OPINIONSrnFour More Yearsrnby Chilton Williamson, Jr.rn”Where law ends, tyranny begins.”rn—William PittrnThe Seduction of Hillary Rodhamrnby David BrockrnNew York: The Free Press;rn452 pp., $26.00rnBoy Clinton: The Political Biographyrnby R. Emmett Tyrrell, jr.rnWashington, D.C.:rnRegnery Publishing, Inc.;rn356 pp., $24.95rnOn the eve of the inauguration ofrnthe second CHnton administration,rnreading biographies of the FirstrnCouple is like reading Airport while waitingrnto board a transcontinental flight. Arnmorbid interest in gruesome facts andrnevents is further titillated by the anticipationrnof horrors to come. Neverthelessrnthere is comfort in reflecting that, barringrnthe President’s assassination or anrnattempt by him at a coup organized byrnuniformed homosexuals of both sexes,rnboth he and his wife, 50 years hence, willrnbe as little remembered or marked byrnhistory as President Franklin Pierce andrn. . . he was a bachelor, wasn’t he?rnEmmett Tyrrell’s and David Brock’srnbooks contain fresh facts while trainingrndifferently angled lights on their subjects,rnbut in the end they largely confirmrnwhat was already known, perceived, andrnsuspected about Bill and Hillary Clinton.rnStill, it is not entirely clear to me thatrnanything more was really necessary, orrnpossible; what these authors do, moreover,rnthey do ver)’ well. Taken together,rnChilton Williamson, ]r., is senior editorrnfor books at Chronicles.rnBoy Clinton and The Seduction of HillaryrnRodham demonstrate conclusively thatrnthe first “co-candidacy,” and later thernfirst “co-presidency,” in American historyrn(excepting only Richard Nixon’s wellknownrncompact with the Devil) hasrnbeen a yoking not just of the consummaternpolitician with the driving ideologuernbut of the worst of American politicalrnopposites—the Yale Law School andrnthe state of Arkansas—to elevate and refinernthe American kakistocracy to a hithertornunimaginable perfection. WhetherrnBill Clinton moved up in going to NewrnHaven, and Hillary Rodham movedrndown in following him back to HotrnSprings, is not a question worth arguing.rnAccording to Mr. Tyrrell, Yale and Oxfordrnradicalism was “the cultural semenrnthat accounts for President Bill Clinton;rnits egg is in Arkansas”; as, for his wife,rnWellesley and Yale were the egg that producedrnher, its semen being the corrupt,rnone-party system of government operatingrnfrom Little Rock.rnTyrrell certainly has the goods on Mr.rnClinton, so far at least as the facts of hisrnmalfeasance, in Washington, D.C., andrnin Arkansas, can be known and inferred;rnof particular interest are his revelationsrnconcerning drug-smuggling operationsrnat the tiny airport at Mena. More valuablernin assessing the political phenomenonrnthat is Bill Clinton, though, isrnhis insight into the narcissistic compulsivernmania that is the secret of Clinton’srnpolitical success, nationally as inrnArkansas. Having noted the young governor’srnslight legislative successes over sixrnterms, which prefigure future presidentialrnsterility in Washington, Tyrrell arguesrnthat the chief reason for Clinton’s failurernto pursue his initiatives to their conclusionrnwas his disinclination to be less thanrnall things to all men (and all women).rnInvoking what he calls the “ChronicrnCampaigner,” Tyrrell suggests that Clintonrnis in this respect representative ofrnother successful politicians of his generation,rnnot an exception from them. “Pastrnpoliticians enjoyed wielding power forrnhigh purpose or low gain. They werernmore apt to take risks and face defeat.rnThough he usually devotes more energyrnFEBRUARY 1997/23rnrnrn