Clueless When Convenient

Clueless When Convenient
If there's one thing Sen. Clinton is full of, it's opinions.
BY CLAUDIA ROSETT
Thursday, February 1, 2001 12:01 a.m. EST

It was one of those Hillary moments. Asked at a news conference Monday what she thought of her husband's controversial presidential pardons for four Hasidic embezzlers and fugitive arbitrageur Marc Rich, Sen. Clinton replied: "You're going to have to ask the president's transition office for a comment. I have no opinion. I had no opinion before. I had no opinion at the time. I have no opinion now. That's a constitutional authority given exclusively to the president, and you know, I really don't have any opinion about it."

What we're seeing with the Clintons is a transition from the epoch of "I did not have sex with that woman" to the era of "I do not have opinions about this man"--or about any other matter about which integrity might collide with self-interest. If somewhere in all that blather Mrs. Clinton were telling the truth--if she really had no opinion--we'd all have reason to worry about having someone that fluff-brained in the Senate. As it is, we can comfort ourselves that from her high perch she is simply treating the public, once again, like a mob of morons who'll believe any old lie if you just repeat it enough.

Hillary as a rule is a geyser of opinions. On the same day she was proclaiming herself clueless about Bill's highly questionable pardons, she was overflowing with such notions as this one: "His personal record demonstrates a long and personal struggle to bend the rule of law to fit his views." Hilariously, she was referring not to her husband but to John Ashcroft.

Mrs. Clinton has had opinions for a long time. She began her stint as first lady with the view that she was entitled and qualified to run the massive project of overhauling the nation's entire health-care system. She had opinions about the White House travel office staff. She had opinions about women--including women who, unlike Hillary, would stoop to baking cookies.

And who can forget what Hillary's ready viewpoint contributed to the nation's phrasebook when the Monica Lewinsky story broke? Hillary--who surely knew something by then about Bill's habits--opined on the "Today" show, in January 1998, that it was all the fault of a "vast right-wing conspiracy."

Hillary has opinions on a whole range of subjects. She not only knows just how to raise children; she also believes she is more expert in the process than most parents. Her opinion here boils down to the notion that it would be a better world were she in charge of government, and were government in charge of children. Her book, "It Takes a Village," might more appropriately have been titled: "It Takes a Village Run by Hillary Clinton."

During her Senate race Mrs. Clinton clearly arrived at the opinion that it was fair pool to use her White House perks to jet along the campaign trail at taxpayers' expense. And from her privileged height she showered residents of New York state with opinions about how they should live their lives and run their businesses and stay on their farms. She also shared her view that during a debate her rival, Rick Lazio, had invaded her personal space, something that in her opinion further entitled her to a seat in the Senate.

No sooner had Hillary won herself a place as junior senator than she began airing her view that it was time to overhaul not just the New York road system, or the upstate economy, but also the U.S. Constitution. Whatever careful reserve she now deems necessary in discussing the constitutional authority for presidential pardons issued by Bill, she had no such qualms about calling breezily for an end to the Electoral College, which has served the country in its present form for two centuries.

Mrs. Clinton then moved right along to the opinion that it was fine for her to take an $8 million advance for her memoirs, just in time to beat the ban on such bonanzas that applies to sitting senators. She had the further opinion that it was fitting for her and her husband to carry off $200,000 in White House gifts of silverware and other booty.

By now she even has an opinion about football. Meet Hillary, Giants fan. Tuesday's TV news brought us Sen. Clinton, revamped for the occasion as the Senate's new sorority girl, standing next to Sen. Charles Schumer, reciting Edgar Allen Poe's "The Raven" as part of a lost Super Bowl bet. Mr. Schumer described how the Giants' loss to the Baltimore Ravens in the Superbowl was "painful for Hillary and I to watch."

I have an opinion: Give us a break.

Ms. Rosett is a member of The Wall Street Journal's editorial board. Her column appears Thursdays on OpinionJournal.com and in The Wall Street Journal Europe as "Letter From America."