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Reverse Triangulation

By William Saletan
Posted Thursday, Oct. 8, 1998, at 3:30 AM ET
Clinton, Gephardt, and Gingrich Reverse Triangulation
How Clinton's immoderation helps the Democrats look moderate.

By William Saletan
(posted Wednesday, Oct. 7, 1998)

Last week, "a source" told the Washington Post that Paula Jones' lawyers were blowing their chance at a settlement of their case. According to the source, President Clinton "was enraged" at the Jones team for spinning the settlement as an admission of guilt. "You cannot underestimate the personal feelings about this," the source said. "They've just really overplayed their hand."
This weekend, "Democratic sources" told the Post that Senate Minority Leader Tom Daschle, D-S.D., had "discouraged" an effort, brought to his attention by Clinton, to head off an impeachment inquiry altogether. Despite the "intensive behind-the-scenes lobbying Clinton is doing," the Post reported, the "skepticism of Daschle and other Democrats" shows that they "are placing clear limits on what they will do to short-circuit the constitutional process." "White House and House Democratic sources made clear" to the Post "that what the administration wants has little effect on how the Democrats shape their strategy." A source said House Minority Leader Dick Gephardt, D-Mo., "has made it clear that nobody falls on his sword for Bill Clinton."
Methinks the Democrats doth protest too much. In the impeachment proceedings, as in the Jones case, Clinton is staking out an extreme position in order to facilitate a deal in the middle. The more he "lobbies" for acquittal while letting it be known that Democrats are rejecting his entreaties, the more moderate and reasonable the Democrats look, even as they obstruct and trash the Republican-led inquiry.
Four years ago, when Republicans took over Congress, Clinton and his new adviser, Dick Morris, embarked on a strategy called "triangulation." According to this strategy, Clinton would stake out a position between congressional Democrats and Republicans. By rejecting the Democrats' views as too liberal, Clinton would help himself look moderate, even as he obstructed and trashed the Republicans. But now that Clinton has become a paragon of the moral laxity many Americans (rightly or wrongly) associate with liberalism, he's triangulating in reverse. He's helping the Democrats earn the credibility necessary to keep their jobs in the upcoming election, without taking away his job.
The reverse triangulation is working brilliantly. On ABC's This Week, Cokie Roberts asked Gephardt about Clinton adviser James Carville's recent declaration of war on House Speaker Newt Gingrich. "It's a free country," Gephardt answered, but "we've got to all take a deep breath [and] stop personal attacks back and forth." George Will brought up the proposal "by supporters of the president" to head off the impeachment inquiry altogether. "I don't think that is the way to do this," said Gephardt. Roberts said that "White House lobbying ... seems to be ticking off the members of Congress." Sam Donaldson said that "a lot of Democrats on the Hill ... are very upset the president and Mrs. Clinton [are] trying to make this a party-line vote." Meanwhile, in a buried newspaper quote, an anonymous Clinton adviser hinted at the real strategy: "Our focus is still on the [impeachment] resolution and the Democratic alternative and how we can build on it."
Reverse triangulation will prove particularly handy when, in all probability, Republicans eventually fail to remove Clinton from office and are forced to administer a lesser punishment instead. The most likely compromise is that Clinton will be summoned to the well of the House, where members of Congress will rebuke him for his conduct. Former President Gerald Ford has added his weighty imprimatur to this idea. Playing their role in the triangulation dance, Democrats are already suggesting that they favor the idea but that Clinton will never agree to it. "He deserves, at a minimum, something like that," said Sen. Joe Biden, D-Del., on CBS's Face the Nation. But Biden added, "Can they make the president come down to the well? No, they can't."
Some Republicans seem to be falling for this con. On NBC's Meet the Press, House Judiciary Committee Chairman Henry Hyde, R-Ill., called Ford's scenario "very unlikely" because Clinton "would not gladly suffer that humiliation." And on CNN's Late Edition, Sen. John Ashcroft, R-Mo., said that it would be unfair to "call someone in and deride them publicly when you haven't had the process of deciding whether or not the person is really innocent or guilty."
In schools where corporal punishment is still administered, kids who misbehave are sometimes offered a choice of punishments: They can be spanked, or they can spend several afternoons in after-school detention. Detention is painless but prolonged. Spanking is humiliating but over in a few seconds. Kids who are both tough and smart choose spanking. You can bet Bill Clinton was that kind of kid. You can bet he'd have moaned suitably about the spanking before, during, and afterward, just like he'll moan suitably about his rebuke in the well of the House. And you can bet that, like everything else he's done, it's all for show.
Recent "Frame Games"
  • "The Nixon Analogy": Why the Flytrap-Watergate comparison will backfire. (posted Friday, Oct. 2, 1998)
  • "Just Say No": Why the Democrats' best strategy is to play defense. (posted Wednesday, Sept. 30, 1998)

Slate's Complete Flytrap Coverage

Photographs of: Bill Clinton by Chris Kleponis/Reuters; Dick Gephardt and Newt Gingrich by Mark Wilson/Reuters.
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William Saletan is Slate's national correspondent and author of Bearing Right: How Conservatives Won the Abortion War.
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