Clintons Need To Start Telling Truth Fess Up, Hillary First Lady Can Blame Herself For Lost Credibility

Hillary Rodham Clinton is not an ordinary first lady. She cut her teeth as a young lawyer working on the House committee that considered Richard Nixon’s impeachment. So Hillary Clinton, of all people, should know the public doesn’t like stonewalling and cover-ups in high places.

That’s what makes the first couple’s shell game involving the Whitewater, Travelgate and Paula Jones’ affairs hard to swallow. They should have followed the advice of former press adviser David Gergen: “Dump every piece of paper on the White House lawn, and let the press and Congress sort through the mess until they see there’s nothing there.”

Unless there’s something there, that is.

The Clintons’ credibility is damaged further with each “long-lost” document that resurfaces, with every tale uttered and memory lapse suffered under oath by friends and subordinates, with every reminder of the “bimbo eruptions” that plagued candidate Clinton.

Some think the president shouldn’t be held accountable for his wife’s peccadilloes. However, her husband chose to make her a top political adviser. He trusted her enough to appoint her head of a task force that unsuccessfully tackled the hottest political issue of the day, reforming the nation’s health-care system.

Hillary Clinton has herself to blame for her credibility woes.

First, she claimed “minimal” involvement with Whitewater. Billing records show she worked 60 hours on the case over 15 months. Incredibly, those records - subpoenaed two years ago - were discovered on the White House residential floor just five days after the statute of limitations ran out for civil suits.

Then, she claimed no part in the mass firing of the White House travel office staff. A 1993 memo says she ordered the firings.

Fans who dismiss the first couple’s current problems as partisan politics are following the flawed script, almost word for word, of Nixon protectors a generation ago. As then, the question that looms largest is: Can the president be trusted?

The Clintons need to come clean. Then, they can explain the tantalizing reference to Whitewater found in Vincent Foster’s briefcase - six days after his suicide: “The public will never believe the innocence of the Clintons and their loyal staff.”

, DataTimes MEMO: For opposing view see headline: Making a mountain out of a molehill

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