Though the election is well past, his advisers say this is no time to talk about such downbeat matters. That would shatter the public mood. Clinton isn't the only rudderless ship in Washington. The whole place, primed for battle so long, is having trouble coping with conciliation. Working hard to be charming, Newt Gingrich ends up making his loyalists loathe him more.
Democracy demands conflict.
Washington politicos brighten visibly only when asked about the likelihood of new brawls breaking out. They can't wait to start slugging. Maybe that's why our national cinema these days is populated by mutants, aliens, snakes, velociraptors, lava rivers and doomed ocean liners. It isn't art, but it does get the blood pumping. Radovan Karadzic and most of his Serbian followers certainly qualify, but there was surprisingly good news here last week when Dusan Tadic became the first Serb to be tried and convicted of crimes against humanity.