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Show SUnA.).J....U4. On IS.! THI: DAILY H! KM!) - 1'i-- v,, the brink of great achievement, Clinton's poised for a fail - WASHINGTON The White House is filled with ghosts. Many presidents have written and spoken of the palpable sense that the rooms in which they work and live are filled with the spirits of their predecessors. Madison and Jackson and Lincoln and both Roosevelts are not just portraits but presences. If President Clinton has the sense of history I think he does, he has to be feeling the ghosts of two of those past presidents hovering nearby this week: John F. Kennedy, the man we belatedly learned carried on a variety of reckless assignations inside and outside the White House. And Richard M. Nixon, who was driven from office for covering up his guilty knowledge of crimes. The news of the latest and still unproven allegations against Clinton broke suddenly but not entirely unexpectedly. As in Watergate, each event is just the most recent episode in MY TUSN David Broder an unfolding saga. Still, it has shocked the capital and the world. Once again, a nation that deserves better of its leaders is dealing with tales of incrim- inating tapes, of reports that gifted lawyers countenanced or counseled lavvbreaking. It is listening to a president give clipped, strained non answer answers, all the while insisting that he is cooperating fully with the investigation of his actions. Once again, the president's defenders are asserting this is an effort by partisan enemies to divert him from the serious work of governing that the voters entrusted to him. A journalist must suspend judgment until all the facts are known. But to believe Clinton's denials, one must once again presume that a succession of women over a period of two decades have concocted tales of his sexual prowling and invented charges that he told them how to camouflage the truth. The public is properly skeptical of these tales when they first appear. They seem so so jarringly out implausible of sync with the public picture these presidents present. Jack and Jackie Kennedy were the idealized, romantic young couple in a Camelot White House. Why would he have been trafficking with hookers and gangsters' molls? Why would Nixon, the master of subtle diplomacy, have been making foulmouthed, half- - sids was more pleased was that President Clinton adopted a First Dog and decided to name it Buddy. It's the perfect name. Not only does it happen to be the cat and name of my could increase its value, but there's the historical significance that Buddy was the name of one of the first seeing-eydogs. Increased value or not, Buddy, my cat isn't for others drunk plots to bug his enemies and break into their files? The public Clinton has been so deft, so charming and increasingly so successful a president that the stories of his tomcatting have been relegated to a separate compartment of the national consciousness. The gap in his poll ratings between job performance and personal character has been wide and persistent. But it has not hampered his work. As long as the bright side of Clinton was currently on view and the dark side was distant in time and place, the separation was relatively easy to maintain. But this latest investigation by independent counsel Kenneth Starr has brought the ugliness into the 1990s and into the White House itself. Clinton is steadied now not just by his lifelong history of talking his way out of jams that would have sunk most but by the readiness of close associates, starting with his wife, to step forward in his defense. Hillary Rodham Clinton has done that often, but so have ethers, both men and women. David Maraniss of The Washington Post, in his superb political biography. "First in His Class," tells how Betsey Wright, Clinton's longtime top staffer in Arkansas, who had made it her business to calc ulate the risks of some of Clinton's girlfriends going public with their stories, "hated that part of him. but felt that the other sides of him overshadowed his personal weaknesses." She was not alone. From boyhood on. people who met Clinton even casually recognized his exceptional intelligence, personal empathy and persuasiveness and saw how far those gifts could carry him in his ambition for public ser- qualities have made him the first Democrat since FDR to win two terms in the While House and have brought him to a moment when his greatest achievements seemed to beckon. In part because of the courageous battle he fought to attack the inherited deficits in his first year in office, he is about to present the nation the prospect of an era of balanced budgets. ' In his State of the Union address scheduled for Tuesday night, he plans to launch an effort to use possible budget surpluses to avoid the threat of bankruptcy in the Social Security system perhaps the greatest achievement of his party in this century and assure its survival for future generations. All that is threatened, and it makes what is happening more than a personal drama. It is a black day for the nation. vice. Dai id Broder is a columnist for The Washington Post. They were not wrong. Those long-ter- 'T Clinton a buddy just like our family pet eve Peterson Interiors No one than I MY TURN FIRST COME, one-eye- d FIRST SERVED e sale anyway. While Buddy really is the perfect name for a dog, it's even more purrrrfect for a cat. After all, don't you get a pet to be your nonjudgmental buddy? A buddy's a friend you can say anything to without fear of being ridiculed. Clinton probaindeed, needs bly likes that that as much as any of us. Our Buddy came from a litter of kittens I happened to discover in a Provo pet store a long time ago. I have forgot- ten exactly why Pat Christian stop clawing the curtains. We proved slow teachers, so Buddy was taken back to the pet store where a vet removed his front claws. Buddy's eye is another story. He just came home one day with an injured eye. The vet said someone must have shot Buddy with a BB gun. Less of a cat now than in bygone years. Buddy continues to serve our family well. I I picked Buddy, but I still remember how the kitten felt for the first time, even now when Buddy is a senior citizen in cat years. We bought Buddy and put him in a cardboard box to give to our son, Shaun, on his birthday. We wrapped the box in birthday paper. Shaun was delighted when he opened it to find his very own warm kitten. Although its name was Buddy, it soon answered to the names Bud and Budster. It served Shaun well a buddy who didn't judge him or cause him as much grief as others in the family did. Shaun grew up and eventually left home. Buddy stayed behind with us. He started being less of a cat right away, but remained loyal and beloved nonetheless. First to go was.. .well, his if cats have hopes hopes of fathering kittens. militants reading this, please don't write. No, I would not like anyAnti-neuteri- one to do that to me. Yes, I do feel guilty. More cat parts were to follow. My wife tried to get him to All Stock Furniture In Our Store And Warehouse Is Priced To Go Home With You! can't imagine him being called Fluffy, Socks (he doesn't have any) or by any other name. He was chosen to be our buddy and has fulfilled that role uniquely. All pets should be named Buddy. C: If they were, wouldn't they come to whoever called them? J9F Bottom line: Our cat is our buddy. As I've said, the name fits him well. I think it will fit the First Dog just fine, too. And don't think you can minimize the importance of First Pets. Remember, Sox, the First Cat, got more publicity than the First Daughter did for a while there. NOT KXACTLY AS U l.l'STR MI D WAS In a way, First Pets belong to all of us. And we especialcould ly this administration use a nonjudgmental symbol NOW Lamos & Accessories that a First Mutt named Buddy might bring. A little from a dog will be welcomed in the White House. tail-waggi- flIL.WrI!X f AS ILLL'STRATED William Jefferson Clinton, this Bud is for you and the WAS nation. Pat Christian is a reporter for The Daily Herald. H9U iPIMKWAS - - l I $893 ( 0UCY The Daily Herald welcomes letters to the editor. Letters must be signed and the author's name, address and daytime telephone number for verification. The writer's name and city of residence will be published, but the writer's address and phone number will not. Whenever possible, letters should be typed and double include spaced. allow the expression of as many viewpoints as possible, letters must be no longer than 400 words; 250 words or less is encouraged. The Herald reserves the right to edit letters for length and content. To Cu'C I. The Herald encourages community discussion of issues. However, we will not publish letters that are libelous or in bad taste. Letters written anonymously will be discarded. Please send your letters to: Editor The Daily Herald P.O. Box 717 1555 N. Freedom Blvd. Provo, UT. 84603 Letters may also be faxed. That number is If you have questions, call Opinions Page Editor Mark or Eddington at Managing Editor Mike Patrick 373-548- 344-254- at 344-254- 4 NOT EXACTLY AS ILLUSTRATED gnsrag rmn3 mm ir;u &m mvm Steve Peterson Interiors ASSOCIATES 205 EAST STATE, PLEASANT GROVE 785-305- 6 |