This Political Sport Has Gotten Out of Hand

Bashing the president is one of the oldest American sports. From the beginning, the press corps and the public have considered a sitting president a legitimate punching bag for unloading current frustrations and resentments. Even presidents later memorialized by history have been pilloried while in office.

After eight years of absorbing the barbs of his critics, President George Washington said: “I had rather be in my grave than endure another four years in the White House.”

Thomas Jefferson was widely assailed as an atheist and a stooge of the hated French Jacobins--the Bolsheviks of that era. His critics repeatedly charged that he was planning to confiscate and destroy all Bibles.

Abraham Lincoln was verbally assassinated long before his death from an assassin’s bullet.

As a youth, I grew up with the most popular, perhaps greatest, president of the 20th century, Franklin Roosevelt. But FDR was constantly assailed during his long and difficult years in the White House as he led the nation through the Great Depression and World War II. Eleanor Roosevelt--perhaps the most notable first lady in our history--was pilloried at least as savagely as her husband.

In recent years, President Harry Truman has become a favorite of both Democratic and Republican politicians, who love to quote his earthy observations. But as a sitting president, Truman was so continuously branded a failure that almost no pundit gave him a chance of being reelected in 1948.

As a longtime U.S. senator, I did not hesitate to criticize presidential policies with which I disagreed--especially those centering on our ill-advised involvement in Vietnam. I believe that conscientious criticism is essential to our democracy.

But when criticism takes the form of destructive personal attacks on the president’s private life or mean-spirited, ill-founded condemnations of his character and purposes, it not only undermines our democratic system but also adds to the cynicism about government.

I believe that President Bill Clinton and his obviously talented and intelligent wife, Hillary, have been subject to more of this negative, mean-spirited personal attack than any presidential couple in memory.

I enjoy the humbling distinction of a reputation for public integrity and faithfulness to my convictions. My admiration for President Clinton is the highest when he is fighting for what he believes is right for the nation, rather than listening to the admonitions of others.

Having been elected and reelected to the presidency and now holding an impressive public approval rating, Clinton, in my judgment, has not been treated fairly by his critics.

Year after year, we have been offered massive coverage of the so-called Whitewater scandal. But how much of a scandal is it? Although thoroughly bored by the affair, I have followed the press accounts for what seems like forever. I can only conclude that the whole thing seems a minor business failure with a few local Arkansas political overtones. If there was any corruption involved, it certainly didn’t enrich the Clintons. We have had presidents who became rich in public office; Clinton is not one of them.

As for the president’s alleged sexual ventures, similar charges were directed at Presidents Jefferson, Harding, Eisenhower, Kennedy and Franklin Roosevelt. In each case, most of the public--including me--simply concluded that such personal matters are none of our business. All men and women have an occasional attack of lust. Even that devout Baptist, President Jimmy Carter, publicly confessed to lust lurking in his heart.

It was St. Paul who once cried out: “I am the chief of sinners.” The rest of us might do well to remember another biblical admonition:

“He who is without sin, let him first cast a stone at her.”

Let’s continue to debate and criticize public policy. But how about a truce on personal attacks on the president and the first lady? Let’s move Whitewater and sexual speculation to the back page or the gossip columns and move the well-being of our children and America’s role in the world to Page 1.