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Clinton Set the Tone
by Thomas A. Droleskey
January 30, 2001

The man protected by angels of darkness helped to let loose the demons in the souls of others. William Jefferson Clinton set a tone in the White House from his very first day in office in 1993 that infected the political appointees who served him. Staffers were disrespectful, insulting, and arrogant to members of the U.S. armed forces, including the man who became Clinton’s ineffectual drug czar, Gen. Barry McCaffrey. Many White House staffers had to receive waivers for their security clearances in order to enter and leave the White House, as they had arrests and convictions related to illegal drug use. And White House staffers in the Clinton years shared their boss’s penchant for believing that all opposition to them was illegitimate, thus justifying all of their lies, personal attacks, leaking of information to the media (about Henry Hyde, Bob Barr, Robert Livingston, Dan Burton), and outright distortions on matters of public policy.

So it should come as no surprise that Clinton’s White House staffers trashed and vandalized many of the taxpayer-purchased and government-owned facilities in the White House offices where they worked. At first, news reports indicated that the W keys on computer keyboards had been “playfully” removed. Even if that had been all that had been done, that is vandalism in and of itself, a willful destruction of the property of the government of the United States of America that would cause more taxpayer dollars to be spent to undo the damage done. Yes, even if the removal of the W keys on computers was “all” that had been done, that would have been a very important indication of the contempt in which the American taxpayer was held by those who worked in the Clinton White House. Those arrogant, self-righteous, sanctimonious barbarians believed that citizens have no inherent natural-law right to their own income and that the vandals could do as they pleased with the property assigned to their use while they were on the federal dole. There is absolutely no difference between that and the attitude of rioters who loot stores to take things that they do not own and have not purchased with their own money.

Reports circulating on January 25, however, now indicate that the extent of the vandalism in the White House by the Clinton staffers before they vacated the premises went far beyond the “playful” removal of the W key. Staffers for President Bush have reported the following to the Drudge Report, even though they were warned not to leak any information to the media:
  1. Phone lines were cut, rendering them inoperable;
  2. Voice mail messages were changed to obscene, scatological greetings;
  3. One Bush staffer had his grandmother call from the Midwest. She was horrified by what she heard on the other end of the line;
  4. Many phone lines [were] misdirected to other government offices;
  5. Desks [were] found turned completely upside down and trash [was] deliberately left everywhere;
  6. Computer printers ... were filled with blank paper but interspersed with pornographic pictures and obscene slogans that would be revealed only as items were run off the computer;
  7. W keys weren’t just pried off more than 40 keyboards, some were glued on with Superglue; some were turned upside down and glued on;
  8. Filing cabinets [were] glued shut;
  9. Vice Presidential office space in the Old Executive Office Building [was] found in complete shambles. Mrs. Gore had to phone Mrs. Cheney to apologize, first reported by Rich Galen’s Mullings.
  10. Lewd Magic Marker graffiti [was] found on one office hallway.
President Clinton set the tone for all of that. His contempt for the rules and for simple decency was reflected in the personnel he hired, people who reflected the worst of the barbarianism extant in our nation today. Those who do not believe that they live as subjects of God and must conform their behavior to His immutable laws become, in their own minds, gods themselves. They become a law unto themselves who may do and say and act however they want. After all, what’s the big deal about trashing property you do not own and will not be repaired at your own expense if you believe that little children in their mothers’ wombs can be suctioned, poisoned, dissected, and dismembered under cover of law? Really, what’s the big deal about desecrating the office and residence of the president of the United States when you can desecrate the image of God in an unborn child? There is a direct connection between support for abortion and the rise of a personal sense of lawlessness and irresponsibility, especially among young people who have known nothing other than legalized abortion during most of their lives (as is the case with the Clinton staffers).

Indeed, there are so many instances of the Left acting in this way. In 1987, at a conference in Maryland, a staffer for Senator Edward Kennedy spat at a woman who worked for Human Life International. In 1990, homosexual and lesbian “activists” “acted up” at Saint Patrick’s Cathedral in New York, desecrating the Blessed Sacrament. Several years ago, urine was sprayed on people participating in a Rosary procession at the Human Life International Conference in Montreal; many of those doing the spraying were self-professed “dykes on bikes.” In 1999, a man working for the campaign of Republican presidential aspirant Gary Bauer found he was suffering from AIDS and decided to try to infect everyone in the office with his own self-inflicted disease, licking doorknobs and other items people would have to touch, in hopes that his saliva would give people the disease. And that is to say nothing of the acts of violence committed in the name of art and funded by taxpayer dollars, including the “painting” of our Lady smeared with elephant dung. Oh, no, the Left is quite good at preaching nonviolence and love while practicing violence and hate against anyone who dares to dissent from their infallible pronouncements.

Bill Clinton will probably smirk and shake his head when asked to comment on the damage done in the White House. He is responsible, however. He didn’t see any of it? None of it was reported to him? Bill Clinton is a pig. It is one thing to sin and to seek out the mercy of our Lord in the Sacrament of Penance. It is another to wallow arrogantly in one’s own sanctimonious sense of being better than everyone else, of believing that one is immune from all of the laws of even natural civility and decency, no less the binding precepts of the Divine positive law and the natural law.

Those who are found to be responsible for the vandalism in the White House must be prosecuted to the full extent of the law. It would be a terrible sign for the Bush administration to let this slide in the interests of “national unity.” Crimes have been committed against the people of the United States. Those crimes must not go unpunished.

I am critical of the new president for his lack of understanding of the primacy of life: he can say on Saturday that the issue facing us is to make sure abortions are “safe and whether they are numerous or not,” while issuing a statement in his name on Monday saying that every child should be “welcomed in the world and protected by law,” a contradiction of his support for the killing of children in the cases of rape, incest, and alleged threats to the life of a mother. Nevertheless he is a decent man who was brought up to respect the property of others. I do not believe pro-lifers have a true friend in the White House — otherwise, Bush would not have surrounded himself with the bevy of pro-aborts who make up his inner circle. However, we are well rid of the Clinton crowd and well rid of all of their indecency and incivility.

However, it remains an open question whether the American taxpayer, who gave Clinton such a free ride on matters of character and integrity the past eight years because of economic prosperity, will come to understand just what contempt Clinton and his people had for the citizens who put them in office and paid their salary, no less the total contempt Clinton and his people had for everyone who disagreed with them and opposed them.


This column is distributed by the Griffin Internet Syndicate.
Copyright © 2001. All rights reserved.

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