USA TODAY International Edition
Bill Clinton
Boehner’s assessment of the elder Bush was short and sweet; his view of Bill Clinton is more complicated, and more mixed.
“One of the best politicians in my lifetime,” he said, and a “fantastic talker.”
But he said Clinton reminded him of Eddie Haskell, the obsequious kid from “Leave It to Beaver,” a TV sitcom from the 1950s and 1960s. “He could steal your watch right in front of you, and you’d be grateful when he told you the time,” Boehner said. The president played “a slightly shady” game of golf, including a fondness for taking mulligans, or do- over shots. Boehner called them “Billigans.”
In his book, Boehner wrote that he admired Clinton’s “skillful” campaign in 1992, “where he managed to survive accusations of adultery, draft dodging, being a communist, drug running and even mass murder.” He added, “Some of those allegations were more credible than others, but I’ll let you decide which was which.”
It was blowback by voters to Clinton’s first two years in office that gave Republicans control of the House in 1994, he said.
Boehner voted to impeach Clinton on charges of lying under oath and obstruction of justice when he tried to cover up an affair with a White House intern. He said the move was motivated by Republican whip Tom DeLay’s calculation that impeachment would be “a big win politically.”
It wasn’t, and Boehner no longer argues that Clinton’s misdeeds met the “high crimes and misdemeanor” requirement in the Constitution for impeachment.
“I regret it now,” he said. “I regret that I didn’t fight against it.”