by Patrick J. Buchanan – January 22, 1998

The saddest of commentaries on the Clinton presidency is that on the first day of his greatest political and personal crisis, no one really believed him — not even his own loyalists.

The White House staff was stunned and demoralized the instant the charge surfaced of a Clinton liaison with a 21-year-old intern, whom the president allegedly seduced within days of her arrival at the White House. A few Clintonites bravely took to the airwaves to denounce the “right wing” for this “latest attack.” But their rage was hollow and formalistic, without the old fire.