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

To: cool who wrote (6977)	9/25/1998 7:11:00 PM
From: Who, me?	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 13994

daddycool, was there a point to your post? Clinton Fund-Raises for No-Show Rep By TERENCE HUNT AP White House Correspondent CHICAGO (AP) -- In an odd political twist, President Clinton campaigned Friday for a Democratic congressman who skipped his own fund-raiser and hurried to Washington -- to vote against Clinton's ''fast track'' trade legislation. Clinton, putting the best light on the situation, had a different reason for Rep. Glenn Poshard's absence -- although a White House spokesman originally said the fast-track vote was the cause. The president said Poshard, running for governor, was in Washington to vote against a Republican-backed election-year tax cut, which also was before the House. ''I wouldn't have him anywhere else,'' Clinton said. ''If I were a school principal, I would happily give him an excused absence for this lunch.'' The congressman has spent little time in Washington as he campaigns for governor. Friday's votes were his first since Congress returned from its August recess. Whatever the reason, Poshard's absence highlighted the awkward question facing Democratic candidates less than six weeks before the election: Is it worth having your picture taken with a scandal-damaged president in exchange for the big campaign contributions he raises. Republicans say Democratic candidates are sure to be hurt by Clinton's presence. Some Democrats say they still want him; others have told the White House they don't want the president's help. Maryland Gov. Parris Glendening recently canceled an invitation for Clinton to attend a fund-raiser. Poshard, in a telephone call to Friday's luncheon, acknowledged the awkwardness of the situation. ''I know that there will be Republicans who will try to say that because I'm not with you today in Chicago, that I'm trying to distance myself from you,'' Poshard said. ''Nothing could be further from the truth. ... I am very proud of your work, I'm proud of your leadership.'' Down in the polls and scrambling for cash, Poshard was expected to collect up to $300,000 from Clinton's appearance. Chicago was just the first stop on a three-day, three-state fund-raising tour for Clinton in Illinois, California and Texas. The president was appearing Friday night at the Tech Museum of Innovation in San Jose to raise money from Silicon Valley executives, some of his most generous allies. On Saturday, the president will visit with his daughter, Chelsea, a sophomore at Stanford University, and then collect campaign funds from trial lawyers, another group loyal to him. Poshard is one of many Democrats who oppose Clinton on the fast-track trade legislation, which would strengthen the president's hand to negotiate trade deals with foreign countries. Democrats complain that American jobs will be lost as U.S. companies move to nations where labor costs are lower and environmental laws are lax. Clinton, climbing in opinion polls despite the threat of impeachment, used his appearances to go on the offensive against Republicans in Congress. Leaving the White House, he said the GOP was guilty of ''partisanship over progress, politics over people'' and was ''moving in the wrong direction'' on improving education, providing affordable child care, expanding health coverage, protecting the environment and stabilizing the international economy. He carried that theme to Chicago. ''It's not too late for Congress to put aside the lure of election year and save Social Security before we spend the surplus,'' the president said. ''Not too late to give all the patients in this country the protection of a patient's bill of rights.'' Sen. Carol Mosely-Braun, also trailing in the polls, appeared with the president Friday in Chicago and will be with him next month when he returns for a fund-raiser for her. AP-NY-09-25-98 1635EDT

To: cool who wrote (6977)	9/25/1998 7:27:00 PM
From: Who, me?	Respond to of 13994

Ohhhh....the plot thickens? Source: Jones Settlement Sought By LARRY MARGASAK Associated Press Writer WASHINGTON (AP) -- As President Clinton fends off an impeachment inquiry, his lawyers are trading settlement offers with Paula Jones' attorneys in an attempt to forestall further legal and political fallout from the sexual harassment lawsuit. Mrs. Jones' lawyers renewed long-dormant negotiations early this month, offering to drop attempts to revive the civil suit in exchange for $1 million without the apology she had insisted on for four years. Clinton attorney Robert Bennett countered with $500,000, according to legal sources in both camps, who spoke on condition of anonymity. A senior Clinton adviser involved daily with the president's damage control efforts said settling the Paula Jones lawsuit has been a priority since Clinton's grand jury testimony Aug. 17 in which he admitted an improper relationship with Monica Lewinsky. Clinton advisers fear problems stemming from the case -- including a contempt citation threatened by a federal judge in Little Rock, Ark., or allegations involving other women -- could be devastating at a time when the White House is barely containing Democratic discontent. Ending the case also would fit into their ''plea bargain'' strategy, which would accept a congressional censure of Clinton to avoid an impeachment inquiry. One Jones lawyer, John Whitehead, said her legal team was preparing a motion to have Clinton held in contempt for denying in a deposition last January that he had an affair with Ms. Lewinsky. It was this denial in the Jones deposition that led to Independent Counsel Kenneth Starr's report to Congress alleging Clinton committed perjury and other possibly impeachable offenses. ''There is a definite feeling here that we need to sweep out the closet,'' one senior White House aide conceded, speaking only on condition he not be identified. Whitehead, of the conservative Rutherford Institute, said any settlement payment ''would demonstrate the case was not bogus as Clinton claimed'' in his Aug. 17 grand jury testimony. ''It is an admission, if you pay money, that the case had merit.'' Indeed, even Clinton advisers acknowledge some Americans might view the settlement as an admission of guilt to an incident the president says never happened. Mrs. Jones is no longer insisting on the apology that was once so important to her because she has ''been vindicated'' by Clinton's admissions of improper conduct with Ms. Lewinsky, Whitehead said. Susan Carpenter McMillan, Mrs. Jones' close friend and onetime adviser, would not comment on the negotiations except to say, ''There's an awful lot of things that have to be worked out.'' ''If I was still her adviser -- and as a friend I tell Paula the same thing -- if there is no apology, I would look for a very high monetary figure because the higher the figure, the more it reads like an apology,'' she said. Mrs. Jones contends that Clinton, while governor of Arkansas, asked her to perform a sex act in a Little Rock hotel room in 1991. A low-ranking state employee at the time, Mrs. Jones said her refusal to comply led to denial of raises and promotions and rude treatment on the job. The case was dismissed by U.S. District Judge Susan Webber Wright earlier this year, but the Jones team has asked the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals to reinstate the lawsuit. Oral argument is set for Oct. 20 in St. Paul, Minn. Clinton's legal advisers worry that the appellate court might reinstate the lawsuit. Kathy Rodgers of the National Organization for Women Legal Defense Fund believes the court would be correct to do so. ''We believe Judge Wright was incorrect'' in dismissing the lawsuit without a trial, Ms. Rodgers said. ''There were issues of fact that should have had a hearing. There were principles of sexual harassment law which should be relevant.'' One potential obstacle to any deal would be the $800,000 lien filed by Mrs. Jones' former lawyers, who say they're owed that amount for their work during the first three years of the lawsuit filed in 1994. ''I wish them the best in getting the most money they can. It'll make it easier to satisfy our lien,'' said Joseph Cammarata, one of the former lawyers. One legal source said the president has been sounding out his legal and political advisers without revealing his own inclination except his ''real hatred'' for the Jones camp. In his videotaped grand jury testimony, Clinton pounded the table and assailed the Jones legal team. ''I deplored what they were doing,'' Clinton said. ''I deplored the innocent people they were tormenting and traumatizing. I deplored their illegal leaking.'' Clinton called the case a ''bogus lawsuit'' financed by ''my political enemies.'' AP-NY-09-25-98 1747EDT