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Politics : Clinton -- doomed & wagging, Japan collapses, Y2K bug, etc -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Zeev Hed who wrote (159)	9/8/1998 9:20:00 AM
From: SOROS	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 1151

The Telegraph - London - 09/08/98 By Hugo Gurdon in Washington Meanwhile, has anyone seen the elusive Al Gore? A DEEP split opened up at the White House yesterday between presidential advisers arguing that President Clinton can save his job only by sincere contrition and others insisting that he must go to war against his accusers in the Monica Lewinsky scandal. The President is being urged to sack Sidney Blumenthal, the official who urged Hillary Clinton to speak out against the "vast Right-wing conspiracy" that she blames for the crisis threatening to bring her husband's political career to a humiliating end. Mr Blumenthal, a former journalist, is known to White House reporters as "Sid Vicious" for his tendency to vilify the President's political opponents. Other advisers in line for the chop are Rahm Emanuel and Paul Begala, who have orchestrated a smear campaign against prosecutors and any witnesses with evidence of presidential wrongdoing. But these "spin warriors" are reported to be fighting back, urging the President to get his White House "war room" on highest alert to discredit his enemies. The concept of the war room as a command centre from which to devise defensive strategy was pioneered during Mr Clinton's successful 1992 campaign when scandals threatened to destroy his candidacy. Commentators describe Mr Clinton as having just one chance to "thread the needle" - he must get it right first time or he is doomed. Bill Kristol, a former adviser to Vice-President Dan Quayle, said Americans wanted to avoid resignation or impeachment and even now would accept a genuinely penitent President. But, to be believable, Mr Clinton "would have to sack people; he would have to tell the truth; he would have to apologise; and he would have to do all that before the Starr report comes out". Mr Kristol said: "He would have to fire people like Sid Blumenthal. The President's spokesmen have denied that anyone in the White House is participating in smear campaigns against members of Congress [but] it is a fact that Sidney Blumenthal has called the press to get them to look into congressmen's private lives." Even George Stephanopoulos, the former aide and "war room" veteran who, in the 1992 election campaign, threatened to tarnish those who published details of Mr Clinton's philandering, said the old tactics had to be scrapped. He said: "I think the old formulas won't work. He's got to give a full explanation and full apology." But other influential voices continued to call for Mr Clinton to resign, arguing that he has no chance of recovering either the respect of voters or the dignity of his office. Paige Patterson, head of Mr Clinton's own church, the Southern Baptists, used his pulpit on Sunday to say the President should leave office "before he is instrumental in corrupting all our young people". Mr Patterson said that Americans should not judge Mr Clinton highly merely because the economy was booming. He said: "This bespeaks a certain enthralment with materialism, which is exactly what caused the demise of Rome . . . and it will kill us, too." There are some 15.6 million Southern Baptists in America, and Mr Patterson's voice is certain to carry weight with them. Caught between contrition and attack, Mr Clinton is flailing around for an effective way out. All the time, speculation continues to circulate that there is at least one other woman, and perhaps two others, who used to be junior staff members and who could deliver the coup de grace by coming forward and claiming to have had sexual liaisons with the President. This week's Time magazine says: "White House aides themselves cannot answer the question that most bothers the President's party now: Is there anything - or anyone - else?" Newt Gingrich, Speaker of the House of Representatives, will meet the top congressional Democrat, Richard Gephardt, tomorrow to thrash out how to handle the Starr report, which could be delivered to Congress as early as this week. Until Mr Clinton's botched televised confession last month, Republicans were so wary of politicising the investigation and Democrats so defensive of the President that neither party worked out what to do when Mr Starr was ready to report. They are now debating what powers the House judiciary committee should have, whether the whole report should be published, or whether only a summary should go to members of Congress not on the committee. Last February, Mr Clinton said he would "never" resign, and most Democrats on Capitol Hill believe that the President may indeed refuse to go quietly no matter what is in the report. This could result in only the second impeachment trial in American history. The only previous impeachment was of President Andrew Johnson in 1868, and he survived the ordeal when the Senate fell one vote short of the two-thirds majority required to remove him. There are, however, many Democrats who still hope to limit Mr Clinton's punishment to a reprimand or official vote of censure. But Democrats worry that they could lose control of the procedure - Republicans might add unacceptably strong language to the resolution - and then a debate on censure would increase rather than lessen the momentum of a Congress already hurtling