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By Newsweek Editors
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IT WORRIES ME THAT there is a part of Bob Dole's campaign that seems obsessed with not appearing critical, or judgmental, about the Clintons' public character--as though it were more important to be nice than to win. My concern is not simply that the Dole-Kemp camp is missing an opportunity to cut into President Clinton's lead. My bigger anxiety is that the discussion of a legitimate issue is being sidelined and that many Americans now appear to think that character is somehow out of bounds.
It's not hard to see why the GOP ticket has been reluctant to talk about the president's character: the possibility of a backlash is all too real. Anyone who brings up public character risks being branded a ""hatchet man'' or being accused of ""going negative.''
Now, it is important to be clear about what I am not talking about. I do not believe that a person's private life should automatically be subject to political scrutiny. In most cases, we just ought to stay out of a candidate's personal business. Why? Because if we look at anyone hard enough, we will find fault and failure. Christian doctrine teaches that all have sinned, and fallen short. And it is not at all clear which ""private character'' deficits are relevant. There is a danger that the press and others will assume that all aspects of a person's life are in play. That can lead to gross invasions of personal privacy and character assassination which do not serve the public interest.
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In the political sphere, we now have considerable intellectual confusion about what constitutes private and public character. Many people in politics and in the press are indiscriminately using the term ""personal attacks'' to cover everything from the strictly personal and private to matters of public trust and political dependability. Unless private foibles have clear public implications, they should not be the focus of inquiry. On the other hand, the issue of public trust is absolutely relevant. At least that's what the Founding Fathers thought. They wrote about filling the office of the presidency with those whose ""reputation for integrity inspires and merits confidence.''
It should matter to the American people whether a president's word is reliable or not; whether a president and his administration are well-known for dissembling or obfuscating; whether an administration is characterized by ethical misconduct, or whether a president and his administration engage in abuses of power, obstruction of justice or the withholding of documents.
Bill Clinton is rightly vulnerable on two broad areas of public character. The first has to do with his lack of constancy, probity and fidelity to principle and his own promises. He is a likable, engaging man whose word cannot be trusted. The second area has to do with the disturbing, and rapidly growing, number of scandals which have roiled the Clinton administration, from Whitewater to Travelgate to Filegate.
All of which brings us to the last 20 days of the campaign. The issue of public character needs to be raised in an unapologetic, civil and principled way. The Dole camp must remind the people why public character matters and why Bill Clinton cannot be trusted. Republicans should confront the president with the fact that Candidate Clinton promised ""the most ethical administration in the history of the Republic'' while President Bill Clinton has presided over an administration that is among the most corrupt in recent times. The Dole campaign also needs to explain why, when the special prosecutor's work is done, a second Clinton administration may well be significantly weakened.
It would have been better to have made this case consistently, and over time. But better late than never, for this simple reason: there is no issue more important to consider than whether the candidate who would be president merits the public trust.
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