It's not so much that maybe President William Jefferson Clinton had an affair with Monica Lewinsky that bugs me.

I mean, that bugs me, but it bothers me more that he is so willing to look directly into the collective eyes of this great nation and lie to us about it.

I know you are innocent until proven guilty, but is there anybody left on the planet who thinks there wasn't something going on between the president and the intern?

Honestly, I think he should have just said, "Yeah, I did it. It was wrong. Sorry." Then all the pundits could have had a heyday with columns about the psychology of trysts or sex addiction and we could have gone on to bigger and better things.

But no. The president had to tell us emphatically that he never did anything wrong. Which, basically, is what he always says.

And that, precisely, is what bugs me.

It is his inability - perceived or otherwise - to own up to his mistakes and take responsibility.

If you look back over his term in office, there is a marked pattern of stonewalling and deception.

Again and again this guy and the people he surrounds himself with have gotten into trouble.

It's no right-wing conspiracy. It's a Clinton conspiracy of deceit.

I tried to find a concise summary of the Clinton scandals.

That is a daunting task.

Let's start with Ken Starr's investigation.

Whitewater - A real estate partnership along the White River in Arkansas. James and Susan McDougal and Bill and Hillary were the partners. The issue here is whether Bill, then-governor of Arkansas, pressured David Hale, a longtime Demo, into making an illegal $300,000 loan to Susan. Hale at the time was running a government-backed investment fund. The main allegation is that the McDougals and former Arkansas governor Jim Guy Tucker used McDougal's savings and loan and Hale's small business loan company as the source for making a bunch of phony loans to fund their business ventures.

Tucker and both McDougals were convicted.

Travel office firings - Seven employees of the White House travel office were fired, apparently to make room for some Clinton buddies. Hillary reportedly engineered the whole thing but denies it under oath. A memo from Clinton administration official David Watkins suggests that Hillary may have lied. Billy Dale and six staffers were accused of mishandling money in the office. Dale was charged with embezzling and acquitted.

Vince Foster - Deputy White House counsel Vincent Foster Jr. was found dead in a Virginia Park. Investigators were not allowed into Foster's office, but White House aides went in, raising the suspicion that files were removed. Foster, a month before his death, filed three years' worth of delinquent Whitewater tax returns.

Webster Hubbell - Hubbell is a former law partner of Hillary and an associate attorney general in the Justice Department. He had to resign after pleading guilty to fraud and tax evasion. After the plea, friends of Bill and Hillary gave Hubbell an estimated $700,000 in work. Speculation is that the $700,000 was the price for Hubbell's silence concerning the Clintons' role in Whitewater.

FBI files - The White House admitted that it improperly received hundreds of FBI background files in 1993. Lots of those were files of prominent Republicans. White House security director Craig Livingstone was fired over the matter.

Billing records - Hillary Clinton's billing records from the Rose law firm, subpoenaed by Starr for more than two years, showed up in a private area of the White House. The documents showed that Hillary did 60 hours of legal work for McDougal's savings and loan business. The question is whether the Clintons tried to obstruct justice. Hillary, the first first lady to be subpoenaed, testified that no obstruction took place.

Troopergate - Arkansas state troopers are questioned about Bill's extramarital activities while he was governor of Arkansas. Starr says the information is relevant to the Whitewater investigation.

Monica Lewinsky - Linda Tripp gives Starr audiotapes of Lewinsky saying she had an affair with the president. This is a direct contradiction of a deposition Lewinsky gave to Paula Jones' attorney. There's also a question as to whether the president and Vernon Jordan urged Lewinsky to remain silent or lie.

Now these are just the things Starr is investigating.

There's the whole Indonesian, Riady Lippo coal, Grand Escalante National Monument thing.

There's the selling China technology for contributions to the Demo party thing.

There's the selling nights in the Lincoln bedroom thing.

There's the Zoe Baird, Kimba Wood, Lani Guinier things.

People, I haven't even scratched the surface here.

To chronicle it all would take volumes. And all this from the man who, before taking office, promised us the most ethical administration in history.

The stonewalling, the stalling, the obfuscation. The deceit runs rampant.

And now, on Monday, Bill will testify before the grand jury. The truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth. You bet.

Lots of people say this is all about sex. That it's trivial. That it's no crime and that it's certainly not the stuff that impeachments are made of.

That is a narrow view.

It is about our president and his administration's seeming inability to tell the truth.

I would wait to read Starr's report to Congress before I said that this entire investigation all boils down to sex with Monica.

Starr is no fool. I believe his report will detail a pattern of abuse of power and the use of executive privilege to obstruct justice.

My guess is members of Congress will have to swallow hard when they read it.

I read the following statement somewhere, I don't exactly remember where, and it is paraphrased, but it pretty much sums up Bill Clinton for me.

There only two ways to teach morality: example and exhortation. Clinton has done more to undermine morality than anyone in history because he has shown us by example that the most powerful and successful man in the world can get there by lying and cheating. The example renders the exhortation useless. Bill Clinton is a role model for perjury. [[In-content Ad]]