Clinton Museum Accused of Historical Bias
NY Sun ^ | November 18, 2004 | Josh Gerstein
 

President Clinton's new presidential library, which is being dedicated at a gala ceremony today, has already triggered a politically charged battle over whether the museum's exhibits present a skewed view of history.

The $165 million facility opened yesterday for brief tours by members of the press. Reporters quickly noted that the exhibits present Mr. Clinton in a uniformly flattering light, while omitting or downplaying facts that the former president and his allies might view as inconvenient. At several points, the museum's displays also disparage Mr. Clinton's political adversaries.

An alcove entitled "The Fight for Power" depicts Mr. Clinton's impeachment as the culmination of a decade-long, no holds-barred Republican crusade to take control of the federal government.

The museum identifies "character assassination" as one of the key tactics that the GOP adopted. "The Congressional Republicans took the politics of personal destruction to a new level," one display declares.

The exhibits also dismiss as a failure the investigation by an independent counsel into the Whitewater real-estate deal. "Like every other politically-motivated investigation of the president during the 1990s, it led nowhere," one display reads.

The White House intern with whom Mr. Clinton had an affair, Monica Lewinsky, is mentioned only in passing. It is described as "a serious mistake in his personal life." Mr. Clinton's false statements to a federal judge about that relationship appear not to be discussed directly.

Mr. Clinton's impeachment by the House and his acquittal by the Senate are mentioned in timelines that run through the museum, but his acquittal receives greater prominence. "Hundreds of historians and legal scholars publicly stated there was no constitutional or legal basis for impeachment," one panel says.
 

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