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It was vintage Bill Clinton.

He was sitting across from FOX News' Chris Wallace, primed for action. He claimed he was the victim, but Bill Clinton has never been a victim. Never. A predator is rarely prey.

Sooner or later, former President Clinton was going to be asked about his record on terrorism - by someone other than Richard Clarke for his book, or the 9/11 Commission behind closed doors. Surely, someone on television - where our hearts and minds are, uh, programmed - would pull back that curtain and afford Clinton the spotlight. Don't think for a minute he wasn't prepared.

Who might ask? Former Clinton stooge George Stephanopoulos, now a journalistic light at ABC? NBC's Tim Russert, former adviser to Mario Cuomo? MSNBC's Chris Mathews, a speechwriter for Jimmy Carter? You jest, yes?

Perhaps Katie Couric, America's sweetheart, would ask. Hardly. To her credit, though, she's never shilled for a Democrat, prominent or otherwise.

It was left to a right-wing conspirator at FOX to set the stage. And Clinton did what he does best - he drew his finger and fired, or, er, wagged it. Only Wild Bill Hickock was quicker.

Abracadabra! The wagging finger distracted the audience, and then, suddenly - Voila! It's Bill Clinton, terrorist fighting machine, ready for action, he said, with a strike force targeting Afghanistan after the U.S. embassies in Africa were bombed. When that didn't work out, he bombed a pharmaceutical plant in Sudan and abandoned terrorist camps in Afghanistan.

Fast-forward eight years, and Clinton is a one-man strike force waiting, as it were, for FOX's Chris Wallace. Wallace became nothing more than a white Sista Souljah - the rapper who had her slice of fame in the early 1990s and became the target of then-strike-force-candidate Clinton at a Rainbow Coalition conference.

That was an orchestrated moment, to be sure, but politically brilliant. Clinton needed to reassure Southern Democrats that he could get tough on blacks - or any minority, if needed - who seemed too counterculture or threatening.

Souljah, who had said, "If black people kill black people every day, why not have a week and kill white people," was a sitting duck.

So was Wallace. With Election Day looming, someone needed to assure voters that Democrats could be tough on terrorists, too. Cue the bouncing finger and the steely gaze, and suddenly it all came back to us - the Many Faces of Bill. The Candidate, in 1992: "I never inhaled." The Beleaguered, in 1999: "I did not have sexual relations with that woman." The Magnificent, in 2002: "I would personally grab a rifle, get in a ditch and fight and die" for Israel.

Today, he's The Abused Statesman, eyebrows raised, insisting the right has maligned his legacy against Islamic terrorism. Sure.

Ours is a history filled with colorful characters - some real, some mythical, some comic. Aside from Charlie Brown, though, no one's gone farther on a tank of victim than Bill Clinton.

Gardner is an Albuquerque writer and political consultant.