Scandal Taints Clinton As Well It’s An Outrage And The Bigger Outrage Is That Nobody Cares.

Dick Morris isn’t your average political hack who’s been felled by a foot fetish and a scandal sheet. For 20 years, he’s been Bill Clinton’s Svengali, the man who redefined the president from Arkansas to Washington, D.C. No Morris. No President Clinton.

Time magazine understood Morris’ importance to Clinton’s re-election bid. Before Morris’ fall, the magazine published a cover story proclaiming him the smoke-and-mirrors genius behind Clinton’s comeback - “the most influential private citizen in America.”

Even the supermarket tabloid Star knew Morris’ significance. What other political insider with an urge to be dominated by a $200-per-night call girl could bump “Brooke’s Diner Diet” lower on Page 1?

The only people who seem unimpressed - jaded? - about Morris’ fall are the many Americans he apparently has duped into supporting Clinton. The polls show no scandal fallout. As long as Americans are kept fat, dumb and happy about the economy, they dismiss the Morris affair as irrelevant.

But the scandal’s seeming lack of relevancy may be its most relevant aspect.

We used to be a people who wouldn’t put up with it when a president hid a third-rate burglary against political foes. We sent people to prison for messing with a single FBI file. We shunned politicians such as adulterous Gary Hart. We judged others by the company they kept. Not anymore. Foolishly, we no longer think character matters in political office. Hence, Bill Clinton.

The most tantalizing details provided by the Star - the tabloid that beat the mainstream press to the Gennifer Flowers story, too - aren’t the pay-for-play sex. Or that a prostitute knew top secrets and read first lady Hillary Clinton’s speech before the convention.

Rather, they’re the personal insights this well-connected john provided to his prostitute about Clinton - or, as Morris calls him, “The Monster,” a man who “lacks compassion and common sense” and is given to wild temper tantrums, childish sulks and hypochondria.

That description challenges Clinton’s public image as a sensitive man who weeps at a moment’s notice and says he feels our pain.

But Clinton and Morris have fooled us before.

, DataTimes MEMO: For opposing view, see headline: Voters don’t need made-up scandals

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