Guess Who's A Legacy Critic?

Bill Clinton last week on the legacy of the late Pope John Paul II:

Clinton, on the flight to Rome earlier this week, had said that John Paul "may have had a mixed legacy," but he called him a man with a great feel for human dignity.

"There will be debates about him. But on balance, he was a man of God, he was a consistent person, he did what he thought was right," Clinton said. "That's about all you can ask of anybody." [my emphases]

Does anybody besides me find it more than a little unseemly for a man who (1) is obsessed with his own legacy and, (2) when it comes to moral authority, couldn't carry John Paul II's figurative jockstrap to be casting asperions upon the life and work of one of the Roman Catholic Church's most revered pontiffs?

Mr. Bill leavened his cheap shot with the second comment, in typical fashion. But make no mistake about it, he's jealous as hell of the public adulation that John Paul II received, just as he was of the late President Reagan's sendoff. And the reason he went was to draw as much publicity as possible upon himself, even as President Bush was deliberately keeping a low profile.

It's a pity President Ford is too old and frail to travel anymore. Maybe that way Dubya could have snubbed Carter and Clinton, and salvaged some dignity for the U.S. delegation.