Playing Politics

* Bill Clinton never did anything without political calculation. His sudden embrace of the war crimes treaty (Jan. 1) and the setting aside of 60 million acres of national forest land (Jan. 5) would not likely have happened if Al Gore was becoming president on Jan. 20. With Bush coming in, Clinton finally did something his critics have charged him with all along (those critics being mostly wrong, of course!): He acted like a “liberal.” Who’d have thought it would take Gore losing to make Clinton undertake these actions? The irony theory of American politics begins already.

MITCHELL J. FREEDMAN

Newbury Park