Just How Powerful Is Bill Clinton?

It must be amazing to have the power former President Bill Clinton is reputed to have. According to the Repubs, he's responsible for just about everything that happens in American political life. There was the mini-series last month that put the blame for September 11 on Clinton. Denny Hastert suggested that he was really behind the Foley page scandal. And now John McCain is leading the charge to blame Bill Clinton for the failed North Korean nuclear test (although I don't think he gets credit for the failed part). Seeing as how he hasn't actually been president for nearly six years, it's not clear if there was anything he possibly could have done since early 2001 to fend this development off. Perhaps he could've just made a quick call to Kim Jong-il and told him to lay off. Maybe he could've enlisted his huge network of secret operatives to do whatever it is that they do to make sure the test was avoided. I don't know, but clearly he should've done something.

Unfortunately, in blaming Clinton, McCain gives away the basic impotence of the Bush administration. They've had almost six years to affect the nuclear situation in North Korea, and apparently they couldn't quite bring themselves to do anything. Maybe it wouldn't have mattered. Maybe Bush, Cheney, Condi, and McCain have known for six years that they had no choice but to sit and wait for North Korea to develop a weapon and test it. So if all this really was the all-powerful Bill Clinton's fault, what do the Bushies even bring to the party?