Clinton's strange power

The Monica Lewinsky scandal has weakened Bill Clinton's grasp on his office, but it may have given him a peculiar new weapon in the budget wars. Only a few weeks from adjournment, Congress is engaged in the annual autumn ritual of confronting the White House over taxes and spending, just when Mr. Clinton is braving the impeachment firestorm on an island of his own contradictions.

But in that weakness lies a paradoxical kind of strength. The more feeble the president seems, the more seriously Congress takes his demands. The last thing they want is to distract the public from his troubles and provoke a searching look at Republican budget priorities.

To all (the) threats, the White House is saying: "Make my day." It is itching for a fight on anything that will portray Mr. Clinton as a man of principle, thereby throwing the Republicans on the defensive. Hoping to carve out something for the voters, Republicans in both houses are scrambling to bridge their differences on a tax cut of as much as US$80 billion, paid for by this year's budget surplus. Last week, the president vowed once again to veto it, arguing that the money should be set aside to rescue Social Security retirement benefits.

In all this strategizing is the sad spectacle of what might have been. The public can only look with wonder on these developments. Mr. Clinton's leverage, a Zen mutation of weakness into strength, may work this year to advance his budget goals, and victory on these items would be good for the country. But it will mean little if he cannot pump other kinds of authority into his hollowed-out presidency.

-- The New York Times