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Politics : Did Slick Boink Monica? -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Richnorth who wrote (19066)	9/11/1998 10:54:00 AM
From: Zoltan!	Respond to of 20981

September 11, 1998 The Other Clinton In l'affaire Lewinsky, Hillary Clinton is obviously a woman wronged, all the more so if you watch soap opera news. Andrea Mitchell of NBC reports that Mrs. Clinton copes well with her husband's behavior because she is "deeply religious" and "incredibly angry" at Kenneth Starr. CBS's Eric Engberg rhapsodizes that this is "not just a political thunderclap, but a family tragedy." Mrs. Clinton in fact is the leading symbol of the problem of a bill of impeachment focusing on sexual behavior and the ensuing coverup, no matter how carefully documented. This emphasis on the personal obscures the systemic nature of the Clinton coverups, indeed, the Clinton mode of governance. It is probably too much to expect that the soaps would recall that she, not he, turned the $100,000 commodities strike back in 1978 under the tutelage of Jim Blair of Tyson Foods. The statute of limitations had expired by the time this bribe was disclosed, but it also happens that Mrs. Clinton is smack in the middle of some other, unfulfilled items of Mr. Starr's mandate. The mandate started with the original Whitewater-Madison Guaranty land deals, over which Mr. Starr has already convicted Jim and Susan McDougal and former Arkansas Governor Jim Guy Tucker. Mrs. Clinton's work at the Rose Law Firm covered a deal called Castle Grande; the Resolution Trust Corp. concluded that the Castle Grande deal was a "sham transaction" designed to conceal Madison's ownership. The Rose billing records from the firm were under subpoena for two years before they miraculously appeared on a coffee table in a room at the White House. Fed up, Mr. Starr summoned Mrs. Clinton in January 1996 to a Washington grand jury for an explanation. It also happens that in September 1996, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. concluded that a document drafted by Mrs. Clinton had been used by McDougal's Madison S&L "to deceive federal bank examiners." Mr. Starr has determined that deputy White House counsel Vincent Foster died by his own hand at Fort Marcy Park in July 1993, but the probe into the aftermath of the death remains open. Mrs. Clinton played a key role in limiting access by federal investigators to Mr. Foster's office, and her chief of staff, Maggie Williams, was seen leaving the area with an armful of folders. A year later, in the face of media and Congressional pressure, the White House revealed that Whitewater files removed from Mr. Foster's office had been kept at the personal residence for five days before being turned over to the Clintons' personal attorneys. Mr. Starr's mandate also includes the misuse of FBI files, a subject covered in the sixth deposition of Mrs. Clinton by Mr. Starr's investigators last April. And finally, Mr. Starr is supposed to report on the Travel Office firings. A 1993 memo by then-White House director of administration David Watkins directly contradicting Mrs. Clinton surfaced during a House investigation. 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." The Watkins memo was discovered after White House lawyers had submitted an April 1994 statement on behalf of Mrs. Clinton saying she "does not know the origin of the decision to remove the White House Travel Office employees." Mr. Starr's grand juries, where the matters above have been vetted, were meeting yesterday, indicating that investigation of the balance of his mandate goes forward. It is of course asking a lot for Mr. Starr to get some clear deposition of the issues concerning not only the President but the First Lady. But if he fails to do so, we doubt that justice will have been served or the public adequately informed about how its government has been run. interactive.wsj.com