Bill Clinton is like caffeine.

He raises your blood pressure but he’s hard to swear off.

So, consider this my belated New Year’s resolution. Following this column, I’ll do my best to go "cold turkey" and move on to bigger and certainly better things.

Still, the question of Bill’s "legacy" has been much in the news of late.

I prefer to think that issue was settled once and for all, this week, after reading an on-line column published by the American Spectator.

It appears that his "Bubba-ness" ordered the staff to clear items out of the oval office and pack them away for their trip to his storage locker. Two statuary pieces that found their way into the Clinton packing crates were busts of John F. Kennedy and Franklin Delano Roosevelt.

Just one problem.

They never belonged to Bill Clinton. They came with the White House and are part of a permanent publicly owned collection.

When White House stewards noticed the busts being tissue wrapped for a quick getaway, they intercepted the parcels and restored them to their rightful positions of honor.

Comments offered by a former Clinton aide were most instructive. "The White House is always careful about what stays and what goes when presidents are leaving. But they seemed extra careful with him."

I wonder why.

Those of us who have reported on the Clinton years recognize that this administration has more than a passing resemblance to the "starving magicians convention." When they check out of town, hotel security goes on high alert to make sure the bath towels don’t vanish.

But during the eight years of Bill Clinton, some valuable American possessions were pilfered and may never be recovered. Clinton and his followers were all too willing to sacrifice our national life and liberty for the pursuit of their own happiness.

Waco, Oklahoma City, Vince Foster, Ron Brown, Elian Gonzalez and Wen Ho Lee are names that instantly come to mind. Not to mention the countless tiny victims of partial-birth abortion with Bill Clinton’s name on their death certificates.

Perhaps the greatest loss of all was our national conscience. With each fresh revelation of Clinton White House corruption, the American people became increasingly immunized to the pursuit of righteousness.

Those who once suggested that the criminal Clinton might face a jury of his peers after departing from office were sadly disappointed. America’s mindset is now, "We don’t want to be bothered." George W. Bush properly read the political weathervane and gave Bill Clinton not a pardon but a pass. In so doing, he perpetuated a mindset that there are two classes in the United States, the masses and the masters.

Money talks. Justice walks.

And thankfully, so has Master William Jefferson Clinton.

4.9¢ long distance from WebToday: Online sign-up takes 30 seconds