To: Patricia Trinchero who wrote (31250 ) 1/31/1999 5:52:00 PM From: Bob Lao-Tse Respond to of 67261
Patricia, thanks for the response. It's heartening to learn that you don't really support Clinton pardoning himself. And it's nice to get a post that I can respond calmly to. Despite what others (Daniel for instance) may think, I get a great deal of enjoyment out of finding common ground with people with whom I otherwise disagree. I too believe that we have to stop our politicians from this type of warfare. I think this entire episode demonstrates that the IP statute should be immediately repealed. Any time that you create a position, the person in that position has a vested interest in the continued existence of that position. However, Watergate proved that given sufficient evidence of serious presidential wrongdoing, we do have the resources to get to the bottom of things. We do not need the independent prosecutor, and the existence of the office creates the potential for the type of abuse that Starr has been accused of. I don't specifically blame Starr for this. It's been regularly stated that Ken Starr wasted over $50 million pursuing Clinton and only came up with perjury. Of course, Lawrence Walsh wasted over $100 million pursuing Reagan and came up with nothing. I personally think that this is not because Reagan was innocent of any wrongdoing, but simply because Clinton is more egregious in his crimes. But either way, that's over $150 million that could have been spent in a better way. (Or could have never been stolen from us in the first place, but that's another topic). Nonetheless, Bill Clinton still swore an oath to tell "the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth," and then violated that oath, and something must be done about that. I personally feel that this is impeachable, but is not grounds for removal, and that he should be indicted and tried as soon as he leaves office. I believe that this last sanction is the only one that should have happened regardless, but I also feel that the Jones case should have been postponed until after he left office, and it's at least barely possible that if he hadn't been President he wouldn't have felt compelled to perjure himself. I personally feel that he would have anyway, because I honestly believe that Clinton is pathological and genuinely believes his own lies, but that's neither here nor there. This is an ugly mess that we're in, but that doesn't mean that we should just bail. The appropriate steps have to be followed, even if the Senate vote is a foregone conclusion (which I'm not yet convinced of). Now that we're in this situation, we must follow the legally mandated path, and only then can we set about changing things to try to prevent this sort of divisiveness from happening in the future. Machiavelli would be pleased at the way we're at each other's throats. No matter what the appearances, all politicians, Democrat and Republican alike, only stand to gain from our divisions, and all citizens only stand to lose. "A house divided against itself will not stand." -BLT