Wishing Clinton Gone

It was four weeks today that Bill Clinton promised he was really not leaving.

"I left the White House, but I'm still here. We're not any of us going anywhere," Mr. Clinton said.

Democrats thought Bill Clinton could help the party recover from the election loss, but now, with his pardons and White House furniture scandals, they just want him gone, CBS News Correspondent Phil Jones reports.

"For Democrats this is a distraction because they wanted to move beyond Clinton, put forward a unified defense against Bush and promote their own agenda," said Harrison Hickman, a Democratic political analyst.

The ranking Democrat on a House committee said that even Democrats would be investigating if they controlled Congress. What had begun as criticism from his longtime detractors has evolved into strong attacks from a surprising front — his own party.

"Pardoning Marc Rich was very, very bad judgement," said U.S. Rep. Henry Waxman, D-Ca.

But Mr. Clinton is taking no blame. He got so frustrated over the pardon furor this week that he returned a call to talk show host Geraldo Rivera. According to Geraldo, Clinton was "...indignant over the entire controversy, quote, 'I was blindsided by this. I have no infrastructure to deal with this, no press person. I just wanted to go out there and do what past presidents have done, but the Republicans had other ideas for me," Rivera said.

Non-partisan government watchdogs say the Clinton's White House departure scandals are at the root of deeper problems involving both parties.

"With the Rich pardon, with the furniture, with the gifts with everything, it all points to the fact that we're living in a political milieu that has everything to do with money and little to do with governance," said Peter Eisner, a political analyst.

For Democrats, the Clinton problem won't be going away anytime soon. There's the U.S. attorney's investigation in New York and next Thursday. Mr. Clinton's former Chief of Staff John Podesta and his best friend Bruce Lindsey will be under oath telling a congressional committee what they know about the pardons.