Sunday, September 13, 1998

Public shows healthy sense of outrage

By Morton Kondracke

Congressional critiques of President Clinton and the new Battleground survey indicate moralist Bill Bennett has been worrying needlessly that Americans have lost their sense of outrage.

Bennett's new book, The Death of Outrage: Bill Clinton and the Assault on American Ideals, argues the country is in danger of losing its moral bearings if it lets Clinton get away with "repeated betrayal of public trust and abuses of power."

He's clearly concerned that polls show a majority of Americans want the Lewinsky case to be dropped while a minority favor Clinton's removal -- even if he committed perjury or obstruction of justice.

"During the last 30 years we have witnessed a relentless assault on traditional norms and a profound shift in public attitudes," writes the Republican former drug czar, producing a "culture of permissiveness" that may tolerate "among the most corrupt" administrations in U.S. history.

The book is a systematic, passionate rebuttal of the major arguments made in Clinton's defense -- "it was just sex," "politicians are all corrupt," "it's Ken Starr's fault" -- but it begins to look as though traditional norms haven't quite collapsed after all.

Neither Congress nor the public is with Bennett in demanding Clinton's resignation or impeachment, apparently preferring to wait until independent counsel Starr's findings are evaluated. But concern that the public is just shrugging seems misplaced.

Conceivably, historians may actually conclude that reaction to Clinton's misbehavior represented a decisive turning-away from "anything goes" back toward "personal responsibility."

As Democratic pollster Celinda Lake reports, the latest bipartisan Battleground survey indicates the Clinton scandal has had significant impact on the electorate by elevating values and morals to the top of the agenda and discrediting Democrats, especially among seniors.

Not only is the "decline of moral values" volunteered by voters as the most serious problem facing the country, but it is selected by them as the top issue for Congress. The public thinks Republicans are the party to fix it.

Even though Clinton's job performance ratings remain strong -- 56 percent approve, 41 disapprove -- his personal approval ratings have crashed by 19 points in the last eight months to 26 percent positive, 62 percent negative.

The survey documents in the most detailed terms yet the huge advantage Republicans are likely to have in voter turnout this November, though it does not predict the extent of net GOP gains in House and Senate seats.

Among all registered voters, the GOP holds a 3-point advantage on the generic congressional ballot question, but an 8-point advantage among those most likely to actually appear at the polls.

Only 25 percent of registered voters approve of both Clinton's job and personal performance. Thirty percent ("drop-off voters") approve of the job he's doing but not of him personally, while 39 percent approve neither.

The chief GOP pollster for Battleground, Ed Goeas, commented that "voters who consistently disapprove of the president are the most intense about voting, drop-off voters fall into the medium interest range, and those who consistently approve of Clinton show a much lower interest in this fall's election."

Voter attitudes, plus personal offense, have moved increasing numbers of Democrats to join Republicans in condemning Clinton's conduct, following the lead of Sen. Joe Lieberman, D-Conn., Bennett's longtime ally in criticizing the coarsening of U.S. culture.

Unlike Bennett, though, Lieberman did not call for Clinton to be forced from office -- declaring "talk of impeachment and resignation at this time is unjust and unwise." Even to decide on "a resolution of reprimand or censure" would be "premature" until the Starr report has been read and Clinton has responded.

"Time and space," Lieberman said, "may also give the president additional opportunities to accept personal responsibility, to rebuild public trust in his leadership, to really commit himself to the values that brought him to office."

Time is running very short, however, as Starr has delivered his report to Congress.

Whether the penalty for Clinton's offenses turns out to be his removal, censure, loss of his moral authority or the defeat of his party in November, it's clear that the American people haven't lost their sense of outrage, after all. That's about the only good news to be found in this sordid affair.

Morton Kondracke is executive editor of Roll Call, the newspaper of Capitol Hill.

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