Death of Outrage: Bill Clinton and the Assault on American Ideals by William J. Bennett

Description

As the full extent of Bill Clinton's misconduct in office became clear to the American people, the public outrage that was expected did not materialise. William J. Bennett analyses the meaning of the Clinton scandals and argues that with enormous skill, the President and his advisors have constructed a defensive wall built of bricks left over from Watergate: diversion, half truth, equivocation, and sophistry. It is a wall that remains unbreached. Until now. In THE DEATH OF OUTRAGE, Bennett dismantles this wall, brick by evasive brick. He shows how the Presidents private actions, far from being irrelevent to the conduct of public affairs, have severely restricted his ability to govern. Bennett agues that Clinton's unprecedented recklessness is evident in everything from influence peddling to sexual misconduct and that these scandals, far from being a tabloid creation, are inextricably inter-linked with the President's corruption. Bill Bennett explains why presidential character matters; why allegations of sexual misconduct need to be taken seriously; why reasoned judgement is the mark of a healthy democracy; and why the ends don't justify the means. Explosive and hard-hitting, powerful in its logic, carefully reasoned in its conclusions, THE DEATH OF OUTRAGE allows the reader to repudiate the deep corruption of Bill Clinton, and the corrupting arguments made in his defense.

Editorial Review

Don't look for President Clinton's picture in The Book of Virtues; bestselling author and former Secretary of Education William J. Bennett considers Bill Clinton uniquely unvirtuous. In the wake of the White House intern sex scandal, Bennett accuses Clinton of crimes at least as serious as those committed by Richard Nixon during the Watergate imbroglio. Rising above anti-Clinton polemics, The Death of Outrage urges the American public–which initially displayed not much more than a collective shrug–to take issue with the president's private and public conduct. Clinton should be judged by more than the state of the economy, implores Bennett. The commander in chief sets the moral tone of the nation; a reckless personal life and repeated lying from the bully pulpit call for a heavy sanction. The American people should demand nothing less, says the onetime federal drug czar. In each chapter, Bennett lays out the rhetorical defenses made on Clinton's behalf (the case against him is “only about sex,” harsh judgmentalism has no place in modern society, independent counsel Kenneth Starr is a partisan prosecutor, etc.) and picks them apart. He may not convince everybody, but this is an effective conservative brief against Bill Clinton. –John J. Miller