When will we learn? At what point will it stop being a shock and start to become expected? Bill Clinton has problems with impulse control. And, what is more, those impulses are often self-destructive. At every turn, Clinton has sabotaged (consciously or not) his career and, by extension, his wife’s. He draws outside the lines. He cuts and trims corners. CNN’s Jake Tapper pointed to the “trust deficit” that is generated because the “Clintons don’t think the rules apply to them.” For Tapper and so many, the Clintons’ problems come down to a sense of entitlement—that they do not need to follow the rules. And yet, mere entitlement smells more of the Clintons’ opponent, Donald Trump, than the Clintons. For above and beyond entitlement, Bill’s actions appear impulsive, not thought out and self-destructive. Last week Bill raced to speak to Attorney General Loretta Lynch without appreciating the bad optics such an impulsive act would have on his wife’s attempt to become the next president of the United States. He failed to appreciate that his actions would actually hurt the cause he is trying to promote by generating the optics of inappropriate access to Lynch just as her Justice Department is investigating Clinton’s wife. His action reinforces the image that Hillary is probably guilty; why else would he have to cheat by talking directly to Lynch? The pattern of such impulsive self-destruction runs throughout Bill’s career. It is so clear, so consistent, that this type of impulsive, self-sabotage should earn a new nickname, maybe Clintonesque or Billish.
The Washington Post’s Dan Balz writes that “for a politician long praised for his political smarts,” Clinton’s escapade with Lynch seemed “a striking error.” Yet such “foolishness” as Balz calls it, is not so much a “striking error” as par for the course. As governor, it was Clinton’s affairs with Paula Jones and Jennifer Flowers that caught up with the president. It was the shady dealings of Whitewater. As president it was Monica Lewinsky. And, perhaps, the argument could be made that it was just such impulsiveness and poor strategic planning that led to the catastrophe of Somalia and Black Hawk Down. As Secretary Clinton’s campaigner-in-chief when she ran against President Barack Obama, it was the none-too-subtle racist dog whistle of a “fairy tale” comment.
It has not been a “vast right-wing conspiracy” that has gotten the Clintons in trouble. (Although the over-exuberant stalking of the Clintons by the independent council Kenneth Starr and subsequent impeachment certainly fed the sense that the conservatives were out to get the Clintons at any cost.) But two must tango. And the Clintons provided ample lead onto which Republicans could dance. It is the Clintons’ idea that they can get away with clipping the rulebook. For, as we have seen with the e-mail scandal, Secretary Clinton has, at times, shared this problem of bending rules with Bill. She thought no one would notice or care that she had not followed the State Department procedures for the handling of State Department e-mails. She lobbed the ball just right to enable the Republicans to excoriate her.
After the most recent episode of impulsive self-sabotage, the Lynch episode, the politicians and pundits lined up with their respective camps. Republicans lambasted Bill as immoral or at least stupid. Donald Trump could not believe that Bill could commit such an obvious faux pas. And, what was more, that he manufactured such flimsy explanations. Clinton and Lynch claimed that they spoke only of grandchildren and golf. "I love my [eight] grandchildren, but if I talk about them for more than nine or 10 seconds, after that, what are you going to say?" Trump quipped, adding “I love golf but after speaking about golf for a couple minutes, it's tough."
In turn, some Democrats, such as Donna Brazile, defended his impulsive moves as trivial. “All of this…is that we have nothing else to talk about,” she claimed. But in fact it was Brazile who seemingly without realizing it, hit on the problem. “Anyone who knows Bill Clinton,” Brazile continued, anyone who “knows that if he walks into a room or walks on a tarmac and sees someone, he’s going to say ‘Hello.’” Clinton, as Brazile points out, cannot control himself. He lacks discipline, which leads him to do exactly the hurtful act to undermine either his or his wife’s prospects. Indeed, Trump could not believe his ears when he heard that Bill had made such a rookie mistake, compromising the Justice Department’s investigation of Hillary. “Oh, no, you're kidding," Trump beamed at the Western Conservative Summit in Denver.
Let’s not forget, the Clintons are lawyers. They have probably been through more court cases and investigations than any living politician. They know what looks improper. They know what boundaries must be drawn when one is being investigated. They should know better. They do know better. So, again, we must ask, why can’t Bill control himself? Why does he seem, at times, to be (purposefully or not) wrecking his wife’s presidential chances?
Carl Bernstein, a one-time biographer of Hillary, took a middle ground, euphemistically calling Bill’s meeting with Lynch a “lapse in judgment.” He declared that Lynch may have to recuse herself from the investigation of Clinton’s State Department e-mails. Bernstein called the meeting “inexplicable, wrong,” It was, he said “improper.” Sound familiar? Bernstein might as well have been describing the shady land deal known as Whitewater, the years of affairs Clinton had with women or his subtle racism during his wife’s first presidential campaign.
Isn’t it time to call a spade a spade? Who knows what Clinton and Lynch spoke of? For all we know the two may have talked of lemonade and lozenges, but that does not matter. The two should not have met in private when Lynch’s office was investigating Bill’s wife. It is unclear how they did not see this. What is clear is that Bill Clinton has a problem with impulse control. It is his inability to control his impulsive responses, to refrain from cutting corners, that has plagued every step of his career. And, no doubt, will hurt if not cripple his wife, Secretary Clinton’s, presidential campaign. For it’s not a matter of if but when, when will Bill Clinton once again sabotage his wife’s presidential ambitions by unthinkingly acting out?