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Politics : Bill Clinton Scandal - SANITY CHECK -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Lizzie Tudor who wrote (4744)	9/22/1998 5:13:00 PM
From: sea_biscuit	Respond to of 67261

The view from afar... Europe reacts to news from US. Dipy. PS : (emphases mine) ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Yahoo! News Top Stories Headlines Tuesday September 22 11:02 AM EDT Europe Fears For US Democracy After Clinton Videos By Tom Heneghan PARIS (Reuters) - European commentators worried Tuesday whether the relentless inquiry into President Clinton's sex life would end up undermining American democracy. ''An orgy of self-destruction,'' ''the suicide of a democracy'' and ''a bomb attack on the office of the president'' were images editorials used to describe the wider effects of the wholesale release of videos and documents in the Monica Lewinsky scandal. The worldwide broadcast of Clinton's grand jury grilling upset viewers in Europe, where politicians have traditionally kept their private lives under wraps, and many commentators echoed German Chancellor Helmut Kohl's remark that the spectacle made him want to vomit. But with his private life now stripped naked, editorialists looked beyond the tawdry details to ask whether Clinton's Republican enemies were doing as much damage to America's institutions and leadership as to the president himself. ''Without noticing it, American society is drifting towards the worst inquisitorial outrages of totalitarian societies,'' Nice-Matin on the French Riviera commented. ''They are about to undermine the respect for a set of political institutions ... that have held up during war and peace for more than 200 years and which are admired and have been imitated in many parts of the world,'' Berlingske Tidende in Copenhagen wrote. ''After special prosecutor (Kenneth) Starr, has the Congress now also been seized by a puritanical drive for persecution and truth that not only destroys the president but permanently damages the world's oldest democratic constitution and its institutions?'' the Frankfurter Rundschau in Germany asked. France's La Croix asked whether the scandal was giving U.S.-style democracy a bad name in countries that used to look up to America as a political model. ''Think about the triumph all those potentates in Asia, the Middle East and Africa will have when, with their eyes fixed on the recesses of the White House, they can proclaim to their subject peoples -- is that your great hope?'' it said. In the nearer term, questions abounded about Clinton's ability to play the role of world leader his allies expect. ''The world needs American leadership today no less than during the confrontation with communism,'' the Polish business daily Rzeczpospolita said. ''The resignation of Bill Clinton would help world peace and stability much more than his continuing to fight for his office.'' Der Standard in Vienna also thought Clinton's resignation was now inevitable, saying: ''After this execution, this humiliation of Clinton the man, there is not much authority left for the office ... It is more probable that he will serve his country best by announcing his resignation.'' But other commentators were less sure Clinton would go soon. The London Times said Clinton's evasive answers on the grand jury video ''were not outrageous in the circumstances'' and thought the evidence so far had not delivered a mortal blow. ''This show, unfortunately, is destined to run and run.'' The decision to release Clinton's grand jury testimony, something normally kept secret because only the prosecution can ask questions, came in for sharp criticism as an infringement of the president's legal rights. ''Grand jury hearings are not court cases, in which evidence is carefully weighed and a conclusion reached,'' The Independent in London wrote. ''There are convicted criminals serving long sentences in American jails who have not had their testimony before such proceedings published.'' Television stations planning to retransmit the X-rated video of Clinton's testimony came under attack as Peeping Toms. German stations that had planned extensive broadcasts had to cut back after politicians decried the idea. In Switzerland, where public television did show the video at length, the Zurich Tages-Anzeiger said: ''It is not the duty of Swiss Television to make itself a voyeur to a vile political smear campaign.'' Inundated by readers' complaints, the Hamburger Morgenpost in Germany decided to stop writing about the scandal and ran two blank pages Tuesday under the headline, ''Clinton's Pornographic Interrogation -- We've Had Enough.'' While headlines in several countries said the United States was making a fool of itself with the scandal, Belgium's Le Soir identified with Clinton's plight. ''The right of the president of the United States to a private life is also our right to a private life,'' it wrote. ''His liberty is also ours. In this case, we are all Bill Clintons.'' ------------------------------------------------------------------------