Clinton's Secrets

Bill Clinton did some strange things as president (and no, I'm not talking about that stuff, either). For example, giving nuke technology to the North Korea's Stalinist dictator. Why? It seems too obvious a mistake to be written off as an error in judgment; well, for an an ideologue like Jimmy Carter, perhaps, but not for a pragmatist like Bill Clinton.

And now, this:

Billionaire Marc Rich has emerged as a central figure in the U.N. oil-for-food scandal and is under investigation for brokering deals in which scores of international politicians and businessmen cashed in on sweetheart oil deals with Saddam Hussein, The Post has learned.

Rich, the fugitive Swiss-based commodities trader who received a controversial pardon from President Bill Clinton in January 2001, is a primary target of criminal probes under way in the U.S. attorney's office in New York and by Manhattan District Attorney Robert Morgenthau, sources said.

"We think he was a major player in this — a central figure," a senior law-enforcement official told The Post.

Remind me again: Why did Clinton pardon this guy, specifically?

The one thought - admittedly unprovable but nonetheless persistent - that keeps coming up again and again is "blackmail." If Clinton was willing to commit perjury under oath - as he did - what else was he willing to do to keep his myriad secrets? Cuz I do know that there would be no end of blackmailers ready and willing to take advantage of a weakness like that.

Given his history, I gotta wonder. I guess I always will.