Faveread: Clinton review

For some reason, former president Bill Clinton is back in the news. The London Review of Books (do you also find that you are making do quite well with book reviews these days rather than with the books themselves?) presents a rather interesting synopsis of a book showing how Clinton was upset about media attacks on his person, but not about attacks from Republicans -- because they were simply playing the same political game he was:

"Most of all, though, what Clinton liked about his Republican opponents was that he was better at politics than they were."

In another article from the UK, Clinton is quoted as having this to say about how history will remember him -- namely, with two footnotes:

"One is 'They impeached him', and the other is 'He stood up to them and beat them, and he beat them like a yard dog'."

That's a rather Arkansan way of putting it. Anyway, I have long wondered why so many Democrats are so tolerant of Republican hardball:

‘Good ol’ Jesse,’ is all Clinton will say of the poisonous, racist Jesse Helms, who has just called him ‘unfit’ to lead the armed forces and warned him to stay away from North Carolina for his own safety.

It is hard to imagine a German MP threatening the safety of the German chancellor, and even harder to imagine the German media and general public not reacting. But perhaps I now know what game these Democrats are playing -- the same one the Republicans are playing, just with a different strategy. Frankly, I think the game is not worth playing.