LIMBAUGH COMMENTARY: THE KEY TO BUSH'S $36 MILLION

The media's uniform cry of disbelief at George W's unprecedented fund-raising efforts reveals just how out of touch they are about a phenomenon they've been instrumental in perpetuating: Bill Clinton's contamination of the American presidency.

It also shows just how blind they are to the magnetic qualities of Governor Bush.

First, the Clinton factor:

Bush is popular in his own right, but a major part of his attraction is his contrasting decency to that of the current administration. A great majority of the electorate is putting its hope in W to end this era of corruption.

The breadth and depth of the Clinton scandals is astonishing; but even more so is the fact that he has been allowed to skate. It couldn't have happened without the press.

From William Safire's latest column, I learned of yet another Clinton lie that has been ignored by the press. This lie, just like so many of Clinton's others, bears directly on his culpability in a certain scandal.

Safire writes that former deputy White House counsel Jane Sherburne asked Clinton's personal attorney David Kendall to inquire of the president whether he knew about the Lippo Group's hush money payment to Webster Hubbell. She was worried that an affirmative answer may mean that Clinton had obstructed justice (note: in a matter that had nothing remotely to do with sex).

Kendall supposedly checked with Clinton and reported to Sherburne that it was not a problem. Yet sometime later, Clinton stated in a news conference, "I didn't personally know anything about it until I read about it in the press."

Why would Clinton have lied about this if he had nothing to hide concerning the Hubbell hush money?

This is no different from Clinton being caught red-handed denying that he'd been informed (much earlier than he'd admitted) about China's theft of our nuclear secrets. Bill Richardson and Chris Cox, among others, left no doubt about this.

This is little different from today's Washington Post revelation that Clinton grossly exaggerated the extent of Serbian atrocities against Kosovars in order to gin up support for his intervention in that civil war.

In fact, this is little different from all the other Clinton lies that have received scant initial press coverage and virtually no follow up. Just two weeks after the release of the Cox Report (containing the most disturbing revelations about security breaches in the history of this nation, bar none), no news stories are to be found on the subject.

Despite the media's cover, the truth of Clinton's character has finally filtered into the American psyche. Everyone but the most overtly prejudiced die-hard liberals knows that Clinton is guilty of multiple impeachable offenses and is unfit for office.

The American people are finally tired of the Clinton-Gore stench and they are ready to clean house. They will apparently continue to cover their ears and hold their noses about Clinton's endless acts of wrongdoing but they'll vicariously impeach him by resoundingly rejecting Al Gore, either in the primary or in the general election.

The W factor:

Let's not be fooled into believing that negatives alone can rally GOP forces. It took both the negatives of Hillarycare and the positives of the Contract With America to usher in the 1994 Republican congressional majority.

All of the Clinton negatives were present in 1996 when Bob Dole failed to energize the party around his candidacy. Even with eternal optimist Jack Kemp on his ticket, he gave the voters little reason to vote for him, other than to vote against Clinton.

Bush's $36 million demonstrates that Republicans (and more) have been galvanized again. George W offers hope. Unlike some of his Republican opponents, he is a winner, not a whiner. Like Ronald Reagan, he seems to have the quality of making people feel good about themselves and about their country again.

It's clear that W is not a policy wonk, but he's a quick study and exudes leadership, maturity and decency.

I am still not convinced that Bush is as conservative as I would prefer, but I'm also not as suspicious about it as his detractors. His record is more encouraging in that regard than some of his rhetoric. And, actions speak louder than words.

The majority of American voters at last have grown weary of Clinton's corruption, his politics of personal destruction and his rhetorical indictment of American self-reliance and entrepreneurship. They are ready for a change. Right now, W appears to represent the most likely candidate to effectuate that change.

~David Limbaugh of Cape Girardeau is a columnist for Creators Syndicate.