Time For The Political Pre-Nup!

A classic from the archive (March 1999) brought to mind by Scott McClellan's current choices

As bombs fall in Belgrade and George Stephanopoulus' memoir hits number one on bestseller lists, President Clinton has to be wondering who in the room is taking notes for the next kiss-and-tell. Unfortunately, he's got more cause to fret than ever, because if anyone still wondered how integrity stacks up against buzz in today's moral code, respectable reaction to George's book is the clincher.

Here we have one of the handful of advisers closest to a president trading confidential conversations for millions while the president is still in office. It was bad enough when disgraced toe-nibbler Dick Morris was rewarded for these sins with berths at the New York Post and Fox television. Decent people, at least, kept him at arms length. With ex-altar boy Stephanoupoulus, however, something has changed. Maybe its the Rhodes scholarship, or the seat with Sam and Cokie, or his progressive politics, or Clinton's own deep dishonor. Whatever the reason, the tut-tuts of luminaries have been half-hearted.

Instead, the general air has been one of resignation to the times. The speed of history is now faster, we're told, and book deals so rich it would be superhuman to resist. The few who blast Stephanopoulus without caveat (like ex-LBJ aide Richard Goodwin) are written off as quaint, cranks, or jealous. Stephanopoulus' own defense has been a diversion. His "test," he told the New York Times, was to ask, "was what I had to say relevant, fair and accurate?" But this is the question a disinterested journalist asks. The right question for a presidential adviser was, "is this a breach of the trust that came with the position I was privileged to hold?" To ask this is to answer it, and Stephanopoulus plainly calculated that the cash and career benefits outweighed any potential taint. The man knew his age. The twenty-five city book tour, the toasts from establishment heavies, even the obligatory, fleeting and publicity-generating 'debate' over George's ethics -- all send a message to aides on the make: there's no real price to pay for betrayal. Its all basically upside.

Remember, this wasn't Peggy Noonan off in the basement rhapsodizing harmlessly on the trivia of White House life. No, the fact that someone as close in as Stephanopoulus can pull this off, relatively unscorned, dooms future presidents to seemingly awful choices. They can hide their true thoughts from their inner circle, a weird and self-defeating notion, to say the least. They can stock this inner circle with people whose loyalty is truly beyond question, leaving us regrettably ruled by a brain trust of kindergarten pals like Mack McLarty, and presidential spouses. Or, as conventional wisdom seems to suggest, presidents can simply accept that betrayal from intimates comes with the territory, and helplessly await the knife.

Well, nonsense. Just as mergers and marriages that flourished on handshakes and vows had to turn to coarser arrangements once the stakes of breakup became high, the politician-aide relationship now needs its contract. Time, in other words, for the political pre-nuptial. Every president (and presidential candidate) should simply require key advisors and officials to sign a binding contract of confidentiality as a condition of employment. Aides would pledge not to disclose anything they see until, say, five years after their boss leaves office. The legitimate claims of history would thus be honored, along with the rightful expectations of presidents.

Its a shame, of course, that integrity now has to be assured rather than assumed, but can anyone deny that's where we are? Given this, its hard to object. True, one path from White House service to riches will be foreclosed, leaving future Stephanopouluses to make do on celebrity alone. And publishers will doubtless raise a fuss because betrayal is good business.

But the political pre-nup could become Stephanopoulus' legacy. Hollywood celebrities have required such contracts forever, from every cook, nanny and "personal assistant" they hire. And as politicians who think about it for a moment will realize, there's no downside to a pre-nup, and, after George, no shame in insisting on one. "Of course I trust you," Elizabeth Dole or George W. Bush can say lovingly into their aides' eyes, "but look what happened with George." Its routine adoption, even by politicians whose secrets seem unmarketable, could represent the establishment's late but lasting verdict on Stephanopoulus' crime. It offers lawyers a corner of public life where they can finally do something constructive. And it leaves presidential paranoia where it belongs -- not centered on aides, but on mistresses.

Comments

[tea in the harbor]

Yea Matt, let's protect these sob's a little more. Why should the servants of the people be subject to reality? And let's use examples that are a dozen or so years old to justify it!
The United States is infested with two parasitic organisms, let's say a donkey and an elephant, that have robbed us of the wealth we have created, usurped the power reserved for the citizens in our Constitution, taken us into a war of aggression making us responsible for hundreds of thousands of innocent deaths, and morphed our once free press into a malignancy that is manipulated like a crazed muppet, feeding on whatever morsles are offered, too lazy to hunt an honest meal!
Let's disable what little protection we have, we're going to die anyway, why fight?
Republicans and Democrats who follow their leaders quietly, who know the truth and stay mute, are the cause of most of our current delema, they will be the demise of our great experiment, started so long ago. Patriotism and party membership are mutually exclusive concepts, and the wrong side is winning! Loyalty, unearned and blind, should be defined as treason!

[longislandlol]

Stephanopoulos has seemingly trying to make it up to Hillary- but all for naught-

[ddharder]

Yes, by all means. Let's buffer elected officials even further from the public's right to know the truth. Let them eat cake while we're at it.

[3Gs]

A pre-nup is absolute non-sence. If the law is broken by a president 9or anyone else), that fact should be brought to light. If a democratically choosen leader (OK, we won't go there for George) is in flagrant violation of the constitution while performing his duties, he needs to fry. Period. No pre-employment agreement trumps the need to expose a criminal.

[AuntSam]

Please clarify - are you advocating that there should be no 'whistleblowing' and/or standing up and telling the truth if our government officials are involved in lying to the public and/or covering up wrongdoings that result in negatively impacting our country and harming the sancitity of our democratic processes? Please be clear about your message.

[GnitenGoodLk]

Who says McLellan wasn't directed to do it?

Nothing solidifies a waning Republican base more than a "traitor leftist" breaking ranks. He was in charge of press & shaping public opinion after all. Seems he's still at it.

All positions in the administration are required to sign an acknowledgment protecting sensitive information as a matter of national security and noting the risk of serious repercussions for disclosure, the mildest being club Fed pen for a looong time. Especially during war time. Any public rank breaking is intentional. My 1st clue? You don't accuse the administration of lying to the public to talk them into war, and not need whistleblower protection. The White House edited that book for months before it was released. Come on now.

Pre-nups are puppies, administration agreements are wolves with a serious case of rabies.