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

To: Ish who wrote (3391)	8/28/1998 10:41:00 PM
From: Les H	Read Replies (4) \| Respond to of 13994

Clinton Speaks of Forgiveness Filed at 5:58 p.m. EDT By The Associated Press OAK BLUFFS, Mass. (AP) -- President Clinton said Friday he has become such an expert in asking forgiveness in recent days that it is now ''burned in my bones.'' But he still stopped short of offering a direct apology for the Monica Lewinsky affair. Seeking forgiveness ''gets a little easier the more you do it,'' Clinton told a church audience celebrating the 35th anniversary of Martin Luther King Jr.'s ''I have a dream'' speech. ''And if you have a family, an administration, a Congress and a whole country to ask you, you're going to get a lot of practice,'' he said. ''In these last days, it has come home to me again, something I first learned as president -- but it wasn't burned in my bones -- and that is that in order to get (forgiveness), you have to be willing to give it,'' Clinton said. He spoke also of feelings of anger, bitterness and resentment -- apparent references to what he considers an intrusive investigation into his private life by Independent Counsel Kenneth Starr. Clinton has spent much of his vacation secluded with his wife Hillary and their daughter Chelsea, playing no golf and concentrating on what his press secretary called family ''healing.'' The president spoke from the pulpit at historic Union Chapel, before a cheering, applauding audience and a moderator who told him that black America is ''no fair weather crowd'' and will ''be with you through thick and through thin.'' As he spoke from scribbled notes, Clinton clearly had in mind the turmoil over his recent admission of an inappropriate relationship with Ms. Lewinsky, a former White House intern. Clinton has been under intense pressure from friends, allies and key Democrats to either make a direct apology or to express a deeper sense of remorse for his actions. White House spokesman Barry Toiv said that, while he had spoken with the president after his speech, Clinton had not made clear to him whether or not he intended that his words be seen as an apology. ''What he wants is that his words will speak for themselves,'' Toiv said. ''He got up today and decided that's what he wanted to say.'' Clinton has been criticized in some quarters for devoting fully half of his Lewinsky address to the nation last week to his anger over the Starr investigation. Without being specific, he spoke to the audience in Oak Bluffs of ''the anger, the resentment, the bitterness, the desire for reaffirmation against people you believe have wronged you.'' ''They harden the heart and deaden the spirit and lead to self-inflicted wounds,'' the president said. ''And so it is important that we are able to forgive those we believe have wronged us, even as we ask forgiveness from people we have wronged.'' ''I heard that first in the civil rights movement,'' he said. ''Love thy neighbor as thyself.'' Clinton's speech was his second in two days before politically friendly crowds. On Tuesday he flew from his vacation retreat on Martha's Vineyard to Worcester, Mass. to present thoughts on preventing school violence. He got a warm reception from Democrats who outnumber Republicans four-to-one in the area. He got an equally warm reception here on Friday as he was introduced by former civil rights leader John Lewis, now a Democratic congressman from Georgia. ''I was with you at the beginning and I will stand with you from now to the end,'' Lewis told the president. In Washington, after months of legal wrangling, one of Clinton's closest advisers, deputy White House counsel Bruce Lindsey, returned to the grand jury hearing the Lewinsky matter Friday for about four hours of testimony. Prosecutors have been pressing Lindsey about his discussions with the president concerning the Lewinsky matter, and about Lindsey's contacts with other grand jury witnesses. The White House lost a court bid to protect Lindsey from answering some questions by claiming executive privilege or attorney-client privilege. ''I am not going to comment on my testimony,'' Lindsey said while stepping into a White House car waiting for him outside the courthouse. The White House appealed late last week for the full Supreme Court to take up the issue of attorney-client privilege as it relates to government lawyers when the justices return in the fall.