Associated Press - 09/04/98
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Democratic fury at President Clinton is bubbling to the surface, with one senator saying the chief executive deserves a formal ''public rebuke'' over his relationship with Monica Lewinsky
and a second lawmaker suggesting presidential ''public restitution'' to make amends.
''It is hard to ignore the impact of the misconduct the president has admitted to on our children, our culture and our national character,'' Sen. Joseph Lieberman, D-Conn., said Thursday in a sternly worded
speech on the Senate floor.
Clinton, he said, ''apparently had extramarital relations with an employee half his age, and did so in the workplace, in the vicinity of the Oval Office. ...
''Such behavior is not just inappropriate, it is immoral,'' Lieberman added.
In response, Clinton said today in a photo session in Dublin, Ireland, with Irish Prime Minister Bertie Ahern: ''I can't disagree with anyone else who wants to be critical of what I've already acknowledged is inappropriate.''
Clinton, faulted for not directly apologizing or saying he was sorry about the relationship, added, ''There's nothing that (Lieberman) or anyone else could say in a personally critical way that I don't imagine I would disagree with since I have already said it myself, to myself, and I'm very sorry about it but there's nothing else I can say.''
While Lieberman spoke in Washington, Rep. Marcy Kaptur, D-Ohio, raised the subject of Clinton's liaisons with Ms. Lewinsky, 25, in a speech before the Veterans of Foreign Wars in San Antonio and
later in a telephone interview. She stopped just short of calling for Clinton's resignation, but sounded like she would not mind if he stepped down.
''The more important word to me is restitution,'' she said. ''The emphasis should be on the young people, and how he as a father of a daughter and father of the nation can exact some good of the
situation.''
Simply resigning would not do it, she added. ''We need something else -- he doesn't have to resign, or he could resign and then do it.''
So far, Pennsylvania Rep. Paul McHale is the only congressional Democrat to call for Clinton's resignation.
In contrast, the party's leaders, Rep. Dick Gephardt of Missouri, and Sen. Tom Daschle of South Dakota, have criticized the president's behavior but said they want to see an expected report from
Independent Counsel Kenneth Starr before rendering further judgment.
Neither Lieberman nor Kaptur touched on partisan political considerations. But each spoke amidst growing concern within the party that Clinton's troubles could cost its candidates dearly at the polls this fall.
Democratic officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, have said in recent days they were seeing ominous signs in public opinion polls that could portend a strong turnout for Republicans -- and
significant losses for Democrats.
Lieberman, a former Connecticut attorney general before coming to the Senate a decade ago, laced his speech with references to morals, values and Clinton's need to accept great personal responsibility for
his actions.
In all, Lieberman added, the president had ''compromised his moral authority,'' damaged his credibility and complicated the efforts of parents seeking to instill ''values of honesty'' in their own children.
''The transgressions the president has admitted to are too consequential for us to walk away and leave the impression for our children and our posterity that what President Clinton acknowledges he did within the White House is acceptable behavior for our nation's leader,'' he said.
Some sort of ''public rebuke'' is called for, he said, and noted that at some point, Congress is ''surely capable institutionally of expressing such disapproval through a resolution or censure or reprimand.''
Any such action is premature, though, he added, before any Starr report on potential impeachable offenses and before the White House has a chance to respond to it.
Politically, Lieberman and Kaptur are an odd couple.
He is a centrist Democrat who has worked closely with Clinton on policy issues. She is a liberal, labor-backed lawmaker who once lashed out at the president verbally in a closed-door meeting for failing
to respond swiftly to a letter he had received from one of her constituents.
But together, they reflect the growing unease among Democrats about Clinton's behavior and what Starr may report.
Within moments after Lieberman had concluded speaking, two fellow Democrats, Sens. Bob Kerrey of Nebraska and Daniel Patrick Moynihan of New York, rose at their desks to praise their colleague.
Kerrey later also issued a written statement in which he took strong issue with three claims made by the president -- that his relationship with Ms. Lewinsky was merely ''inappropriate,'' that the controversy was a purely private matter, and that his answers in a sworn court deposition were ''legally accurate.''
''I do not believe public leaders can condone the parsing of words into pieces so small they no longer convey plain meaning,'' he said.
Moynihan, in what seemed a clear reference to the possibility of impeachment, said, ''It will be for us to discharge our sworn duties.''
Separately, Sen. Chris Dodd, Lieberman's fellow senator from Connecticut, said Clinton must apologize. ''He has not done that. He needs to do that,'' said Dodd, whom Clinton tapped to serve as general
chairman of the Democratic National Committee during the 1996 campaign. |
