The Clinton legacy becomes clearer each day. According to editor Justin Kaplan, the 17th edition of Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, due out next year, will include just three entries for Bill Clinton:
"I experimented with marijuana a time or two. And I didn't like it, and didn't inhale, and never tried it again."
-- New York Times, March 31, 1992
"I am going to say this again: I did not have sexual relations with that woman, Miss Lewinsky."
-- Television interview, January 26, 1998
"It depends on what the meaning of the word 'is' is. If the -- if he -- if 'is' means is and never has been, that is not -- that is one thing. If it means there is none, that was a completely true statement."
-- Grand jury testimony, August 17, 1998
A self-described Clinton supporter, Kaplan explains in an interview on the website of Harvard magazine, "The president was not a great utterer of his sentiments."
We would argue for the inclusion of the one memorable phrase Clinton uttered in the line of duty, in his 1996 State of the Union address: "The era of big government is over." But it's hard to quibble with Kaplan's choices. Especially since he turns out to be such a good sport on the subject of Ronald Reagan.
The 16th edition of Bartlett's, also Kaplan's handiwork, was keelhauled by the Heritage Foundation's Adam Meyerson for scanting the memorable phrases of Ronald Reagan (although we still enjoy the one in which Reagan likens the federal government to a baby: "a big appetite at one end and no responsibility at the other"). According to the Harvard magazine interview, a contrite Kaplan has now removed "the stupidest Reagan statement" and added a couple of others, including the famous 1987 Berlin Wall speech that was among Meyerson's suggestions: "Come here to this gate! Mr. Gorbachev, open this gate! Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!"
This has to qualify as one of the most gracious responses to criticism in recent memory. Sign us up for two copies of the new Bartlett's.