Bill Clinton's memoir was rather dense, so this anecdote didn't get the attention it deserved. It certainly seems appropriate now. Clinton describes a call he received in July 1991 from Roger Porter, a domestic policy advisor to George Bush the Elder, with whom Clinton had worked on education issues. Porter asked Clinton if he was going to run for president -- Clinton says he hadn't made up his mind at the time -- and the two talked in a reasonable fashion for a while.

Then the conversation shifted.

After five or ten minutes of what I thought was a serious conversation, Roger cut it off and got to the point. I'll never forget the first words of the message he had been designated to deliver: "Cut the crap, Governor." He said "they" had reviewed all the potential candidates against the President. Governor Cuomo was the most powerful speaker, but they could paint him as too liberal. All the senators could be defeated by attacks on their voting records. But I was different. With a strong record in economic development, education, and crime, and a strong DLC message, I actually had a chance to win. So if I ran, they would have to destroy me personally. "Here's how Washington works," he said. "The press has to have somebody in every election, and we're going to give them you." He went on to say the press were elitists who would believe any tales they were told about backwater Arkansas. "We'll spend whatever we have to spend to get whoever we have to get to say whatever they have to say to take you out. And we'll do it early."

I tried to stay calm, but I was mad. I told Roger that what he had just said showed what was wrong with the administration. They had been in power so long they thought they were entitled to it. I said, "You think those parking spaces off the West Wing are yours, but they belong to the American people, and you have to earn the right to use them." I told Roger that what he had said made me more likely to run. Roger said that was a nice sentiment, but he was calling me as a friend to give me fair warning. If I waited until 1996, I could win the presidency. If I ran in 1992, they would destroy me, and my political career would be over.

Here's what I find fascinating: It was apparently OK if Clinton won in '96. The point of the gutter campaign Porter described wasn't to prevent Clinton from beating the Republicans -- the point was to prevent him from beating Bush.

I don't know if this happened exactly the way Clinton describes it -- the dialogue, especially at Clinton's end, seems a bit stilted and Capraesque. But I bet the facts are essentially accurate. After all, history has shown us that character assassination is to Bush family campaigns what touch football is to weekends at the Kennedy compound.