Columnist fails to make case for president's character deficit

In response to the column written by Mark Joseph Goldenson Jan. 24, "Clinton's bridge fails to span his chasm of character," I would suggest that he and others at the extremes of the political spectrum will never be satisfied with the performance of President Bill Clinton and will continue to divert attention to Whitewater and other non-issues.

Goldenson's real problem with Clinton (besides the fact that he defeated Bob Dole) is his middle-of-the-road positions on many public policy issues that have arguably improved the country.

For example, the 1993 tax increase, which hiked income taxes on the wealthiest 2 percent of Americans, has resulted in a more than 60 percent reduction in the nation's annual budget deficits. Goldenson, like many of Clinton's liberal and conservative opponents, tends to equate pragmatism with a lack of personal character.

Goldenson recites the laundry list of phony scandals - Vince Foster, Whitewater, Filegate and Travelgate - all of which pale in comparison to historical scandals of past administrations (Harding's Teapot Dome, Nixon's Watergate, and Reagan's Iran-Contra).

I suspect that Goldenson really doesn't know much about these scandals.

Vince Foster, who served as a White House counsel, committed suicide (possibly as a result of stress and depression).

Whitewater was a real estate investment in the 1980s in which the Clinton family lost money (and no wrongdoing has been found after four years of taxpayer-funded invest-igations).

Filegate involved a mid-level White House employee who requested personnel files from the FBI for individuals who served in previous administrations (possibly because of an outdated Secret Service list).

And Travelgate involved the firing of about seven employees of the White House travel office (almost all of which were provided jobs elsewhere in the government).

While these problems may have involved wrongdoing on the part of individuals who worked for the president, they really do not represent significant character flaws on the part of the President. It took courage and character for Bill Clinton to announce his candidacy for the presidency in 1992 - at a time when President George Bush's approval ratings were near 90 percent. In any event, it's time to put the 1996 election behind us and help the president move the country forward to the 21st century.