Clinton's Mistakes...

While history will surely focus on the Blue Dress, Clinton's presidency was not without its substantive errors. Take the OKC Bombing case and the prosecution of Tim McVeigh. One of the tools placed into the arsenal of federal prosecutors was the Anti-Terrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act of 1996. While it enabled the feds to quickly stick a needle in McVeigh's arm, it's also created problems for death row inmates who seek new trials based on evidence that surfaces years after their convictions.

TalkLeft mentions the case of Troy Davis, who is scheduled to be executed Tuesday by the State of Georgia. There appears to be solid evidence indicating that Davis might be innocent of the murder he will be killed for, but AEDPA makes it all but impossible for his lawyers to file a habeas writ to hold off the headsman. Go to TalkLeft for the details of Davis' case; you'll see it's compelling.

The bigger picture point here (and it's so tough for me to say that when a potentially innocent man's life hangs in the balance) is that Clinton didn't need to sign AEDPA. He was pro-death penalty, and backed that up by signing death warrants as governor of Arkansas. He could have easily said this was bad legislation and it would not have been a significant issue in the 1996 campaign. It's hard to remember a time when terrorism wasn't front-and-center, but back then, it was still the economy, stupid, and he was winning that argument hands-down.

This is one of the huge consequences of divided government, though, that bad legislation gets through because of compromise. The Republican party has so poisoned our political discourse that things like AEDPA become one of there "not-so-bad" bills that a Dem president has to give in to so he can be open to shut down the even more disgusting things these pieces of crap will pull out of their ass.

Clinton was a good president, but AEDPA will go down as one of his darker moments.

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