The Telegraph - London - 10/02/98
By Hugo Gurdon in Washington
A MULTI-million-signature petition demanding President Clinton's resignation is to be delivered to Washington on convoys of lorries
organised by the former presidential candidate Ross Perot.
Mr Perot, the Reform Party founder who won 19 per cent of the vote in the 1992 election, announced on Wednesday night that he
was putting his formidable organisational skills into an effort to oust "a President that cannot tell the truth."
Saying that "this man cannot be in that office", the pugnacious Texan billionaire said he intended marshalling "the largest petition
drive from the grass roots of America in history".
He said his activists would collect locally organised petitions. "Then we're going to start a truck convoy on the West Coast, have
another one coming out of Texas, another coming out of Florida, and probably a number of other locations.
"And the truck convoy will get longer and longer, and as it approaches Washington it's going to be a big one. We will have a
dignified turning-in ceremony and a candlelight vigil in Washington to get the message over that we expect a whole lot more from our
President than this man has given us."
Mr Clinton has said he will never resign and the White House gave Mr Perot's statement scant attention yesterday, but the
President's allies scent danger. James Carville, the "Ragin' Cajun" and a leading architect of Mr Clinton's 1992 election victory,
described Mr Perot as "half a quart low".
The Texan populist disinterred the subject of Mr Clinton's drug use. The President has admitted trying cannabis in his youth, but
more recent witnesses have alleged frequent use of hard drugs such as cocaine while he was governor of Arkansas, and Mr Perot
suggested this as an explanation of the President's recklessness. Mr Perot said: "Here is a man who should set the highest
example, who is totally out of control, who is mentally unstable. Either he's got mental troubles, or he does something like take
drugs to spin him out from time to time."
Hugh Davies in Washington writes: A New York millionaire, Abe Hirschfeld, 78, offered yesterday to pay the $1 million (£600,000)
that Paula Jones wants to settle her sexual harassment lawsuit against Mr Clinton. Mike McCurry, 43, left his post as White House
Press Secretary yesterday. One of the few wits in the administration, he once explained that his job was to tell the truth, "but tell it
slowly". He is succeeded by Joseph Lockhart, 39, a former Sky Television News reporter.
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