Every disgraced politico needs a guru. Richard Nixon had Rabbi Korff; Hillary Clinton has Eleanor Roosevelt; and Dick Morris has . . . Armstrong Williams.
According to a recent Washington Post item, Williams -- tireless radio and television talk-show host and black conservative about town -- is now advising Morris on spiritual matters. Thanks to Williams's guidance, Morris told the Post, "I am sort of making an effort not to work for bad people." For instance, he explained, "I recently turned down a person who claimed to represent Imelda Marcos. I told them, 'You obviously take the reports of my foot fetish too seriously.'"
And how seriously can reports of Morris's spiritual rebirth be taken? Deadly seriously, assures Armstrong Williams. "He is becoming a man of faith," says Williams in earnest tones. "Our relationship has to do with what the meaning of life is." To help Morris along, Williams says he passed along two books to the former Clinton adviser, "Mere Christianity by C. S. Lewis and The Confessions by St. Augustine. I know he's read them. He can be in the middle of the night reading a book and he'll call me and say, 'Armstrong, you got to tell me, what does this mean?' He has all these questions: 'Why would God do this? How do you know when you're doing something wrong? How should I have known that it was wrong what I was doing?'"
The question-and-answer period continued not long ago, when the two met at Galileo, a fashionable D.C. restaurant. Williams, who was making last-minute preparations for a trip to Europe, was late. He found Morris waiting for him at a table near the back. "Armstrong," Williams says Morris enthused, "I've been sitting here reading these books. I've got all these questions for you." The two proceeded to break into prayer in the restaurant. "He's like a little kid who hungers for wisdom and knowledge," says Williams. "It's like what Dick says, 'Once you have been moved and you've seen part of the light, you can't ignore it because you want to see the rest of the light.'"
These days, says Williams, Morris doesn't even care about politics. "I'm telling you, Clinton and the Republicans, he doesn't want to talk about it, he's not interested in it." Indeed, says Williams, Morris may be on his way to becoming an evangelical Christian. "I've got a lot of hope for him. There's a lot there to work with. He's a decent guy. He's so honest, he's honest to the point he makes himself look bad. And when a man's honest, you can trust him. I'll tell you, that's the thing about faith."
Maybe. On the other hand, sometimes, seeing is believing.