominations welcome in Salon's Olympic Village. D A I L Y+Q U O T E Anywhere but Ealing, even Baghdad! R E C E N T L Y The horny dilemma By Fred Branfman Former Gary Hart aide speaks up for sexually satisfied presidents (02/10/98) Germ war games By Jeff Stein If the U.S, finds itself back in the desert against Iraq, get out your gas masks (02/09/98) The lady is not a tramp By Jenn Shreve The lurid coverage of Monica Lewinsky's sex life tells us more about aging geezers in the press corps than it does about a young white house intern (02/06/98) The roots of the Clinton smear By Gene Lyons How Gennifer Flowers and other fast buck artists spawned the Clinton smear (02/05/98) Men in black (robes) By Bruce Shapiro Looking for an anti-Clinton arch-conspirator? Try the Chief Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court (02/04/98) - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Browse the Newsreal Archives - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
		________________^{^{\| \| \|}}__T H E___reich__S T U F F ? - - - - - - PRESIDENT CLINTON'S FORMER LABOR SECRETARY THINKS HIS OLD BOSS IS OFF COURSE -- AND NOT IN THE WAYS KENNETH STARR THINKS BY ANDREW ROSS \| The main reason, according to conventional wisdom, that President Clinton appears to have emerged whole from the alleged Monica Lewinsky sex scandal is that he has stuck by the slogan that got him elected in the first place: "It's the economy, stupid." The president's record high approval rating among voters, say the pollsters, correlates with statistics indicating the American economy has rarely been stronger. So strong in fact that Clinton confidently predicted on Tuesday -- the day the Dow Jones reached never-before-attained heights -- that the U.S. could withstand any economic shocks coming out of Asia. It is one of the ironies that while Clinton has benefited handsomely from the economy, some of his closest political friends have been putting considerable distance between themselves and their former boss in the wake of the Lewinsky affair. George Stephanopoulos has as good as called for the president's impeachment; former Press Secretary Dee Dee Myers has grumbled darkly about Lewinsky's alleged 37 visits to the Oval Office; former Chief of Staff Leon Panetta openly wondered whether it might not be a good idea for the president to step down and give Al Gore a chance. You won't find that kind of fair-weather talk from one of Clinton's oldest political friends, Robert Reich. The former Labor secretary in Clinton's first term has remained discreetly quiet about the allegations. But he is much blunter about an issue that has been all but drowned out in the current sex-scandal frenzy: the growing divisions between haves and have-nots in Clinton's America, and the failure of the president to address it. Salon talked with Robert Reich about the economy, sex scandals, the labor market and other issues at Salon's San Francisco office. Have you been subpoenaed by Kenneth Starr yet? No. Do you expect to be? Absolutely not. Does that disappoint you? So many former administration officials have been. Doesn't it make you feel left out? (Laughs) You mean like being on the FBI's list in the 1960s: If you are not on it, there's something wrong with you. I was recently looking at a photograph of the original cabinet that the president put together in 1993. I was astounded to realize that about half of that cabinet either died or was investigated or indicted or convicted of something. Those are pretty bad odds. Had somebody told me that I was getting into something that carried with it those bad odds, I might have thought twice. You have been a friend of the president's since your days together at Oxford University. Have you been in touch with him during this current crisis, and if so what have you been telling him? I have been in touch with the president but I can't disclose our conversations. Let me just say this: The president has been under attack many times before. His view is that the best way of dealing with this is to stick to the basics, to focus the public's attention on what is real and important. He delivered a State of the Union address about health care, child care and education, about saving Social Security and raising minimum wage, all of these issues that Americans care deeply about. And I believe that the public is getting a little bit tired of Monica Lewinsky. How about Kenneth Starr? Do you think they are tired of him? Maybe. The special prosecutor statute has to be changed. There is a broad consensus emerging that we simply cannot allow elected officials to be victims of star chamber proceedings that have no accountability. But do you agree with Leon Panetta and George Stephanopoulos that if it turns out the charges are true, that the president should step down? Certainly, if it turned out that the charge of suborning perjury were true, than the president should step down. But that is a huge "if." If it were the case that the president committed murder, if he ordered people to jump off of 20-story buildings for no apparent reason, then he ought to step down. We can come up with countless possibilities here, but there is no proof that the president did this. But if he were to become so entangled in dealing with these various legal problems, might he not become so incapacitated politically and unable to follow through on the agenda he has laid out, that it would be better to hand off the administration, so to speak, to Vice President Gore? It's difficult to answer that question because embedded in it is a kind of self-fulfilling prophecy. If the president were to start thinking that way, then other people could think that way and that in itself would reduce his capacity to get on with the business of government. I think what we saw during the State of the Union speech was a president determined to move ahead with an agenda. That determination had a self-fulfilling quality in the opposite direction. People saw a president determined and began to think, "Well, maybe he'll survive." You have written in your book, "Locked in the Cabinet," what a rough town Washington has become since Clinton became president. The first lady has suggested that there's a "right-wing conspiracy" to bring down the president. Do you agree? I don't think there is a conspiracy, in the sense that I simply don't believe it is possible to conduct conspiracies in an open society like ours. But I do see a lot of evidence of people trying to knock this president over. Why? Why has this president been such a lightning rod? It's hard to say. Perhaps because people on the right recognized early on how effective he could be, given his charm and intelligence. He is a brilliant politician, which the right, to its consternation, saw right away. Also, remember in the 1992 election, certain issues, like the draft and Gennifer Flowers, weakened him. It didn't cost him the election, but he only got 43 percent of the popular vote. It's entirely possible that the right saw potential vulnerabilities here and have played on them ever since. N E X T+P A G E+\| America in a straitjacket