I'm very glad that a lot of people don't vote.
Some (I mean, besides the prez) think this is a matter to be decided by a poll.
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Eastern Time
U.S. public angry at Clinton; not sure about fate
By Michael Conlon
CHICAGO, Sept 12 (Reuters) - Americans on Saturday voiced anger and disgust at President Bill Clinton for his White House sex escapades, yet didn't seem ready to boot him from office.
''I think they should forgive (him) for being a man, but I don't think they should forgive him for being a dunce,'' said Lucy Jameson, 63, a computer technician in Ohio.
''As to whether or not he should be impeached or resign, I guess as long as he can keep his pants zipped he can stay,'' said Barbara Milligan, a retired state employee in Nashville, Tennessee.
Clinton's affair with one-time intern Monica Lewinsky became a sizzling topic of national discussion thanks to a raunchy report by independent prosecutor Kenneth Starr, released Friday, that detailed their brand of clandestine, quicky and even kinky sex.
''There's just so much Americans want to know about the sex lives of certain people. And the president is one of the folks on the 'stop or I'll puke' list,''' said Tim Chavez, a columnist for the Nashville Tennessean.
Overnight polls showed that most Americans believed Clinton should be censured, but only about a third said he should be impeached by Congress or pressured to resign.
''I'm very angry. Oral sex is out there now, and it shouldn't have been. It wouldn't have been discussed in my family. I'm afraid now we're going to get to the next level,'' complained Mike White, psychologist for Princeton City Schools in Ohio and the father of two preteen children.
Todd Frierson, 30, a Cincinnati automated teller coordinator, offered compassion. ''I say with should forgive. Everyone in life makes a mistake.''
Clinton and Lewinsky's dirty laundry was hung out on the Internet for all to see. In addition to the sex, there were charges -- denied by the president -- of a cover-up.
''I read the whole report, and I thought it was funny, but a waste of my time,'' said Lucia Burgess, a chemistry student in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. ''I don't feel I should be in a position to know where Clinton touched Monica and what promises he made to her. It's his business.''
''I have less faith in Clinton than before, and I believe what he did is wrong,'' said Adrianna Zapata, a retired nurse in Miami. ''But I don't believe his actions are cause to impeach him.''
Jane Viator, in a letter to the Boston Globe editor, said she had had enough with the man she had twice voted for as president. Clinton has ''done his best to turn the Oval Office into a brothel. I think the last best service he can do for America is to resign and spare us the wretched excess,'' she wrote.
In another letter to the Boston Globe editor, Roger Hecht stood up for the embattled leader. ''The pursuit of President Clinton since his election has been bizarre and full of hypocrisy and agenda,'' he wrote. ''But releasing the details of the sexual relations between two consenting adults is more than that. It's mean, it's unfair and it's madness.''
Thomas Mills, campaign manager for Democratic congressional candidate Jonathan Williams in North Carolina's third District, said, ''I think the president's behavior is inexcusable. But I think the way Starr conducted the investigation is inexcusable as well. He wasted $40 million trying to bring down a president.''
Joe Walker, Sr., Ripley, Tennessee, seemed most upset with the messenger in the White House sex scandal rather than the two participants. ''I think the Starr report stinks,'' Walker said. ''I think Starr is a discredit to the country even if what his report says is true. Clinton is the best man we've had in the White House in many years.'' |
