Jerry's "howler" used some dates...one was: 2/27/97...look what came up....LOLOL!
Talking Points - White House Scandals
From: rnc.org
RNC Talking Points
White House Scandals
The Most Political White House in American History
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April 7, 1997 "[Bill Clinton] thought he could use the power of the
government to raise the money to stay in government."
--columnist William Safire, NBC's "Meet the Press," 3/16/97
Every new day seems to shed more light on the extent to which Bill
Clinton and Al Gore abused the power of their offices for their own
political gain, essentially turning the White House into Democrat
campaign headquarters.
When the Democrat Party fund-raising scandals first came to light,
Clinton tried to distance himself from the Democrat National Committee -
he even called the DNC "the other campaign." But now it is becoming
clear Clinton and Gore themselves were personally directing DNC
fund-raising efforts on a day-to-day basis. Worse, Clinton/Gore were
running the government with one goal in mind - keeping themselves in
power. Let's re-cap:
*Bill Clinton personally reviewed "mind-numbing campaign budget minutia
on a weekly, and sometimes daily, basis," and then-Deputy White House
Chief of Staff Harold Ickes "personally controlled DNC affairs from the
White House." (The Washington Post, 4/3/97, emphasis added) "Democratic
fund-raisers, panicked about a campaign cash shortage, pressured
President Clinton to get personally involved in raising at least $70
million in 1996, new documents show." (USA Today, 4/3/97)
*Remember: "In a news conference last November, Clinton referred to the
DNC as 'the other campaign' and said there was clear difference between
problems at the DNC and his own political operation. The White House has
now abandoned that line." (The Washington Post, 4/3/97)
*Bill Clinton admitted to the possibility he may have made calls from
the White House to solicit money for the Democrats: "I simply can't say
that I've never done it." (White House press conference, 3/7/97) Ickes
urged Clinton to make 20 phone calls and Gore 15 phone calls in an
effort to quickly raise $1.2 million. (The New York Times, 4/3/97)
*Vice President Al Gore made phone calls from his White House office to
"shake down" Democrat donors for contributions to the Democrats in
express violation of the law. Gore then went on to say the law did not
apply to him, he was very proud of what he did, but he would never do it
again. (The Washington Post, 3/4/97).
*Hillary Rodham Clinton admitted to the possibility she made
fund-raising calls from the White House: "I do not recall making any
[fund-raising calls] but I'm not going to say absolutely never." (The
New York Times, 3/11/97)
*Bill Clinton himself gave approval for 938 donors to stay overnight in
the Lincoln bedroom in exchange for high-dollar contributions. Clinton
wrote on the memo suggesting the scheme that he was "ready to start
overnights right away." He wrote that the Democrats should give such
access to those giving "100,000 or more, $50,000 or more." (The
Washington Post, 2/26/97)
*Clinton was so involved in the details of DNC fund-raising that he even
wrote out in longhand a draft direct-mail solicitation letter in which
he begged donors to "please send us a check now - anything you can
afford. ... And share this report with your friends and neighbors. Copy
it. Fax it." (The Washington Post, 2/26/97)
*One memo from Harold Ickes cautioned that the Democrats would need to
set aside $1.5 million to cover audit costs and $1 million to cover
potential fines from the Federal Election Commission for improper
fund-raising. After Clinton read the memo he wrote "Ugh" in the margin.
(The Washington Post, 4/3/97)
*Clinton himself personally approved, and on occasion even re-wrote,
scripts for the DNC's television advertising blitz from the White House.
(Bob Woodward's The Choice, and Business Week, 7/22/96)
*Clinton's political operatives established "an unprecedented
media-control operation inside the White House counsel's office" that
monitored news stories and demonized Clinton critics. "The White House
operation was led by counsels Mark Fabiani and Bruce Lindsey and adviser
George Stephanopoulos." (The Washington Times, 1/12/97)
*Clinton ordered aides in late 1994 to use the taxpayer- funded White
House database to build an outreach plan to reward supporters with
"trinkets" and access. White House aide Marsha Scott called the plan
"the president's idea, and it is a good one." (The Washington Times,
3/11/97)
*Hillary Rodham Clinton encouraged an aide to share with the DNC "for
political purposes" a White House computer database paid for by the
taxpayers and containing more than 350,000 names. Mrs. Clinton
previously claimed she was unaware the database was being used for
political purposes, but her handwriting appeared on top of a memo
outlining the plan, saying: "This sounds promising. Please advise. HRC."
(The Washington Post, 3/4/97)
*Hillary Rodham Clinton's chief of staff, Maggie Williams, accepted a
$50,000 political contribution in the White House from Democrat
supporter Johnny Chung "at a time when he was seeking access to
President Clinton's weekly radio address for himself and several
business associates." (The Washington Post, 3/6/97)
*As far back as 1994, "President Clinton hosted a series of breakfasts
at the White House to raise large sums of money - as much as $50,000 to
$100,000 per participant - to promote his health care plan, according to
individuals familiar with the events." (Los Angeles Times, 4/4/97)
*Bill Clinton and Al Gore headlined more than 100 coffee meetings in the
White House attended by supporters and key policy makers in the
government that netted the Democrat Party a staggering $27 million. Some
Democrat fund-raisers even sold invitations to these coffees for as much
as $100,000. (The New York Times, 2/26/97)
*Clinton had claimed that during these coffees "there was no
solicitation at the White House" for contributions to the DNC or the
Clinton/Gore re-election. (The Washington Post, 2/27/97) Now it is
evident there was in fact solicitation at the White House, and Clinton
was present when it was happening: "[O]fficials told The Times that
while the president never made fund-raising pitches at the dozens of
coffees the DNC held at the White House, he was in attendance when party
officials asked those invited to contribute to the president's
re-election." (The Washington Times, 3/25/97)
*It is also now clear that these White House coffees were not simply
innocent ways for Clinton/Gore to meet with supporters to discuss
issues, but were actually orchestrated fund-raising events "routinely
budgeted to raise $400,000." (The New York Times, 4/3/97)
*The Clinton/Gore White House has hosted at least 73 receptions, meals
and other events for Democrat Party fat- cat donors and numerous other
political supporters during the last four years. (The New York Times,
3/17/97)
*The White House told the FBI to hand over information about the
investigation into whether the Chinese government funneled contributions
to the Democrat Party and Clinton/Gore re-election. FBI director Louis
Freeh refused to do so. (Los Angeles Times, 3/25/97)
*The White House obtained from the FBI more than 900 confidential
background files of Republicans. They were given to Craig Livingstone,
then-Director of White House Personnel Security and a former political
operative who served on Clinton's 1992 presidential campaign. The files
were stored in the White House for months. (The Wall Street Journal,
6/26/96)
*The White House counsel's office circulated a memo on official White
House letterhead advising federal employees they can contribute to the
Clinton/Gore re-election. White House press secretary Mike McCurry said
the White House's intent was to "remind federal employees and
particularly political employees what they are obligated to do under the
law." (The Washington Post, 5/26/95)
*The White House provided a front for fund-raising in foreign countries
by allowing former White House aide Mark Middleton to continue using a
White House phone number to solicit money from Taiwanese donors. (The
New York Post, 11/1/96)
*The White House pressured the Immigration and Naturalization Service to
hastily naturalize at least 1 million immigrants in the hopes of
creating an army of new Democrat voters. In the process, 180,000 were
admitted without required criminal background checks - nearly 10,800
even have felony arrests on their records, including murder and rape. (
The Washington Post, 3/4/97)
*The White House directed the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) last
year to dispatch taxpayer-paid government employees to organize Earth
Day events critical of Republican environmental policies in cities
represented by House Republicans. (The Washington Post, 4/3/96)
*Bill Clinton's Veterans Administration Secretary Jesse Brown used his
department's computers to send e-mail messages criticizing Congress to
government employees, and even had messages critical of the GOP printed
on the backs of employees' paychecks. (The Washington Times, 11/7/95)
*The DNC was paying the salaries of 23 so-called "volunteers" working in
the White House during Clinton's first term. (The Washington Post,
3/12/97)
Bill Clinton and Al Gore are clearly more concerned with running a
perpetual campaign for election than running the country. The American
people elect a president, not a campaign manager. Unfortunately, Bill
Clinton and Al Gore don't know the difference. |
