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

To: jlallen who wrote (2196)	8/20/1998 10:42:00 AM
From: Doughboy	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 13994

<<Don't hold your breath. Who saw them lunching together? Who appointed the Democrat to the panel? What is the Democrat's name? What is his connection to Clinton? JLA>> JLA--Why do you insist on being proven wrong over and over again? First you accuse me of passing false rumors about connections between Starr's appointment and Senators Helms and Faircloth. Well, your ignorance is showing once again. The other two judges on the panel are John Butzner, a Circuit Court Judge from Virginia, I believe, who was appointed by Lyndon Johnson. The other Republican on the panel is Peter Fay, appointed by Ford. Butzner has no connection whatsoever to Clinton. Here's an MSNBC excerpt about it: Chief Justice William Rehnquist, himself appointed to the high court by Nixon in 1972 and elevated to Chief Justice by President Ronald Reagan in 1986, picks the judges who serve on the Special Division. . . . Rehnquist appointed David Sentelle, the presiding judge, in 1992 and has re-appointed him twice. Sentelle, a North Carolina Republican, was appointed to the Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia by Reagan in 1988. Rehnquist also picked Judge Peter Fay, named a federal judge in 1976, to serve on the Special Division in 1994, and has re-appointed him once. And Rehnquist appointed Judge John Butzner to the Special Division in 1988, re-appointing him three times. Butzner was named to the federal bench by President Lyndon Johnson in 1967. As for the lunch between Sentelle, Helms and Faircloth, it plainly did happen just prior to when Fiske was fired and Starr was hired. It was first reported by the Washington Post, and Helms, Faircloth and Sentelle all admitted that it occurred in the Senate Dining Room, but they said there was nothing untoward about it. It was later condemned by the American Bar Assn for being in violation of the Judge's ethical obligation to avoid "appearances of impropriety," and it was investigated by another supervisory federal judge. Here's excerpts from a follow-up Washington Post article: The Washington Post Copyright 1994 Wednesday, August 24, 1994 A SECTION Lunch Among 'Old Friends' Causes Latest Whitewater Ripple Toni Locy; Marilyn W. Thompson Washington Post Staff Writers Now, Faircloth is at the center of a new ethical imbroglio surrounding the Whitewater affair, one that has raised questions of judicial impropriety and, Democrats charge, cast a heavy cloud of partisanship over the ongoing Whitewater probe. Soon after he talked to McNair, Faircloth had a July 14 Capitol Hill luncheon meeting with Helms and U.S. Court of Appeals Judge David B. Sentelle, a Helms protege and former longtime activist in North Carolina's Republican Party. Sentelle was in a unique position to influence the Whitewater inquiry - the three-judge panel over which he presides was considering the permanent appointment of an independent counsel in the case. Faircloth has denied talking about the Whitewater matter that day, and Sentelle, who says he has no recollection of discussing the case, issued a terse statement describing the lunch as nothing more than a casual gathering of "old friends." At this lunch, he said, they discussed cowboy boots and prostate exams. But the lunch, preceded by their appearance together in intense conversation on the Capitol subway, has been harshly criticized by Democrats and many judicial ethicists as an inappropriate contact between an influential judge and a chief Republican Whitewater critic. It also has raised fears among Democrats that the judicial panel's decision to oust special counsel Robert B. Fiske Jr., a moderate Republican whose early findings had been favorable to the Clinton administration, was part of an orchestrated conservative plan. Last week, the judicial panel refused to reconsider its appointment of former solicitor general Kenneth W. Starr to replace Fiske. Editorials condemning the Sentelle-Faircloth lunch ran in newspapers ranging from the New York Times to the Charlotte (N.C.) Observer. Noting the panel's argument that Fiske's appointment would give an appearance of impropriety, the Observer said Sentelle "would apply those standards to Mr. Fiske but not to himself. That's either blindness or hypocrisy. Either way it stinks."