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Politics : Bill Clinton Scandal - SANITY CHECK -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Neocon who wrote (61143)	9/29/1999 10:21:00 PM
From: DMaA	Read Replies (3) \| Respond to of 67261

Investors Business Daily editorial on the WH barbecue incident - with one interesting detail not mentioned before: E D I T O R I A L S The President And The Press Date: 9/30/99 Many readers and others have asked us what happened last Friday evening at the White House between President Clinton and our Washington bureau chief, Paul Sperry. We're happy to comply, for it says a lot about our president. The incident occurred at a barbecue for the press held on the South Lawn. ''It began innocently enough,'' is how third-person accounts of the incident start. . . . Account of incident you've already read . . . ''It turned out to be a real shouting match on the South Lawn,'' one eyewitness was quoted as saying in one Internet account. Photos taken during the incident show a red-faced Clinton wagging his finger in Sperry's face. ''At one point during the argument,'' said the Internet account, ''President Clinton put his hands up to both sides of his head, wiggled them, rolled his eyes and gave Sperry a funny face. '' 'Make sure that guy never gets close to me again!' the president ordered one of his aides after the showdown.'' White House spokesman Joe Lockhart was quoted as telling an associate that Sperry is a ''Class A shithead.'' An aide to Lockhart told Sperry by phone late Monday that he would never be invited back to the White House. ''The only regret we have is inviting you - and we won't make that mistake again,'' Lockhart warned Sperry. Such reactions are, sadly, not unusual for this White House, which is known for personally attacking those it sees as threats. The president's response suggests a fear of tough but reasonable questions about key issues. Is this the inevitable result of seven years of coddling by the Washington press corps? We stand behind our bureau chief's right to ask basic questions on important issues the American people want to know about. Sperry was doing what every reporter should do. And judging from the hundreds of e-mails we got on this matter, a sampling of which appear below, many others would concur. As odd as we find Clinton's response to Sperry, the behavior of the White House press office can only be described as inexcusable. Rather than answering Sperry's questions in a straight way - or even giving the standard ''no comment'' -it tried to bully our bureau chief into silence, as it's done with other journalists over the years. By disinviting him from all future White House functions, it has also disinvited IBD's readers. The intimidation won't work. We'll keep asking questions, even hard ones, as long as they beg to be asked. That's our job. (C) Copyright 1999 Investors Business Daily, Inc. investors.com