Do I think we should obsess on Clinton and devote all our efforts to getting him prosecuted? No. I would be glad to leave him in obscurity.
The problem is that he won't go away, and the media gives him inordinate attention. They do this to stick him in our face, not because they think we want to see him.
And does he ever say anything helpful or statesmanlike? No. He inevitable twists truth, plants seeds of doubt, runs down the country overseas, and generally violates every standard for proper behavior in a former president.
You say he can't cause harm? I will give you one example of his deliberate attempt to cause harm. In the run-up to the war with Iraq, President Bush and every other member of his administration cautioned that this would be hard, that lives would be lost, and it wouldn't be short.
Yet when we were in the "quagmire" frenzy of 2 weeks ago, the press accused President Bush of saying this would be a "cakewalk." He never said any such thing.
But the person making the most noise about this being a quick war and raising expectations was BILL CLINTON. He did it several times (including in PRINT in the London Times) and he did it with the full knowledge that he was raising expectations.
This is the kind of harm he does. Should the war have dragged on a bit longer before the tipping point was reached, he would have been out in front saying that it SHOULD have been quick, but Bush and Rumsfeld blew it. You know that is exactly what he would have done.
I am all for ignoring his silly comments which are obvious media grabs, but when he actively runs the country down in overseas speeches about our foreign policy, or when he tries to cause trouble by making people doubt our war-time leaders, I am NOT going to ignore him.
I am not as sanguine about him as you. I have seen him in action, and I know he envies and hates George Bush. He will do anything he can to harm him. Period.