c. 1999 Religion News Service

(Tom Ehrich is a writer and computer consultant managing large-scale database implementations. He lives in Durham, N.C.)

UNDATED _ I realize that $2 million houses aren’t that unusual in the privileged enclaves outside New York City. I realize that even former U.S. presidents and would-be senators need someplace to live.

I realize that big-money contributors aren’t drawn to burgers on the patio. I realize that it takes unusual neighbors to tolerate Secret Service details and bomb-sniffing dogs.

But still. …

Bill and Hillary Clinton’s house hunting in rarefied New York suburbs seems an odd way to end his presidency and begin her run for the U.S. Senate.

It’s profoundly tacky for him to be striding through available properties like a Tom Wolfe anti-hero while preaching budget restraint and chiding the Republicans for catering to the rich.

It’s no less tacky for the first lady to be contemplating a high-roller lifestyle while many of her constituents are crowded into linoleum kitchens, wondering where the American Dream went sour. How does she plan to tackle Rust Belt decay in upstate New York, or the ever-meaner Bronx streets while entertaining grandly in the world of those who profit from dismay?

I was among those who found the president’s sexual escapades sadly adolescent but not impeachment-worthy. But this grandstanding in what The Wall Street Journal calls”distinctive properties”makes me uneasy.

It suggests, for one thing, that there isn’t a dime’s difference between the Republican and Democratic parties. Both want to feed at the same trough.

Once upon a time, the two parties had ideas and values and could sponsor a lively debate. Now it’s former playboy George W. Bush stalking penitent playboy Bill Clinton; it’s wealthy Steve Forbes vs. wealthy Al Gore.

The house hunting suggests that the air is so stale in the White House that its current occupant _ like his recent predecessors _ hasn’t a clue about how such behavior plays in such cities as Peoria, where most of us live.

Does he not see how inappropriate it is for the American president to be buying a fancy house while Kosovars sort through the rubble of genocide, while Turks sort through the rubble of earthquake, while parents sort through the rubble of pitiful public schools, and Columbine High School students show us what true grace looks like?

Have seven years in Washington made him so insensitive? What does that say about the rest of Washington?

What are these people made of? Not just the Clintons, but all of those who buy multimillion-dollar houses in power suburbs and then huddle with media types to craft images that pretend to the common touch. Do they truly believe that they can put on flannel shirts and pretend to be”just folks,”and we won’t notice the lavish Beltway lifestyles they are desperate to retain?

I feel cheated. Not that I aspire to a $2 million spread. I feel cheated because I believed these people stood for something, and that there was at least a glimmer of truth in their noise.

Jesus warned his followers about the destructive lure of wealth. Money would steal their souls. As with any addiction, the first victim is one’s self-esteem, then one’s capacity to treat others as worthy and not as objects to serve addiction.

We’ve lost more than”honor”in the White House. The genius of our constitutional government was its restraints on the wealthy. At the risk of commoners muddying the brocade, everyone was given access, not just the gentry, and the House of Representatives was to be the see of farmers and artisans, people who work with their hands and serve in armies, for whom government is protection against landowners.

In fact, wealth runs the entire show now. Rich boys try to buy the presidency. Office-holders sell every national treasure, from our wilderness forests to our retirement funds to our children’s lungs, just to get campaign funds. Do we have to join the direct bidding for their loyalty?

Maybe that’s what the Westchester house hunting is all about. It’s a signal that the price of poker went up. We were outbid. We voted, we paid taxes, but we didn’t dig deep enough.

I suddenly feel a little like Monica Lewinsky, who thought her tender favors counted for something, only to discover she was nothing.

IR END EHRICH