I found myself thinking about that in connection with David Brock's book "Blinded by the Right," about the lengths to which Republicans went in order to get Clinton. Whether you believe all of Brock's claims or not, it's still clear that those people have absolutely no counterpart on the Democratic side -- there's just no Ann Coulter.

Well, I don't know if we want to be like them.

Be Ann Coulter?

Yeah, I'm not suggesting that! But I am suggesting, when they call our majority leader Saddam Hussein, that somebody wake up and go to the well and do something about it. I'm suggesting that when Karl Rove says he's gonna use the war for political purposes, somebody do something about it. I'm suggesting that when Bush puts out completely bogus information about Social Security, that somebody stand up and do something about it. That's all.

How much of this is the media's fault?

A lot.

I just reviewed Frank Bruni's book on the Bush campaign, and I was blown away by how superficial it was, how it was simply about whether Bush was a nice guy and smart enough to be president. And this is from the so-called liberal New York Times.

Well, you look at the reporters who covered Bush in 2000 and the reporters who covered us in 1992, and it was so different.

They were harder on Clinton?

Oh, absolutely. But I don't know what it's about. My own theory is they were trying to settle a score because we beat 'em back on Whitewater and impeachment, but who knows?

The New York Times?

Yeah. But I can't do anything about them. Mealy-mouthed editorial writers I can't do anything about. Self-indulged Op-Ed writers I can't do anything about. But we can do something about Democrats standing up. We can do something about Enron.

Speaking of Enron, I read that Enron offered you some kind of P.R. job?

I went down there. It's just something that didn't work out, you know what I mean? I don't wanna make Enron about me.

Were you even tempted?

Oh, it was a long time ago. I don't remember that it came to much. But my point is, what the Republicans put out about Enron, and what the Democrats and the media are buying, is unbelievable. They've wrapped up this nice, neat story: You've got a heroine, Ms. [Sherron] Watkins; you have a dupe, that's Lay; you have a two-shooter theory, Fastow and Skilling; and Arthur Andersen was an accomplice. So the whole thing is solved and you don't have to look any further for a culprit. But that's the silliest thing I've ever heard.

What's your analysis?

My analysis is, the Republican Congress caused Enron.

How?

If it wasn't for the fact that the Republican Congress was bought off by Enron, most of this wouldn't have happened. If they'd have passed [former SEC chair Arthur] Levitt's reforms, separating accounting from consulting, they'd have never gotten away with it; if they'd have passed [Commodity Futures Trading Commission head] Brooksley Born's proposal to disclose all these derivatives, then people would have known about this. If they'd done Sen. Boxer's thing to limit the holdings in one company people could have in a 401K, then people wouldn't have gotten burned like this.

Why aren't Democrats standing up and saying Republicans caused it? Will the Washington Post write some mealy-mouthed story saying, "Well, you shouldn't really say that!" Of course, but who cares? Will cocktail parties decry the return of partisanship in Washington? Of course they will, but what difference does it make? None! You'll get your message out. But Democrats in Washington are completely mortified that somebody's gonna say something bad about them at a dinner party in Cleveland Park on a Saturday night. You tell them there's an Op-Ed piece coming out, with somebody saying they're being divisive, and they'll fall apart. But that's what Republicans do. Look at the way they talk about 'Clinton caused Sept. 11.' They don't have any facts -- we have facts to prove otherwise -- but they just do it anyway.

Do you think there really was a "vast right-wing conspiracy," to use Hillary Clinton's famous term?

Of course there was. Who doesn't think that?

I think the media depicted it as a crazy, over-the-top exaggeration.

They just say that. They don't think it. Who in the media could think there wasn't a vast right-wing conspiracy? Anybody with a brain knows there was, and much vaster than anyone anticipated.

You never anticipated it?

Oh, I did.

In '92?

I don't know about in '92, but by '93 or '94, I sat down with the Washington Post and did a chart. Look it up. I called it "the puke-funnel theory."

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