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Do you think he cares about anyone but himself!!! He is arrogant enough to think he can get away with anything he wants!!! The jig is up! Chinagate is coming! What about all the money that's been spent on this scumbag by others!
Clinton staff stuck with legal bills
One estimate puts total at a hefty $8 million
By Pete Williams
NBC NEWS CORRESPONDENT
WASHINGTON, Sept. 15 -Independent counsel
Kenneth Starr put a $4.4 million price tag on
investigating allegations that the president had an
affair with a former White House intern. But that
doesn't include the legal fees owed by all the
people caught up in Starr's probe.
'You play by the
rules. You obey
the law. And the
next thing you
know, you're a
$60,000 a-year
employee with
$60,000 in legal
bills.'
- DEE DEE MYERS
former White House
spokeswoman
SO FAR, Starr has summoned three-dozen current
and former White House employees to testify about the
president's relationship with Monica Lewinsky. For most of
these employees, that means hiring a lawyer in a city where
legal fees hover around $350 dollars an hour.
That, according to former White House spokeswoman
Dee Dee Myers, is the high cost of serving this president.
"You show up and you work hard every single day.
You play by the rules. You obey the law," said Myers,
"And the next thing you know, you're a $60,000 a-year
employee with $60,000 in legal bills."
Legal sources, for example, estimate presidential
secretary Betty Currie's fees amount to at least $15,000.
For a few top staffers, like deputy counsel Bruce
Lindsey, legal bills for all the investigations since Whitewater
now total more than $1 million.
The people footing the bill, in part, are taxpayers.
Because the staffers were questioned about their official
activities, they can seek government reimbursement. But it
pays only about a quarter of what's actually billed.
Their lawyers won't say how much they owe, but the
Nation magazine estimates the total at nearly $8 million.
And that doesn't count legal fees for people outside
government, like Washington bookstore owner Bill Kramer
who was subpoenaed by Starr for records of the books
Lewinsky bought.
He successfully resisted, on free expression grounds.
But he says Starr's prosecutors were out of control for
asking in the first place.
"They have been doing this for three or four years,"
Kramer said, "And there wasn't anybody who was putting
an appropriate governor on their actions."
Since April, the president has said he'd try to help out
with his staff's bills.
"I feel terrible about it," Clinton said. "If I can think of
something to do about it, I will."
But even though most White House staffers think Starr
has gone overboard, some now say if their boss had just
told the truth earlier, many of them would never have
needed a lawyer.
Williams is a national news correspondent for NBC
News.
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