WASHINGTON WATCH: CLINTON'S RESIDENCY FLUTTERS

WASHINGTON -- Fearing that the American people view him as out of touch, Bill Clinton took to the airwaves last week to unveil a plan for a middle-class tax cut. His speech came nearly two years after he originally abandoned the idea, and a month after Republicans swept midterm elections promising to cut taxes if elected to a majority. Not all Democrats were happy with Clinton's sudden reversal. To many of them in this city, it merely bolstered the image of the president as a man who can't make up his mind. They also felt the plan entered the administration into a bidding war with Republicans that it couldn't win.

Actually, it's worse than that. Clinton's backflip on tax cuts, barely a month after he demonized Republicans for similar ideas, exposes the void at the core of his presidency once again. Is there nothing this president will not say or do, especially when the polls shift?

Indeed, by embracing tax cuts now, Clinton all but admits that his previous rantings against them were nothing but political rhetoric. Or, if that isn't the case, it makes what he is saying now the political maneuver. Either way, it doesn't lead the American people to make a flattering assessment of his ability to speak the truth.

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If Bill Clinton needs an example of a leader sticking by his convictions, he need only turn to the next Speaker of the House. When Newt Gingrich first mentioned the idea of modern orphanages for children whose parents had neither the wherewithal nor capacity to bring them up, a firestorm of criticism rained down upon him. First Lady Hillary Clinton led the outcry, calling the idea "unbelievable" and "absurd." Then the president condemned the idea, falsely charging Gingrich with wanting to take children from "loving families." Several media organizations portrayed the idea as the "diabolical" plan of a "mean" Republican.

Battered but unbowed, Gingrich refused to retreat. He calmly pointed out that an institution isn't better than a home. But it is better than life on the street or in a crack house. Soon, he was earning the grudging respect of even those who disagreed with him. Not because they liked him, but because he wasn't afraid to deal with real ideas. Bill Clinton could use a little bit of that kind of grudging respect. But he's got to do more than give political-sounding speeches to earn it. What he needs is to make a commitment to the country first, to reach up beyond partisan politics and to seek a goal much greater than his own political viability. With his political fortunes already dim, he has nothing to lose. And everything to gain.

Jon K. Rust is a Washington-based writer for the Southeast Missourian.