Clinton scandals' effects still unfolding

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WASHINGTON - The death last week of former Illinois representative Henry Hyde, the patriarchal Republican who led the impeachment of President Clinton, brought back memories of what Democratic presidential contender Barack Obama calls "the battles of the '90s."

Those battles are at the heart of today's political dialogue, as Obama and former North Carolina senator John Edwards argue that electing Hillary Clinton as president would revive the resentments of the '90s.

But it's far from clear what people think of those battles in hindsight. In a decade marked by weightier concerns - and weightier battles - the so-called "Clinton scandals" can seem trivial. And while the Clintons were the focus of the battles, they were not the instigators: The question for the current campaign is whether they nonetheless deserve some blame because of their behavior or their style of politics.

It's an open question, and how it gets answered could be the key to Hillary Clinton's fate.

Strictly by the poll numbers, none of the alleged scandals - from the Whitewater land deal to the travel office firings to the fund-raising in the Lincoln bedroom to the perjury claim at the heart of the Monica Lewinsky business - succeeded in the turning the public against the Clintons.

Bill Clinton's favorability ratings were high during his impeachment and stayed high for the remainder of his presidency. Nor were the scandals an impediment to Hillary's ability to pull off the difficult political maneuver of winning a Senate seat in a place where she hadn't previously lived.

Nonetheless, there was an element of "Clinton fatigue" in the 2000 presidential race, as Republican nominee George W. Bush pledged to restore honor to the White House and spoke sorrowfully of the Clinton presidency as a case of unfulfilled potential - a would-be "Camelot" that devolved into an R-rated television drama. Vice President Al Gore, the Democratic nominee, expressed his disapproval of Bill Clinton's behavior in the Lewinsky scandal and kept the president on the sidelines for most of the campaign.

The second President Bush defined himself as the anti-Clinton, a straight-talker, a leader guided by values more than political instincts, a CEO-type decision-maker who didn't sweat the details. It was refreshing for a while, but soon enough the Iraq war exposed weaknesses in Bush's style that cast the Clinton years in a more favorable light.

Moreover, on substance, many Americans yearned for the centrist politics of the Clinton years, attributing Bush's flaws to an excess of ideology and an unwillingness to meet his opponents halfway. Bush is likely to end his presidency with far lower approval ratings than his predecessor.

On the campaign trail, Hillary Clinton takes credit for her husband's achievements and makes clear that her own administration would mark a return to the same style of government: They may be a hard mix as husband and wife, but are inseparable political teammates. They will rise and fall together; so if voters harbor bad memories of Bill's impeachment, Hillary will suffer.

Hyde's death, at 83, revived the debate over the Clinton years but didn't go very far toward resolving it. Bill Kristol, the neoconservative editor of the Weekly Standard and chief of staff to Dan Quayle, former vice president, viewed Hyde's passing as a reminder of "the tawdriness of the Clinton years," and portrayed Hyde's pursuit of impeachment as an act of conscience.

But journalist Tom Edsall, writing in the Huffington Post, pointed to an old Bob Woodward report that Hyde had once pursued a backdoor compromise that would have reduced Clinton's impeachment to a vote of censure. So Hyde's conscience may have been eating at him, after all.

Hyde always cultivated an air of statesmanlike dignity, and while he stood by his impeachment decision he probably would rather have been eulogized for the entirety of his long congressional career, marked by his unstinting opposition to abortion, the issue that really defined his politics.

Likewise, Bill and Hillary Clinton would rather be remembered for their political achievements, but the legacy of impeachment - and the scandals that came before it - constitute a stain that hasn't quite been washed clean. The Clintons' ability to move on in politics will depend on the public's willingness to ignore the laundry of the past.

Peter S. Canellos is the Globe's Washington bureau chief. National Perspective is his weekly analysis of events in the capital and beyond.