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Thursday, December 20, 2001
Speaking at a partisan gathering, Republican Allegheny County Chief Executive Jim Roddey last week made a crack about former President Bill Clinton that rightly has come back to haunt him.
In introducing state Attorney General Mike Fisher, a Republican aspirant for governor, Mr. Roddey said: "One year after President Reagan left office, the Berlin Wall came down; one year after President Clinton left office, the World Trade Center came down."
It was the political version of the sort of Vegas one-liner that is followed by a drummer's rim shot. But Democrats weren't laughing. State Sen. Vincent Fumo of Philadelphia sent Mr. Roddey a letter accusing him of implicating Mr. Clinton in the Sept. 11 attack and calling on the chief executive to "apologize for your outrageous commentary now."
Even if you think Sen. Fumo, a famously partisan Democrat, was trying to make political capital out of Mr. Roddey's gaffe, the original comment was outrageous, even considering the context.
President Bush, the nation's top Republican, has been scrupulous about not exploiting Sept. 11 to score partisan points. Mr. Roddey should have taken a lesson from him. By now Bill Clinton's hide is pretty tough, but those who are mourning the victims of Sept. 11 terrorism have a right to expect that their loss won't be used as Hamburger Helper for partisan red meat.
Pressed to elaborate on his Reagan-Clinton analogy, the chief executive initially opined that "the permissive policies of the last administration contributed to the terrorists' feelings that they were invulnerable."
Perhaps because Mr. Roddey isn't known as an expert on national security or terrorist psychology, this explanation wasn't very convincing. Yesterday, in a letter to another Democratic state senator, Jack Wagner, a less expansive Mr. Roddey wrote: "I believe that both President Reagan and President Clinton made contributions to our nation. Upon reflection, I recognize the comparison I made was inappropriate." Unlike Mr. Roddey's original remarks, that is an understatement.