Bill Clinton, human rights hero in Kosovo and economic miracle worker at home, tells all in “My Life.” Decades of public service for the two-term Democratic former president and all the buzz surrounds his confessional on CBS’ “60 Minutes” about his infidelity with that woman.

“I did something for the worst possible reason — just because I could,” Clinton says. “That’s just about the most morally indefensible reason that anybody could have for doing anything. There are lots of sophisticated explanations, more complicated psychological explanations, but none of them are an excuse.”

He calls his cigar-chomping time with pizza girl Monica Lewinsky “a terrible moral error” that put him “in the doghouse” with Hillary and threatened his loving relationship with daughter, Chelsea. Well, duh, Bubba.

That’s what you get when you deny the truth for almost a year and then, only after impeachment stares you in the face, you fess up and embarrass your wife and daughter and threaten to put your legacy in the trash bin of history.

I know, I know. Clinton was impeached for lying under oath about a very personal matter. No one died because of his lying. He didn’t mislead the American public about the reasons for, say, going to war — a topic for another day involving another president. And, yes, knowing what we know today about prosecutor Kenneth Starr’s political machinations, it’s easy for Clinton to dismiss Starr’s work as “illegitimate” and his own fight to save his political skin as a “badge of courage.”

No one is perfect, and as Clinton likes to point out, Starr and the Republican Congress spent $70 million to “uncover” that he was a sinner. Like we didn’t already know.

Still, had Clinton immediately come forward and admitted his wrongdoing, he would have spared Americans (and our kids) the debasement of our national dignity. But apparently most people don’t care, because he’s still a popular guy, certainly polling higher today than Iraq-impaired President Bush.

Bush was all kissy-face during the recent unveiling of the Clintons’ portraits at the White House, praising his predecessor for his public service and pointing to Chelsea as an example of the fine job the Clintons did in the parenting department. A cynic might think Bush hopes Bill’s political black magic will rub off and help his own faltering popularity.

The president, having had his twin daughters arrested for underage imbibing a few years ago, understands the monumental work the Clintons managed to do to raise Chelsea. She’s a brainy and now lovely young woman of 24 with an Oxford education and a six-figure salary and no scandals beyond tabloid-created nonsense about chin jobs and eyelift surgery.

Clinton’s greatest legacy may well be Chelsea. Not bad for a morally impaired guy who grew up in a blue-collar world fighting the demons of an alcoholic, wife-beating stepdad.

Imagine the epitaph: Here lies William Jefferson Clinton: Great dad, louse of a husband.

He surely wouldn’t be the first man to fit that description, and perhaps that’s what makes Clinton such a popular guy. As a Republican friend once jokingly shared in analyzing Clinton’s popularity, “He lies, he cheats, he’s one of us.”

Chelsea can be proud that her dad seems to have learned from his “terrible moral error.” There were many tough lessons for Chelsea growing up, watching such a smart man make so many dumb private choices that publicly humiliated those he professed to love.

Myriam Marquez is an editorial page columnist for the Orlando Sentinel. Her e-mail address is mmarquez@orlandosentinel.com.