"because I could"

Hugh Hewitt may be reminded here by Augustine's Confessions, but most of us recognized it the punch line of a joke about why dogs lick their own testicles.

Here are some points from the CBS report on the 60 Minutes interview:

Mr. Clinton tells Rather he is proud that he fought the impeachment battle that failed to drive him from office.

"I didn�t quit. I never thought of resigning and I stood up to it and beat it back," he tells Rather.

"The whole battle was a badge of honor. I don�t see it as a stain, because it was illegitimate,"

Then, in the twelfth paragraph, the Monica Lewinsky scandal is mentioned. Clinton has obviously thought long and hard about how to word his rationalization:

The failure high on his list of regrets is the affair with White House intern Monica Lewinsky that he terms "a terrible moral error."

The affair�s disclosure put him, he says, "in the doghouse" with his wife and also threatened to alienate his daughter, Chelsea. The family was able to overcome its terrible effect through counseling, however.

Hillary, says Mr. Clinton, needed time with him to decide whether she would stay married to him.

"We�d take a day a week, and we did � a whole day a week every week for a year, maybe a little more � and did counseling," says Mr. Clinton. "We did it together. We did it individually. We did family work."

Why did Mr. Clinton commit adultery? He tells Rather there is no rational explanation. "I did something for the worst possible reason. Just because I could," says Mr. Clinton. "I think that�s just about the most morally indefensible reason anybody could have for doing anything."

It's all about his relationship with his family, and what he has done to heal that. It's not the reason. The reason was that he wanted to.

"Morally indefensible" is like the meaning of "is," it's a legalistic point. All of his defenders used that phrase during the impeachment hearings and trial. It signified that while degrading his office was immoral it was not a "high crime" or misdemeanor, and therefore impeachable. Of course, he avoids the implications of his behavior as to his judgment and fitness for office. He knows that Americans are taught to forgive a sinner, but he doesn't like that word--it sounds too religious. And it sounds too much like "misdemeanor." Wouldn't want to tarnish that badge of honor he earned for defending the Constitution.

Perhaps it is apropos that this story should come out in the week following Ronald Reagan's funeral. We can place these men side by side, so to speak, and see the difference in character. The hardcore Democrats will revile Reagan for the Iran-Contra scandal, for which he was never charged. The rest of us recognize the difference between courage and love of America and its ideals, and weaselry.

The Marc Rich and the other last-minute pardons are not mentioned.