I cannot write about the inauguration per se. I just can't. After the Florida electoral nightmare and the smug, self-satisfied, frat-boy features of the man who stole the election being smattered all over the front of The New York Times, I am sickened and disheartened by what the next four years will bring those of us who live in the US. Instead, I want to take a quick moment to look back and celebrate the literary output of the poseurs and pundits who make up the bestseller marketplace these days --- all of whom have put in their two cents about President William Jefferson Clinton, perhaps the most written-about-while-in-office president the country has ever had.

Maybe it is the pedigree of being a well-educated, well-traveled man who still couldn't get a grip on his physical desires that attracted so many writers to his story. Perhaps it is the ultimate degradation of the office by what the conservative corps considers to be the shame of the Lewinsky debacle. Perhaps it is the fact that he is one of the best-looking, most charming presidents ever to grace that big black chair in the Oval Office. Or maybe it really is because he has the most acute political sensibility of many of his predecessors that he was able to accomplish so much in so little time, that he has the brains and ability to tackle both domestic and international travails with a modicum of savvy and a big heaping helping of heartfelt intelligence. Whatever the reason, the book list of tomes written about his life, his family, and his service career is long and varied, something few other presidents could claim to have inspired throughout their terms in office.

I mean, national health care has been an issue in this country for 30 years and, in some fashion, even longer than that. To think that the great failing of his administration was an attempt to bring about health care for every single American citizen, regardless of race, creed, color, or economic station. To think that he even tried to make this a reality when no one else has ever had the nerve to try it (no president, certainly, although Senator Edward Kennedy has had this high on his agenda for his entire time in service) makes me see him as a brave and exciting leader who will be sorely missed when the new administration, already making waves about building up our nuclear weapons arsenal (haven't we outgrown that despicable issue?) and drilling in our natural preserves (ditto), is unable to address the needs of the greater good in this country, working only in favor of the 5% of wealthy folks who make up the population. It is almost too much for me to bear.

Perhaps his most lasting legacy is still to come: After all, he is still married to the first First Lady who ever ran for office and won on her own. Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-NY) has always been the most viable part of his administration, the most anxiously awaited pupa in the spring-like halls of presidential afterlife. As the pundits rage on, adding to the library of books on Clinton's presidency, Mrs. Clinton will be working on many of the same issues she worked on in conjunction with her husband --- I believe she will finish out her term as a Senator before trying for higher political office and I wouldn't be surprised if she did end up the most advantageously placed female presidential candidate ever. As many books have been written about Mrs. Clinton, a feat that perhaps only the late Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis was able to match in her lifetime; and the legacy of the Clintons' time in Washington will be examined again and again as new chapters are created in real time.

No one has gotten it completely right yet --- not Laura Ingraham's angry portraits of Hillary or George Stephanopoulos' snide, hurt takes on the campaign and first years of Clinton's presidency. And that is always one of the reasons why books continue to be published --- each author's take on the subject is harrowingly different and diffident unto itself. There will be many books to come, and the reason for that is that there is so much to be considered, so many achievements and near-misses to be analyzed and mulled over, so many tabloid elements still left to fry over the grill of public opinion. The Clintons have been able to generate words because of their actions, and no member of that family shows any signs of curbing their political and social activities as they enter a new age.

As you listen to the empty-headed words of the papa's boy who is slated to enter the highest state of service in this land, think about the wonderful Maya Angelou poem that sparked President Clinton's first inauguration and take her advice. "WAKE UP!" she cried --- and she was right. Those of us who believe that this is a true democracy we can still get right have a lot of work to do, work that the Clintons started and which the new administration will surely set aside for more calculated, destructive wants. WAKE UP!

--- by Jana Siciliano