A BLAST FROM THE PAST

DOES CALLING THE PRESIDENT A CRIMINAL EVER WORK?

I was listening to Senator Kerry castigate the administration about Abu Ghraib (again) and call for the head of Don Rumsfeld (again) this afternoon. Yesterday, I heard Howard Dean claim three times in one sound byte that the President has broken the law. The other day I heard a protester planning to head to New York next week call President Bush a "war criminal." Then it struck me: we have been this way before.

Cast your mind back with me to the summer of 1987. Does anyone remember the Iran Contra hearings? The Democrats were in high dudgeon, accusing the Reagan administration of violating the Boland Amendment to trade arms for hostages. It was quite the talk of the liberal media, electrifying cocktail party conversation in academia--but to the people, it was all just an attack on the president. It didn't prevent Reagan's number two man, George H.W. Bush, from being elected in 1988--even after former National Security Advisor John Poindexter was indicted in May of that year.

Moreover, there were rumblings in the press prior to President Nixon's re-election, as well. In fact, as the Washington Post reported, the head of the Committee to Re-elect the President (unfortunately abbreviated as, lest we forget, "CREEP"), Jim McCord, had been arrested bugging the Democratic National Headquarters in June of 1972. These facts were not unknown to the public, and many liberals hoped the election would go to McGovern, but instead Nixon was re-elected in a landslide.

Remember, too, that although President Clinton was not yet impeached by 1996, there were plenty of suspicions about him, and the accusations of his mendacity and possible criminality flew. Vince Foster had committed suicide and Whitewater was under investigation (Jim Guy Tucker and the McDougals had been convicted in May of that year and Clinton had given his videotaped testimony in June). The White House Travel Office fiasco remained a sore point with the 40% of Americans that never liked him in the first place. Polls showed that 60% of the American people thought Clinton was hiding something with regard to Whitewater. But none of the attacks that came his way prevented Clinton from being re-elected.

It may well be that the hysterical screams of the left that Bush is a "liar" and a criminal of various stripes will backfire on the Kerry camp. Hollywood celebrities using their professional skills to produce slick anti-Bush commercials could easily have the effect of merely annoying the voters--especially if they really use the slogans they are reportedly thinking about ("He's not on our side" and "Don't get mad, get even.") That remains to be seen.

But before they turn up the volume on the scandal machine, and before they hit full bay callng the president and his administration criminal, they might want to take a trip down memory lane. From history, it looks like the "criminals" are the ones that get re-elected.

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