RICH PICKINGS

Told you. This Marc Rich pardon has legs. Fighting words from Safire this morning – investigate!, subpoena!, prosecute! – and classic Richard Cohen, pointing out that Clinton’s final act of shamelessness made his defenders for the past eight years look simply stupid. (By the way, I counted over 35 ‘I’s, ‘me’s, or ‘we’s in this column supposedly about a presidential scandal. Good going for Cohen. He makes me look outer-directed). Maybe when Sidney Blumenthal publishes his $650,000 book, we’ll find out that Rich was in fact a saint who helped win the war in Bosnia, but until that time, suspicions will be justified. And the relative boredom and punctuality of the Bush era are already forcing hacks to reach back in time to examine the Clinton mess. My fearless prediction: the outrage that half the country felt for years will soon become mild nausea in the other half. Hillary is clearly in trouble. Jack Quinn is now a dark shade of brown on both sides.