Here's some helpful spin for Ann Lewis, James Carville, and the other bitter-end defenders of Bill Clinton: Not everyone judges the president harshly for allegedly indulging a certain sexual taste with a young White House intern.
In France, where President Mitterrand was laid to rest by both his wife and his mistress, we are told Mr. Clinton's behavior would rate no more than a Gallic shrug. And in South America . . . well, according to Carlos Fuentes, in South America he would be treated to cheers.
Fuentes is Mexico's most famous novelist, author of 20 books, including The Death of Artemio Cruz and The Old Gringo. He is also one of Mexico's most infamous radicals, a man of some political influence who writes regular newspaper columns to decry any retreat from the glory of the long- ruling party in Mexico -- the Institutional Revolutionary party, as it calls itself.
Blaming the puritanical culture of America and the animus of the religious Right for Clinton's troubles, Fuentes posed the quite apposite question, "Who would topple a Latin American president for his extramarital indiscretions?" In the uninhibited, healthy cultures of the South, he explained, "our macho tradition tends to admire skirtchasing presidents -- and that's to say nothing of all the guerrillas of love, from Pancho Villa to Che Guevara.
"Time will tell the truth about Clinton and his sexual prowess," Fuentes concluded, but he added his own view of the old Gringo: "Philanderer, si; perjurer, no."
Given the public opinion polls at the end of the week, it looks as if we may be progressing toward South American mores.