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Politics : Clinton's Scandals: Is this corruption the worst ever? -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: BigAppleBoy who wrote (2189)	8/20/1998 6:58:00 AM
From: Zoltan!	Respond to of 13994

August 20, 1998 The Other Scandals President Clinton's remaining defenders assert his problems arise from a sexual vendetta, but meanwhile a host of other scandals has been pushed off the front pages. Take, for example, the ongoing saga of the Teamsters Union: its illegal election, its convicted money-launderers, and its connections with AFL-CIO headquarters and the Clinton-Gore campaign. The Teamsters mess would presumably be covered if Janet Reno actually did appoint an independent counsel on the broader Clinton-Gore campaign funds violations, but she has not done so. She is again reconsidering, under pressure of a possible contempt of Congress citation, and the latest speculation is that she is contemplating that an independent counsel look at the fundraising activity of former deputy White House chief of staff Harold Ickes. Now, Mr. Ickes isn't a covered person under the independent counsel act, and FBI director Louis Freeh has just told Congress that the President and Vice President are under active investigation. Still, in a House deposition Dick Morris reported that Mr. Ickes chaired a meeting in which union officials proposed to coordinate their campaign advertising with the Democratic Party's, a violation of the campaign-finance act. And there are also concerns that Mr. Ickes may have committed perjury in his testimony about the solicitation of donations and White House efforts to help the Teamsters. In 1996 taxpayers forked over some $20 million to supervise a 1996 Teamsters election; the union has been under court supervision since a 1989 consent decree to cleanse it of organized crime influence. First elected Teamster President as a "reform" candidate, Ron Carey was only narrowly re-elected in 1996, after which he launched the headline-grabbing strike against the United Parcel Service. But it turned out his campaign had embezzled $1.5 million from the union's treasury, routing it through the "public interest" group Citizens Action and back into the Carey campaign coffers. The election was set aside, and Mr. Carey was not only barred from running he was ousted from the union. Following the notion that possession is nine-tenths of an argument, however, his deputies continue to run Teamster headquarters. There they are obstructing a new election. U.S. District Judge David Edelstein, who oversees the Teamsters, was so frustrated by the union's refusal to spend $4 million for printing ballots and other election expenses that he ordered the entire executive board to appear in his New York courtroom to explain themselves. He withdrew the order this week, but the stalemate continues and a postponement of the rerun election is now certain. In addition Michael Cherkasky, the court-appointed elections officer, has just found that by retaliating against officers of a rival campaign, acting Teamsters President Tom Sever has committed "very serious" violations of election rules. Meanwhile, Mary Jo White, the ambitious U.S. Attorney in Manhattan, continues to investigate criminal violations relating to the election. A year ago she secured several guilty pleas to embezzlement and conspiracy from Carey aides. The trail clearly points higher into AFL-CIO ranks. Martin Davis, a Carey consultant who entered a guilty plea, claims that Richard Trumka, the secretary-treasurer of the AFL-CIO, agreed to help launder the Teamster-owned funds through Citizen Action and into the Carey campaign. Mr. Trumka has twice invoked the Fifth Amendment on this issue, but nonetheless remains as number two to AFL-CIO chief John Sweeney. Mr. Sweeney has ruled that the ban against holding union office while invoking the Fifth doesn't count. Kenneth Conboy, the former federal judge who ousted Mr. Carey, revealed illegal efforts on behalf of Mr. Carey by officials of other unions and the Democratic National Committee. Gerald McEntee, the president of the AFSCME public employees union, has acknowledged soliciting an illegal $20,000 contribution from an AFSCME vendor and then channeling the money to the Carey campaign. Judge Conboy also found that Mr. Carey personally phoned Clinton-Gore '96 finance director Terry McAuliffe to thank him for raising what Mr. Conboy calls improper campaign funds. When Ms. White got the first guilty pleas a year ago, her office asked Congressional investigators to avoid interfering with her criminal investigation. With the exception of one recent plea bargain by a minor Carey fundraiser, not much has happened since. Congressional committees are losing patience. "The investigation is very strange and very slow," says Rep. Pete Hoekstra. Unless further indictments are forthcoming shortly, the effect of Justice's prosecutions will be to bury the Trumka matter and other embarrassments about Labor's political efforts until after the fall elections. It is little wonder that Congress is losing patience with Mr. Clinton's Justice Department. Without the distraction of sexual entertainments and angry Presidential speeches, the Teamsters saga would look like an ongoing scandal of major dimensions. interactive.wsj.com

To: BigAppleBoy who wrote (2189)	8/20/1998 7:08:00 AM
From: Zoltan!	Respond to of 13994

Review & Outlook Obstruction and Abuse: A Pattern The latest Clinton scandal involving Monica Lewinsky is titillating because of sex, but it derives its legal and political importance from the issues of perjury and obstruction of justice. The latter is the legal description of a coverup, and a generation ago was the centerpiece in President Nixon's Watergate scandal, which originally started with a "third rate burglary." In fact, the issue of obstructing, avoiding and abusing the law and law enforcement agencies has been a constant theme of the long series of Clinton scandals both in Washington and Arkansas. There is a view about in the land nowadays that whatever Mr. Clinton's shortcomings (almost never detailed when this point is being pressed), the people somehow have internalized them. The shortcomings "don't matter" or don't "interfere with his job" or "everyone does it." Were any of this actually a true description of public belief today about the American system of politics, that system would be in profound danger. No system that we are aware of has survived on a foundation of rank cynicism. The events that are described in the passages inside, however, depend precisely on a reading of this country's contemporary culture that indeed makes allowances for overturning traditional standards of political and personal conduct. Some of those standards are in fact laws, which is the mandate of the independent counsel who have been appointed so far. Some of those standards allow our most politically powerful institutions, such as the FBI the Secret Service or Justice Department, to be seen as exemplary rather than mere instruments of politics. And some of those standards, pertaining to private conduct, exist to ensure that the President of a great nation, very simply, is a man one looks up to. The Clinton Presidency, in our view, has in large part been an exercise in defining downward the standards that elected officials must abide by and that voters in a democracy expect them to abide. At the current juncture, readers may find a refresher course instructive. The Lewinsky Affair Dec. 19, 1997: Former White House intern Monica Lewinsky is served a subpoena in the Paula Jones sexual harassment case against Bill Clinton. A lawyer for Lewinsky is arranged by presidential friend Vernon Jordan Dec. 28: According to later reports in the New York Times, Lewinsky visits the White House for a private meeting with the President, who instructs her to describe her earlier White House visits as meetings with his secretary, Betty Currie. He also tells her that if she does not have any gifts from him, she cannot produce them under subpoena, and Ms. Lewinsky gives the gifts to Mrs. Currie. Jan. 7, 1998: Lewinsky completes an affidavit for the Jones case saying she never had sex with the President. Around Jan. 9: Lewinsky is offered a job at Revlon, after the intervention of Jordan. Jan. 12: Linda Tripp, a friend of Lewinsky, contacts Independent Counsel Kenneth Starr with tapes of conversations between the two, in which Lewinsky said she had an affair with the President and intended to lie in her affidavit. Tripp, a former White House employee, also has been subpoenaed in the Jones case. Jan. 13: In a conversation secretly taped by the FBI, Lewinsky describes to Tripp her conversations with Jordan about the affidavit. Jan. 14 or 15: Lewinsky gives Tripp three pages of "talking points," suggesting that Tripp file an affidavit in the Jones case contradicting an earlier comment to Newsweek that Kathleen Willey, a volunteer in the White House social office, had reported being fondled by the President: "You now do not believe that what [Ms. Willey] claimed happened really happened," the talking points instruct. "You now find it completely plausible that she herself smeared her lipstick, untucked her blouse, etc." Jan. 17: Clinton is questioned under oath in the Paula Jones case. Various news reports say he denied any sexual misconduct at the White House, but is questioned extensively about Lewinsky. Jan. 18: According to a later report in the New York Times, Clinton summons his secretary, Betty Currie, to the White House, and asks a series of questions that can be seen as coaching her grand jury testimony, for example, telling her he was never alone with Lewinsky. But news reports suggest that Currie's grand jury testimony contradicts the President's testimony on key points. Campaign Finance Abuses Sept. 13, 1995: At an Oval Office meeting among the President, Commerce Department official John Huang, Lippo Group scion James Riady, senior Clinton aide Bruce Lindsey, and Arkansas dealmaker Joseph Giroir, a decision is reached to dispatch Huang to a senior Democratic National Committee fund-raising post. 1996: Huang and longtime Clinton friend Charlie Trie engineer millions in contributions to Democratic coffers, helping to fund an early advertising campaign designed by adviser Dick Morris. Much of it is later returned as illegal. Reno rejects calls for an independent counsel. April 29, 1996: Gore attends a fund-raiser at the Hsi Lai Buddhist Temple in California, raising at least $140,000. The fundraiser later comes under scrutiny by Congress and the Department of Justice. Gore initially calls the visit a "community outreach event." Later he admits knowing that the visit was donor-related but says his staff failed to tell him it was a formal fund-raiser. October: On the eve of the presidential election, with the campaign finance issue exploding, Lindsey advises White House aides to lie about Riady's visits to Clinton, telling them to characterize the visits as "social" calls. December: Concealing the news until after the election, the president's legal defense trust discloses that Trie attempted to deliver $640,000 in donations to the trust. The money was returned. July 1997: Sen. Fred Thompson opens hearings into campaign finance abuses, impaired by White House document stonewalls, witnesses fleeing the country and others pleading the Fifth Amendment. As the hearings close, Reno again rejects calls for an independent counsel. January 1998: A Justice task force indicts Trie, who returns from refuge in Macau to plead innocent. The Department of Justice March 1993: Newly installed as attorney general after the abortive nominations of Zoe Baird and Kimba Wood, Janet Reno fires all 93 U.S. attorneys. May: Arkansas crony Webster Hubbell is installed as associate attorney general; in a 1994 deal with the Whitewater independent counsel, he pleads guilty to felony fraud and goes to prison. January 1994: Respected Deputy Attorney General Philip Heymann resigns. July 1995: In a meeting with Reno and top aides, amid mounting pressure from the White House and prominent Arkansans, Independent Counsel Donald Smaltz is told to stop investigating poultry giant Tyson Foods. August: Criminal Division head Jo Ann Harris retires. Robert Litt, a Clinton political appointee and former partner of Clinton personal attorney David Kendall, is put forward for the job, but Justice later withdraws the nomination. April 1996: Top Public Integrity officials Lee Radek and Jo Ann Farrington sign an unprecedented motion before the Special Division of the U.S. Court of Appeals seeking to limit the Smaltz probe. April 1997: Newly named Deputy Attorney General Eric Holder elevates Litt to principal associate deputy attorney general, not subject to confirmation but arguably the third most important position in the department. The post of head of the criminal division, for which Litt's nomination was withdrawn, remains vacant. September: Charles La Bella, a protege of former Clinton fund raiser Allan Bersin, now the U.S. attorney in San Diego, is brought in to head the Justice Department campaign finance probe. November: Respected internal watchdog Michael Shaheen, head of the Office of Professional Responsibility for 22 years, announces his resignation. Independent Counsels Jan. 20, 1994: Attorney General Janet Reno appoints Robert Fiske as independent counsel to investigate Whitewater. Aug. 5: A three-judge special panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals removes Fiske and appoints Kenneth Starr. Sept. 12: Donald Smaltz is named independent counsel to investigate Agriculture Secretary Mike Espy. May 24, 1995: David Barrett is appointed independent counsel to investigate charges that Housing Secretary Henry Cisneros lied to the FBI. July 6: Daniel Pearson is named independent counsel to probe business dealings of Commerce Secretary Ron Brown; the probe is closed on Brown's death. March 22, 1996: Starr's investigation is expanded to cover the Travel Office affair. June 21: Starr's jurisdiction is expanded to cover the Filegate affair. Nov. 26: Reno refuses to name an independent counsel in the campaign finance affair. Feb. 17, 1997: Starr announces he will step down to become dean of Pepperdine Law School. Four days later he says he will stay on until investigations and prosecutions are "substantially completed." April 30: For the second time, Reno refuses to name an independent counsel to probe campaign finance irregularities. Dec. 2: Reno once again refuses to name an independent counsel to investigate campaign finance abuses. Dec. 15: Reno declines to appoint an independent counsel to investigate the president's role in the Indian casino scandal. Jan. 16, 1998: Reno and judges expand Starr's mandate again, to investigate possible perjury and obstruction of justice relative to Clinton's testimony in the Paula Jones trial. Jan. 27: In an appearance on NBC's "Today" show, Hillary Clinton complains of a "vast right-wing conspiracy," including Starr and the three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals, headed by David Sentelle. Feb. 11: Reno announces she will appoint an independent counsel to investigate Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt's involvement in the Indian casino scandal. Webster Hubbell March 1993: Installed as the Justice Department "liaison" to the White House, Webster Hubbell brokers a meeting with the congressional Black Caucus that leads to the reversal of the Justice Department position in the Memphis corruption trial of Rep. Harold Ford. The U.S. attorney and two assistants resign. First Journal editorial, "Who Is Webster Hubbell?" March 1994: Associate Attorney General Hubbell resigns amid a probe into his Rose Law Firm billing practices. April: Vernon Jordan helps Hubbell obtain $63,000 in "consulting fees" from a holding company controlled by Revlon financier Ron Perelman. June: Following five White House visits by James Riady, the Lippo Group pays Hubbell $100,000 for undisclosed services. According to a USA Today compilation, after leaving Justice Hubbell "was paid more than $500,000 by various companies and people, including some with close ties to the White House." Dec. 6: Hubbell pleads guilty to two fraud felonies in a deal with Whitewater prosecutors and promises cooperation. No cooperation materializes. The Ron Brown Paper Chase May 16, 1995: Judge Royce Lamberth orders the release of documents on Commerce Secretary Ron Brown's trade missions and possible political influence on them, under a Freedom of Information Act suit filed by Judicial Watch, a conservative legal watchdog group. April 3, 1996: Brown and 32 others die in a plane crash in Croatia. Oct. 28: Ira Sockowitz, a Clinton appointee at Commerce, admits he removed classified documents when he took a new job at the Small Business Administration. The documents are seized by the SBA's Inspector General. In November, Dalia Traynham, a Commerce employee, admits shredding documents from Brown's files after his death. May 28, 1997: Graham Whatley, a Commerce official, reveals existence of a "DNC Minority Donors List" in departmental files. It had been turned over to the Justice Department two months earlier, but not to Judicial Watch or the court. Aug. 12: The Clinton administration capitulates and offers to pay $2 million in legal fees to Judicial Watch. The group later asks the court for additional discovery, including a resumption of its deposition of John Huang. Cont. URL for this Article: interactive.wsj.com

To: BigAppleBoy who wrote (2189)	8/20/1998 7:09:00 AM
From: Zoltan!	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 13994

Cont. The FBI Files June 5, 1996: After a lengthy stonewall, the White House releases 1,000 of 3,000 documents sought by the House Oversight Committee in the Travel Office affair. Among the documents are requests by White House personnel security chief Craig Livingstone for FBI files on Travel Office head Billy Dale -- dated seven months after his dismissal -- as well as hundreds of others, including prominent Republicans. June 11: Clinton calls the improperly obtained FBI files an "honest bureaucratic snafu." Livingstone and his assistant Anthony Marceca are identified as longtime Democratic Party political operatives. June 26: Livingstone announces his resignation. Two days later, Marceca refuses to testify before the House Oversight Committee, invoking the Fifth Amendment. What Health Care Task Force? February 1993: The Association of American Physicians and Surgeons sues Hillary Clinton's Health Care Task Force, arguing that the Federal Advisory Committee Act (FACA) requires that it open its meeting to the public. March: Health czar Ira Magaziner files an affidavit declaring that "only federal government employees served as members" of the working groups, which would make it exempt from FACA. July 20: Deputy White House Counsel Vincent Foster, who argued the administration's case in the FACA litigation, commits suicide. November: Judge Royce Lamberth labels the Clinton Justice Department's responses for document requests "incomplete and inadequate" and describes it as "stonewalling." March 1994: In a motion for summary judgment, the presence of non-government employees in the working groups is revealed. December: Judge Lamberth announces his intention to fine the administration for "misconduct." He later terms Magaziner's affidavit "misleading, at best" and asks Eric Holder, U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia, to study whether Magaziner committed perjury in the FACA lawsuit. August 1995: Holder announces that Magaziner will not be prosecuted, although he acknowledges his statements were "strained" and left him "open to charges that portions were inaccurate." July 19, 1997: Holder is sworn in as deputy attorney general, the Justice Department's No. 2 position. Dec. 18: Judge Lamberth orders the administration to pay $286,000 in legal fees to the plaintiff and other groups. The government "should be accountable when its officials run amok," the judge writes, adding that the executive branch "was dishonest with this court." After Foster's Death July 20, 1993: The evening of Foster's suicide, White House Counsel Bernard Nussbaum and White House aides Patsy Thomasson and Maggie Williams search Foster's office. According to later testimony by a Secret Service officer, Williams exits the counsel's suite with an armful of folders. July 22: Nussbaum denies senior Justice Department officials access to Foster's office. In an angry phone call, Deputy Attorney General Philip Heymann asks, "Bernie, are you hiding something?" July 26: Members of the White House Counsel's office find a torn-up note, previously overlooked, in the bottom of Foster's briefcase. It was later revealed that Whitewater files taken from Foster's office were kept for five days in the White House personal residence before being turned over to the Clintons's lawyer. The Travel Office Affair May 19, 1993: The White House fires seven employees of its Travel Office in an attempt to replace them with associates of Clinton crony Harry Thomason. White House lawyers attempt to involve the IRS and the FBI in the probe. UltrAir, the previous air travel contractor, is quickly audited by the IRS, which said its interest was prompted by news reports. April 6, 1994: A White House lawyer, responding in writing to General Accounting Office investigators, states that "Mrs. Clinton does not know the origin of the decision to remove White House Travel Office employees." Dec. 7: Former Travel Office director Billy Dale is indicted on charges of embezzling office funds. In November 1995, a Washington jury acquits him after deliberating for less than two hours. January 1996: After months of stonewalling, the White House releases a memo by director of administration David Watkins saying that Vincent Foster "regularly informed me that the First Lady was concerned and desired action -- the action desired was the firing of the Travel Office staff." Gennifer and Paula 1992: Claims by Arkansas cabaret singer Gennifer Flowers threaten to derail Clinton's 1992 presidential bid. Flowers says that then-Gov. Clinton used Arkansas state troopers to facilitate their affair and helped her obtain a state job. Her job led to grievance proceedings by Charlette Perry, who lost the promotion. In a recording secretly taped by Flowers, Gov. Clinton is heard telling her to "deny" everything. On "60 Minutes," with Hillary by his side, Clinton denies a 12-year sexual affair with Flowers. December 1993: In news reports in The American Spectator and the Los Angeles Times, Arkansas state troopers are quoted as confirming that Gov. Clinton used them to assist in affairs with Flowers and numerous others. One report included a trooper's account of escorting a woman named Paula to the governor's suite in a Little Rock hotel. May 6, 1994: Paula Corbin Jones files suit for sexual harassment, saying a trooper took her to the governor's suite but that she rebuffed crude sexual advances. Presidential superlawyer Bob Bennett describes the charge as "tabloid trash" and Clinton adviser James Carville says: "Drag a $100 bill through a trailer park and there's no telling what you'll find." January 1998: Depositions go forward in the Jones trial after the Supreme Court rejects contentions that it should be delayed until the President leaves office. According to news reports, the President's deposition included admission of a brief affair with Flowers. She says, "You'd think the boy would learn." Whitewater May 1990: Madison Guaranty Savings & Loans owner Jim McDougal is acquitted of bank fraud in Little Rock. November: Gov. Clinton is elected to a second four-year term on the promise that he will serve the full term and not seek the Presidency in 1992. March 1992: New York Times reporter Jeff Gerth discloses the Clintons' dealings with Madison Guaranty and the Whitewater land deal. Privately attacking Gerth, the Clinton campaign publicly releases a report by Denver lawyer James Lyon clearing the Clintons of improprieties and saying they lost $68,000 on the investment. The issue fades from the campaign. August 31: The Resolution Trust Corp. prepares a criminal referral for the Justice Department alleging possible crimes by Jim and Susan McDougal, and naming the Clintons and Arkansas Lt. Gov. Jim Guy Tucker as possible beneficiaries. December: Vincent Foster, acting on behalf of the Clintons, meets with Jim McDougal and arranges for him to buy out the Clintons' Whitewater shares. Tyson Foods general counsel Jim Blair loans McDougal $1,000 for the purchase. Diane Blair, Jim Blair's wife, rises through the ranks of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, eventually being named chairman. April 1993: Foster prepares the Clintons's 1992 tax return including a capital gain of $1,000 for the sale of Whitewater. Among the Foster notes released by the White House in 1995 after a two-year stonewall are references to Whitewater tax issues, including one calling it "a can of worms you shouldn't open." An issue remains concerning failure to report a $58,000 gift from Mr. McDougal, who assumed the Clintons' share of the corporation's debt. September: Treasury Department Counsel Jean Hanson warns White House Counsel Bernard Nussbaum about the confidential RTC criminal referrals. Nussbaum informs senior Clinton aide Bruce Lindsey. October 1993: Lindsey informs Clinton about the referrals. Lindsey later tells Congress he did not mention any specific targets. One of the targets, however -- Arkansas Gov. Jim Guy Tucker -- meets with the President first in the White House and again in Seattle. Oct. 27: U.S. Attorney Paula Casey in Little Rock rejects the first RTC criminal referral. Nine others are pending. Nov. 9: RTC investigator Jean Lewis is taken off the probe. In August 1994, amid a mounting smear campaign, she is placed on administrative leave. In later testimony before the House Banking Committee she charges that there was "a concerted effort to obstruct, hamper and manipulate" the Madison probe. Feb. 2, 1994: Deputy Treasury Secretary Roger Altman meets with Nussbaum to give a "heads up" on Madison. Both later resign. January 1996: The White House announces that Mrs. Clinton's Rose Law Firm billing records, sought under subpoena by the independent counsel and by Congress for two years, have been discovered on a table in the "book room" of the personal residence. May 28: Before an Arkansas jury, Independent Counsel Kenneth Starr wins conviction of Gov. Tucker and Jim and Susan McDougal for bank fraud and conspiracy relating to Madison. Jurors had see Clinton's testimony via videotape. Sept. 4: Under a grant of immunity before an Arkansas grand jury, Susan McDougal refuses to answer whether Clinton was aware of the illegal loan at the heart of the Madison fraud and whether he testified truthfully at her trial. She is jailed on contempt of court charges. At this writing, she remains incarcerated for contempt, faces time on the original Madison convictions, and awaits trial in California on charges of defrauding conductor Zubin Mehta and his wife. Train Deaths 1987: Arkansas State Medical Examiner Fahmy Malak rules the deaths of teenagers Kevin Ives and Don Henry, found run over by a train, "accidental," saying the boys had smoked too much marijuana and fallen asleep on the tracks. A second autopsy and grand jury probe, finding evidence of a knife wound and beatings, declared it "definitely a homicide." 1989: With the controversy over the train deaths case growing, a commission headed by Arkansas Department of Health Director Joycelyn Elders clears Dr. Malak. Nine months later, Gov. Clinton proposes a $32,000 raise for the medical examiner; the state legislature cuts it in half. A Malak ruling in a 1981 death case involving Clinton's mother, nurse-anesthetist Virginia Kelley, had helped her avoid intense legal scrutiny. 1990: Jean Duffey, a prosecutor who developed information about a possible connection between the train deaths and drugs dropped from low-flying planes was fired and felt it necessary to flee the state, blaming incoming prosecuting attorney Dan Harmon for a "smear campaign." 1991: A month before Clinton announces his presidential run, Dr. Malak is promoted to a new job as a Health Department consultant to Dr. Elders. 1997: Prosecutor Harmon is convicted on five counts of racketeering, extortion and drug distribution for using his office as a criminal enterprise. The train deaths case remains unresolved. The Lasater Case 1984: Gov. Clinton's brother, Roger, is arrested for cocaine possession while working at menial jobs for Little Rock "bond daddy" Dan Lasater, a major Clinton supporter. 1985: Lasater's company is awarded a $30 million state bond-underwriting contract. 1986: Lasater is convicted on conspiracy to possess and distribute cocaine. Roger Clinton, in a plea deal with prosecutors, testifies against him. Both men serve relatively brief jail sentences. While Lasater is in jail, his business is run by Patsy Thomasson, later a Clinton White House aide. 1990: After serving part of a 30-month sentence on federal charges, Lasater is given a state pardon by Gov. Clinton, restoring such rights as a hunting license. 1996: In Senate hearings, Whitewater Committee counsel Michael Chertoff berates Lasater for claiming he was convicted of "social distribution" of cocaine, when the law on cocaine distribution recognizes no such distinction. Hillary's Commodities Coup October 1978: Mrs. Clinton begins a series of commodities trades under the guidance of Tyson Foods executive Jim Tyson, earning nearly $100,000 on a $1,000 investment in highly risky cattle futures. March 18, 1994: The New York Times reveals Mrs. Clinton's 1970s commodities trades, previously obscured because the Clintons had refused to release their tax returns for 1978-79 when the cattle killing occurred. April 22: The First Lady holds a pretty-in-pink press conference and says she did not receive special treatment from her broker, Robert "Red" Bone at Refco, Inc. URL for this Article: interactive.wsj.com

To: BigAppleBoy who wrote (2189)	8/20/1998 7:23:00 AM
From: Liatris Spicata	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 13994

BigApple- Your inchoate, semi-coherent, vulgar ranting hardly warrants a response. You appear to be an example of someone who has his conclusions firmly in mind before he begins to justify them. Your comparison with Bush's "No new taxes" (you misquoted him- and perhaps he meant "no gnu taxes"- he did not impose a tax on gnus!) is misleading at best. Whatever Bush's intentions were when he made the statement- and I'm willing to give him the benefit of the doubt that he believed it when he said it- it pales in comparison with the deceitful lifestyle of Clinton. First, Bush was making a statement about what he would do in the future, an inherently somewhat risky venture. While I don't necessarily agree, he would probably claim he was blindsided by unforeseen events- namely the recession of the early 1990's. He also took the politically unpopular stand of raising taxes because he thought it was in the best interests of the country. Now he may well have been wrong, but he put what he thought was the best interest of the nation above his own immediate political interests, and for that he deserves a measure of respect. I don't know what "great job" you think Clinton has done other than position himself in a fortuitous time in the business cycle, but the issue involves lying to the American people about what he has done- not what he will do in the future- more than it does about his sex life. There may even be a plausible case of obstruction of justice, a rather serious crime on the part of the President of the United States. So your simple-minded, even idiotic reduction of Clinton's problems to sex is just a smoke-screen. That you, and others of your persuasion, overlook a pattern of dishonesty on the part of the chief executive of the United States is, to me, disheartening and a good measure the importance that people like you place on integrity. Your reference to the murder rate in the US is hopelessly beside the point- it simply has no bearing on the issue at hand. Is it too much to expect for you to stick to relevant issues, or is ranting about irrelevancies the best you can muster? Larry P.S. Kenneth Starr is engaged in the non-trivial task of once again ensuring that nobody in this country is above the law. He has taken on an onerous chore at a considerable cost to his own career preferences- a stand I don't believe you can claim William Jefferson Clinton has ever made. You, on the other hand, seem to prefer a government run by an emperor who is above the law.

To: BigAppleBoy who wrote (2189)	8/20/1998 11:38:00 AM
From: Michael Sphar	Respond to of 13994

Prozac might help. Bush got his reward in '92 if I'm not mistaken. Not much of what you say is significant to the issues at hand; false testimony, obstruction, suborning purjury, and bald-faced lying to the American public on broadcast television. The are the issues that Starr's inexpensive and efficient investigation will soon be presenting to a committee of our representatives in Congress. Hang in there, I know it must be a tough row to hoe for you. With all due respect...