Now the Men-in-Waiting Start Duking It Out

The president and many of his soon-to-depart associates are savoring the moment, but the next four years may not be pleasant. Despite all of the talk about unity and working together, the Republicans won’t let Clinton get away with anything. This president won the election by stealing Republican ideas.

Then there is the specter of Kenneth Starr. The administration attempted to defame the special counsel but failed. That Starr has waited until after the election before asking a grand jury to act on events collectively known as Whitewater, which includes cover-ups and obstruction of justice by some in this White House, shows this is something other than a political vendetta.

The Christian Coalition’s Ralph Reed claimed that without his group’s support Republicans would not have maintained their control of Congress. Maybe. But how long will members of his group tolerate their issues not being addressed? Bob Dole didn’t mention the Supreme Court and only barely spoke about the partial-birth-abortion ban, which the president vetoed. Neither did Dole raise many of the other cultural-moral issues about which government can do something, such as “right to die” and same-sex “marriage.” The Hawaii Supreme Court will soon rule on same-sex “marriage,” and the U.S. Supreme Court will decide this term whether the Constitution contains a right to die. With President Clinton filling new vacancies, the Supreme Court is likely to be stocked with justices intent on rewriting the Constitution, not interpreting it. How did the moral direction of this nation become an unfit topic for political conversation?

When ideas are buried, finessed or discarded during an election season, it is more difficult to raise them the next time around. When Victor Hugo wrote of “an idea whose time has come,” he was suggesting that an idea precedes the time in which it is adopted.

There are profound differences between the two parties. Democrats have been hiding or stealing their ideas. Republicans must remain steadfast in theirs.

The main message from the 1996 election? Liberalism is dead. Republicans need no longer negotiate with the vanquished.