Though the president's behavior with Monica Lewinsky was not terribly adult, it was indisputably human. Even Clinton's harshest critics would grant that much. Nor would William F. Buckley, let alone Joseph Lieberman, object in principle to a mere mortal holding the nation's highest office. The question is what failings of the flesh one deems intolerable in a head of state. Nothing could be more human than lying.
Animals are incapable of it.
Some aspects of humanity are more endearing than others. Descriptions of Bush as nervous, awkward, and stiff in his White House meeting with Clinton on Tuesday are reminders that the president-elect is for real. By contrast, Bush didn't seem at all intimidated by the congressional leaders of both parties he met with this week. Starting a month from now, Americans won't need a banner to tell them that the man in the White House is a human being, and what's more, by all accounts a decent one. Francis X. Rocca is a writer living in Vicenza, Italy.