Bill Clinton’s shamelessness no longer surprises, but it sure is — well, shameless.
Over the weekend, the former president seized on the 15th anniversary of the Oklahoma City bombing to draw implicit parallels between bomber Timothy McVeigh and peaceful — if rambunctious — political dissent like the Tea Party movement.
“What we learned from Oklahoma City is . . . the words we use really do matter,” said Clinton. “There is this vast echo chamber, and the words fall on the serious and delirious alike.”
Funny, though: McVeigh never cited talk-show hosts as inspiration. Rather, he pointed a finger at Clinton’s own administration.
Oklahoma City “was a retaliatory strike,” McVeigh wrote in a letter to the media, “a counter attack, for the cumulative raids (and subsequent violence and damage) that federal agents had participated in over the preceding years (including, but not limited to, Waco).”
“Waco,” of course, referenced the fiery 1993 FBI raid on a cult compound in Texas. Ordered by Clinton’s attorney general, Janet Reno, it killed 86 people; most burned to death.
There is no justifying what McVeigh did. He was a homicidal maniac.
The tea parties, on the other hand, have injured nothing — save the sensibilities of those who would see America entombed in government debt. Again, they are legitimate expressions of discontent.
Clinton, of course, is too smart not to know the difference. It simply doesn’t matter to him.
Like we said: shameless.