Bill Clinton put finger-wagging back in style during the 1998 impeachment hearings, when he emphatically insisted, voice and finger in tandem, that he “did not have sexual relations with that woman, Ms. Lewinsky.”

Clinton had put his right index finger away when he left office to become a placid private citizen. But the euphoria of a power suit and a “Mr. President” salutation on a Sunday morning talk show got the best of Clinton, as that famous digit reared at Chris Wallace on yesterday’s Fox News Sunday.

Clinton, virtually always composed, maintains his posture as one of America’s most astute politicians by talking a good talk, smiling as if on cue and being generally polite to his opponents, even amid prime opportunities to point out their weaknesses. (Remember making friends with George H.W. Bush after Katrina?)

But recently he’s been markedly less doting. Clinton sprung on the offensive upon learning the content of ABC’s Path to 9/11 miniseries and was tenacious as ever in his showdown with Wallace this weekend.

The question that sparked Clinton’s fury asked the former President if he felt he did enough to “connect the dots and really go after al Qaeda.” Clinton pounced on Wallace before he could even finish delivering the question, launching into a ten minute diatribe about how the “right wingers” love to attack him, and “at least I tried,” while the Republicans “had eight months to try, they did not try.” Clinton, beyond pink in the face, called the interview a “conservative hit job.” Wallace later said he felt as though “a mountain was coming down in front of me.” The finger was back in action, and Mr. President made it abundantly clear that he would answer in full.

Make no mistake: this is not the Clinton most prominently on display through the last fourteen years. This is the post-1998 Clinton, who is concerned–paranoid–about his legacy. Whether Sandy Berger knew bin Laden’s precise whereabouts in the lead-up to September 11 may never be truthfully known. But one can note with certainty that Bill Clinton will not have you believe he was outdone by this President, and he sure as hell will not be humiliated by Fox News.

It will be interesting to see how the media will interpret, even dissect the interview bit by bit and to see how it will reverberate in the coming week for him. Not to mention the next six weeks for his party and the coming year for his wife.

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