I think W is being far too nice to Bill Clinton.

I mean, really, some of the stuff that Bill and his crew pulled on the way out of office was really pretty tacky.

Or depraved.

Or arrogant.

Or maybe even illegal.

But W, in his quest to remain conciliatory and a "uniter, not a divider," just keeps giving Bill a pass.

I would have been tempted to hold Bill's feet in the fire over some of the stuff. It seemed like every other day there was another story coming out about some shady activities of the waning Clinton administration.

First, there was the White House vandalism where Clinton staffers did thousands of dollars of damage.

They removed the Ws from keyboards and poured glue in keyboards.

They left behind little bits of porno here and there and generally made a mess of the place.

Ah, ever the compassionate liberals, those Clinton staffers.

Anyway, W gives the very measured response. His spokesman says something about understanding why someone might be upset over losing the election and adds, "we're looking into it."

That's it.

Now my guess is that if the tables were turned and the Demos were taking over a vandalized White House, there would be an outcry.

My guess is that there would be a denouncement of the senseless debauchery and a call for justice.

But the petty White House vandalism was the least repugnant of the news coming out of the last days of the Clinton administration.

There was the pardon of Marc Rich. He is the guy who eluded the feds since 1983.

Rich was indicted for evading $48 million in taxes. He also faced charges alleging fraud and participation in illegal oil deals with Iran.

But before he could be brought to justice, Rich fled to Switzerland, where he lived quite the opulent lifestyle and became quite the philanthropist, giving millions of his allegedly ill-gotten booty to charity.

Nice guy.

At the same time, his ex-wife was ponying up a couple hundred grand to the Democrats back in the USA.

This week a story in the New York Post says Congress is looking into the question of whether Rich was involved in spying while he was hiding out in Switzerland.

The House Government Reform Committee, which already is looking into the connection between money to the Demos and Rich's pardon, received tips that Rich may have provided intelligence data to other countries.

Pardon me, but my understanding of pardons was that they were reserved for people who were somewhat wrongly accused or who were too harshly punished or who had at least paid a little bit of their debt to society.

But this Rich character has never served a day. Never been convicted of anything. Never brought to justice of any kind. Apparently his sentence - an 18-year Swiss vacation - must have been pretty heinous in the eyes of the Clinton administration.

Again, W has been fairly mum about the case.

Next we have the Clintons carting off a bunch of stuff from the White House that apparently didn't belong to them.

Of course, Hillary says they will be happy to return any item that was wrongly spirited away.

"All of these items were considered gifts to us," Hillary told the Associated Press, "... but if there is a different intent, we will certainly honor the intention of the donor."

Hey, that's really big of you, Hill.

Of course the Clintons maintain that none of the "gifts" they took, including some $23,000 worth of household furnishings, was official White House property.

But donors say otherwise.

The Washington Post quoted two donors as saying the furnishings they gave were intended for the White House - not the Clintons. The Post also quoted Brad Noe, a former furniture industry executive, that a sofa worth $3,000 that he was supposed to have given to the Clintons wasn't meant for them. "I would never give a gift to the Clintons," Noe said.

The day before they left the White House, the Clintons released a list of $190,000 worth of "gifts" they were hauling away. After a firestorm of controversy, they offered to pay $86,000 for about half the "gifts." Now the other half is being questioned.

W's response?

He expressed confidence the Clintons would make a proper decision.

Sure, I trust Bill.

When Bill showed up for a $100,000 appearance in Boca Raton, Fla., at a Morgan Stanley Dean Witter & Co. conference, demonstrators shouted, "Hide the women and silverware."

Another proud moment for the institution of the presidency.

And finally, Bill's office - which, by the way, is the entire 57th floor of a Manhattan skyscraper where the taxpayer-subsidized rent is around $700,000 a year - says he had no clue that federal prosecutors were on the trail of Almon Glenn Braswell.

Braswell was pardoned by Clinton for a 1983 fraud conviction.

The Clinton people say they simply did not know that the feds are investigating Braswell, who markets herbal remedies, in connection with a massive tax evasion and money-laundering scheme. Braswell's 1983 conviction resulted from false claims about the effectiveness of a baldness treatment.

Nobody has really explained how Braswell's pardon ended up on Bill's desk, but it didn't go through the normal Justice Department review. If it had, Justice would have blocked it because Braswell is under investigation.

W is staying shy of this one, too. But that might be because Braswell donated $175,000 to W and the Florida Republican Party during the presidential campaign.

The good news is that they gave the money back when they found out Braswell was a convicted felon.

All in all, it was quite an exit by the Clinton administration. Seems those folks have absolutely no shame.

Only in American could somebody like Bill enjoy a 60 percent approval rating. [[In-content Ad]]