SLEAZEBALL ROUND-UP

Helpful piece in today’s Washington Post about the Clinton scandals. In the final, desperate spin effort, conducted by the likes of Robert Scheer, Clintonistas argued that in fact, the former president was merely in line with a long tradition of sleaze in Pardonscam. The Post, hardly a signed-up member of the VRWC, points out calmly that while there have been shady pardons in the past, Clinton’s yard sale of the criminal justice system was “unique in terms of scope, lobbying, lack of scrutiny.” If you have some poor, deluded friend who still has something defensive to say about Clinton’s pardons, direct him quietly to this URL. Meanwhile, the ever-amusing Jonah Goldberg digs up a Jacksonism I hadn’t heard before. When George Pataki proposed an increase in school spending of only $154 million in 1999, this is what Jackson said in front of the state senate: “Pataki is trying what Wallace tried, what Faubus tried, what Wilson tried? We see Pataki in that tradition. And, whether you’re blocking school doors in Alabama and Arkansas or simply locking kids out of closed school doors in New York is not the wave of the American future.” Classic. I don’t know whether to laugh or bang my head against a wall. Meanwhile growing pressure on Jackson – finally! – from the media. Check out yesterday’s Chicago Tribune. The man’s going down! Yeah, right.