The Bush presidency is 17 days old, and it strikes me that something has been odd about politics lately. This has been bothering me for the last few weeks and I haven’t quite been able to put my finger on it. It’s like something’s missing. It’s like there’s political depression in the air.

What’s missing is the strife, the drama. It just seems like politics has been less exciting. Sure, the Ashcroft nomination created some tension, but compared to other events of the last decade, it still seemed so… dull.

And of course, as with everything else in the politics of the last decade, it all has to do with Bill Clinton.

Bill’s left office, so now what do we do? What’s the story? What’s the angle? The Bill Clinton Story was always so exciting, so big, as big as a Big Mac and a supersize box of french fries. He had huge successes, huge failures; it might have been painful at times, but it was always exciting and operatic. But now, instead of a big bold opera, politics seems like a demure string quartet.

Some human element is missing. For eight years, politics was all about Bill, all about Bill’s needs. What is it about now? Tax cuts, faith-based organizations. Yay. Sure, there was Clinton’s “mandatory school uniforms” period, but that seems like ages ago. Most of the time, Bill was always about hugely dramatic dysfunction, and now that he’s gone, Washington is boring.

The biggest evidence is that even though Clinton is no longer president, the press hasn’t realized it. It’s still covering him as if he were. Just as Bill Clinton is addicted to McDonald’s and big-haired women, the media has become addicted to Bill Clinton. When was the last time an ex-president received this much press coverage? Granted, most of it is of his own doing — the immunity deal, the Marc Rich pardon, the White House gifts, the too-expensive Manhattan office. With his tackiness and his shamelessness, he makes himself an easy target. He personifies everything the media pursued in the 1990’s: politics as entertainment, entertainment as scandal, scandal as politics. O.J., Monica, Diana — he’s better than them all. O.J. had agility, Diana had incredible charisma, Monica had the political connection; Bill Clinton is all of these things rolled into one. The Big He, as Monica called him.

Meanwhile, back in Washington, George W. Bush is as self-effacing as Bill Clinton was self-promoting. Clinton never missed an opportunity to pontificate and bloviate, but Bush can’t do it and probably wouldn’t do it even if he could. The Bush presidency runs like a well-oiled machine — and don’t forget, that’s Texas oil, son — but it’s not exciting.

So why stick around Washington when you can cover the Man From Chappaqua?