From: owner-roc-digest@lists.xmission.com (roc-digest) To: roc-digest@lists.xmission.com Subject: roc-digest V2 #65 Reply-To: roc-digest Sender: owner-roc-digest@lists.xmission.com Errors-To: owner-roc-digest@lists.xmission.com Precedence: bulk roc-digest Friday, February 6 1998 Volume 02 : Number 065 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Thu, 5 Feb 1998 21:27:53 -0600 (CST) From: Subject: RE: Luther Williams vs California (fwd) - ---------- Forwarded message ---------- Date: Thu, 5 Feb 98 14:58:22 -0800 From: philgraf Reply-To: act@efn.org To: "Sen. Barbara Boxer " , "Sen. Diane Feinstein" Cc: "Rep. Frank Riggs" , Education Clearinghouse , Ron & Julia Croyts , Karen Holgate , Susan Holladay , Steve Laib , "John E. Stone " , "Nicholas, Janet" Subject: RE: Luther Williams vs California Please review the attached letter. I have seen the letter Mr. Williams wrote, and I believe it is fairly quoted and characterized in the following letter to President Clinton. Despite the sordid examples of some who hold high office in Washington, there should be no place in government for people who abuse their positions of power. In this case, Mr. Williams has demonstrated that he is unfit for the office he holds. Therefore, I would like you to do all you can to persuade the administration to fire Luther Williams, the National Science Foundation Director for Education and Human Resources. Please let me know your position on this matter. Straight talk would be preferable to the usual flowery non-statements received from politicians. Do you, or do you not, believe that the federal government or its agencies should be able to influence education decisions of the state? Do you, or do you not, believe that the federal government should be able to overrule the wishes of parents with regard to the education of their own children? Philip Graf 7784 Kennedy Rd Sebastopol, CA 95472 - ------- Forwarded Message Follows ------- Subject: Time: 1:33 PM OFFICE MEMO Luther Williams vs California Date: 1/21/98 The letter below went to the President last week. The following Congressmen signed the letter: Goodling, Riggs, McKeon, Hoekstra and Graham. The President had not responded as of this morning. _____________________ December 18, 1997 The Honorable William Jefferson Clinton President of the United States The White House Washington, DC 2000? Dear Mr. President: The purpose of this letter is to express our deep concern about the interference of the federal government, specifically the National Science Foundation, in State governance matters involving school curriculum. We believe this warrants your personal and immediate attention. California has been in the process of developing rigorous, academic standards in mathematics, and other subject areas for the past several years. The California State Board of Education, by law has the final authority on what these standards should be, and it has been deeply involved in their development. On December 11, 1997, the day before the State Board of Education was to approve new mathematics standards, The National Science Foundation Director for Education and Human Resources, Luther Williams, in his official capacity, sent a letter to the President of the State Board of Education Yvonne Larson, criticizing the Board's preliminary decision to adopt standards of which Mr. Williams disapproved. In his letter he made clear his disdain for the competence of the State Board of Education to decide what is best for California children as indicated below: "The Board actions, charitably, is shortsighted and detrimental to the long-term mathematical literacy of children in CaliforniaO.The wistful or nostalgic "back-to-basics" approach that characterizes the Board standards overlooks the fact that the approach has chronically and dismally failed." For a Federal official, with no legitimate stake in the debate and no facts to back up his claims, to openly seek to influence the decision was bad enough. However, the following paragraph from his letter definitely crosses the line between Federal and State jurisdiction over local education matters: "The National Science Foundation currently maintains a portfolio exceeding $50 million in awards to six public school systems in California (East Side Union, Fresno, Los Angeles, Oakland, Paramount, San Diego)O.These awards, though only moving into their second and third years of implementation, are beginning to stimulate significant learning gains in mathematics and science achievementO.You must surely understand that the Foundation cannot support individual school systems that embark on a course that substitutes computational proficiencies for a commitment to deep, balanced, mathematical learning." It is clear from Mr. Luther's own comments that there is insufficient scientific data to back up his claims that "significant gains in mathematics achievement" will result from this "approved" National Science Foundation approach to mathematics instruction. In fact the National Science Foundation conducted research in Project Follow Through over twenty five years at a cost of more than one billion dollars, that supports "computational proficiencies" as a fundamental and necessary part of mathematics instruction. Mr. Williams conveniently ignores these findings. His heavy-handed approach is further reflected in the final paragraph of his letter: "We view the Board action in California with grave disappointment and as a lost opportunity for the cities we support - indeed, for the entire stateO.We disagree, decisively, with the Board's decision to systematically remove components from the standards that focus on problem solving and other elements of the rigorous and powerful use and learning of mathematics." It is our view that the National Science Foundation should not try to override a State Board decision. To use the hammer of possible withdrawal of federal funds to force a state into compliance with unproven practices is unconscionable. We consider the action taken by Mr. Williams as totally inappropriate, and an infringement of the Federal government upon the will of the States and the people of California. The Federal government has no business interfering with the California State Board of Education on something as sensitive as the content of school curriculum. Please let us know what action you intend to take to address the actions of Mr. Williams. Sincerely, _________________ BILL GOODLING Committee on Education and the Workforce Cc: Yvonne Larson, Chairman, California State Board of Education Delaine Easton, California Superintendent of Instruction Honorable Richard Riley, United States Secretary of Education Neil F. Lane, Director, National Science Foundation Luther Williams, Assistant Director for Education, National Science Foundation Pete Wilson, Governor of California - ----------------- End Forwarded Message ----------------- - - ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 5 Feb 1998 21:32:01 -0600 (CST) From: Subject: AZ Needs Help--Now! (fwd) - ---------- Forwarded message ---------- Date: Thu, 5 Feb 1998 22:14:40 -0500 (EST) From: jaspar To: Multiple recipients of list Subject: AZ Needs Help--Now! Forwarded from John Walker Please spread this around .... We need all the calls and letters we can muster to stop the indescriminate closing of shooting ranges on public land. Date: Thu, 5 Feb 1998 12:32:57 -0700 (MST) From: fredg@primenet.com (Fred Griisser) (by way of Landis Aden ) Subject: Tucson Rod & Gun Club - Congressional Hearing We Need Your Help ....... NOW! Our Shooting Facility in Tucson Arizona has been "temporarily" closed by the Forest Service. In our ongoing effort to reopen the ranges, the congress of the United States has taken an interest in this matter and scheduled a hearing for February 12, 1998. Would you please write letters of support for the reopening of our range to Committee Chairperson Helen Chenoweth and have them faxed to her office? (the original should still be sent by mail for the record) Please cc: the rest of the officials on the list. They are all key to rectifying what we have been going thru. Short letters of support from around the country will show Representative Chenoweth and the others that people all over ARE concerned about the forest service's attitude toward shooting facilities. Additional information and / or a page of discussion points is available if you need it. Our contact information is at the end of this message. Some of those points are: Tucson Rod & Gun Club has been in operation for over 40 years. The club ranges serve over 28,000 shooters a year. TR&GC's range facility has an impeccable safety record. The club offers a variety of firearms safety instruction programs as well as a myriad of competitive and recreational shooting opportunities. All firearms shooting has been blocked by the Forest Service. The US Forest Service has been trying to shut down the range for a few years using tactics of suppression, oppression and economic collapse to (what many feel) make this an example or a "how to" book for government bureaucracies to shut down shooting facilities (private or public) across the country. In some cases they have threatened individual members under CERCLA "superfund" type schemes, going so far as to attempt to change EPA regulations (which at the current time do not consider lead on an active shooting range hazardous) At least a half a dozen "experts" have examined the range for sound, safety, lead, design etc. and the overwhelming majority have agree that there are no significant matters that pose problems and there are absolutely no problems that cannot be corrected. All this taken into account the Forest Service refuses to allow the club to make any improvements. It was reported that the USFS refused to talk with investigators for the congressional committee sent to research the issue. We know that this is short notice and thank you for your quick response. Please send or fax written correspondence as soon as possible to the following people urging them to get personally involved and do all that is possible to reopen the Tucson Rod & Gun Club. (or send to one and cc the rest) 1) Representative Helen Chenoweth - Chair Subcommittee on Forest & Forest Health 1337 Longworth House Office Building Washington, DC 20515 DC - (202) 225-0691, fax (202) 225-0521 2) Senator John McCain 241 Russell Senate Office Building Washington, DC 20510 DC - (202) 224- 2235, fax (202)-224-2862 Phoenix - (602)-952-2410, fax (602)952-8702 3) Senator Jon Kyl 724 Hart Senate Office Building Washington, DC 20510 DC - (202) 224-4521, fax (202) 228-1239 Phoenix - (602) 840-1891, (602) 840-4848 4) Congressman Don Young - Chairman House Committee on Resources 1324 Longworth House Office Building Washington, DC 20515 (202) 225-2761, fax (202) 225-5929 5) Representative Jim Kolbe 405 Cannon House Office Building Washington, DC 20515 DC - (202) 225-2542, fax (202) 225-0378 Tucson - (520) 881-3588, fax (520) 322-9490 Tucson Rod & Gun Club (would appreciate copies of any letters / faxes) P.O.Box 12921 - Tucson, Az. 85732 Got questions? Call Fred Griisser (602) 848-6002 (voice / fax) or e-mail; fredg@primenet.com Visit Tucson Rod & Gun Clubs web site at: www.brassroots.org/trgc - - ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 05 Feb 1998 21:14:50 -0800 From: Liberty or Death Subject: >>> Wanna Kill the Flu? <<< To All: For the last couple of years I've been raving about a treatment for influenza that really works. To date, of the thousands of people I've told about it, 2 have tried it, and they agreed that it's incredible. Oh well. Go to this website and check it out: http://www.sullivancreek.com/page10.htm The product is called Sambucol, and it's an elderberry extract. The folks at the above website have put together a good page explaining how it works (I just discovered them with an altavista search). See if you can get it locally; if not, these folks probably have it in stock. Or do a web search on Sambucol. Call health food stores. I'm not kidding, folks, this stuff works; go read the website, and don't miss the *more* at the bottom of page 1. You have to start taking it when symptoms first appear. Or you can ignore me like lots of others have. Hey, it ain't *my* body you've got there, and if you want to feel like you wish you were dead for a week or more, fine. Not my problem. Myself, I have a stock of Sambucol, ready and waiting... - - Monte -------------------------------------------------------------------- "Maybe freedom's just one of those things that you can't inherit." - Peter Bradford, in the film "Amerika" -------------------------------------------------------------------- The Idaho Observer http://www.proliberty.com/observer - - ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 6 Feb 1998 10:59:22 -0600 (CST) From: Subject: CAS: Currie New York Times (fwd) - ---------- Forwarded message ---------- Date: Thu, 5 Feb 1998 23:59:03, -0500 From: DEBRA MCKIM-BROWN To: cas@majordomo.pobox.com, fiedor19@eos.net Subject: CAS: Currie New York Times - -- [ From: Debra McKim-Brown * EMC.Ver #2.5.3 ] -- Friday, February 6, 1998 Copyright 1998 The New York Times WASHINGTON -- President Clinton's personal secretary has told investigators that Clinton summoned her to the White House hours after he testified in the Paula Corbin Jones lawsuit and led her through an account of his relationship with Monica S. Lewinsky that mirrored that testimony, according to lawyers familiar with her account and his testimony. The secretary, Betty Currie, has told investigators the President asserted that he had never been alone with Lewinsky and that he had resisted her sexual advances, the lawyers said. They paraphrased Currie as saying that the President had portrayed his relationship with Lewinsky through such questions as We were never alone , right? Currie, however, has told investigators that the President and Lewinsky sometimes were alone, the lawyers said. She has also turned over gifts to investigators that she retrieved from Lewinsky, including a hat pin, a brooch, and a dress, the lawyers familiar with her account said. These gifts are among several pieces of new evidence that Currie has provided to investigators, who are trying to determine whether the President tried to hide aspects of his relationship with Lewinsky. Last December, Jones's legal team served Lewinsky with a subpoena that demanded she surrender any gifts she had received from the President. According to Lewinsky's account, she discussed the demand for the gifts with Clinton in late December, and he told her if she did not have the gifts, she would not have to turn them over, according to lawyers familiar with the account provided by Lewinsky to the Whitewater independent counsel. Soon after, Currie collected the items from Lewinsky. Two weeks ago, Currie turned over a box of gifts to investigators working for the independent counsel, Kenneth W. Starr. Currie has been extensively interviewed by agents and prosecutors from the office of independent counsel. The gifts and her conversation with the President are among several pieces of new information she has provided to investigators about possible efforts to hide evidence of Clinton's relationship with Lewinsky from lawyers for Paula Corbin Jones , the lawyers said. Starr has been investigating whether Clinton lied about his relationship with Lewinsky, a 24-year-old former White House intern, or encouraged her or others to lie, too. Currie, who authorized many of the 37 visits Lewinsky made to the White House after she stopped working there, has told investigators that she does not know if Lewinsky and President Clinton had a sexual relationship, the lawyers said. Clinton has repeatedly denied, and did so again today, that he had "sexual relations" with Lewinsky and has said he never encouraged anyone to lie. A White house spokesman said tonight: "For the past few weeks we've been subjected to false leaks designed to mislead both reporters and the American public. We're not going to dignify the latest false leak with a response." On Jan. 17, a Saturday, Clinton testified under oath in the Jones law suit for six hours. According to a lawyer who has reviewed the President's testimony, Clinton said that he could not specifically recall being alone with Lewinsky but that if they had been alone, the encounters involved only brief official contact. Clinton testified at his lawyer's office, a site chosen to keep Jones, who was also present, from entering the White House. After the testimony , Clinton returned to The White House. He canceled plans to go out to dinner with his wife, Hillary Rodham Clinton. According to Currie's account, the lawyers said, the President called her Saturday night and summoned her to work at the White House the next day. It was there, Currie told the investigators, that she had a private meeting with Clinton in which she listened as the President posed and then answered a series of questions about his relationship with Lewinsky . It is not clear who, if anyone, instructed Currie to retrieve the gifts from Lewinsky or whether Currie knew they had been subpoenaed by Jones's lawyers. Currie's lawyer, Lawrence Wechsler, released a one sentence statement tonight: "Without commenting on the allegations raised in this article, to the extent that there is any implication or suggestion that Currie was aware of any legal or ethical impropriety by anyone, that implication or suggestion is entirely inaccurate." Reached by telephone at her home in Arlington, Va., Currie declined to comment tonight, saying, "You've already talked to my lawyer." Lawyers for Lewinsky, in their latest proposed testimony to Starr, have provided her account of how the gifts wound up in the possession of Clinton's secretary. This proposed testimony is consistent with Currie's version on several points, according to lawyers familiar with the inquiry. Currie has already emerged as a central figure in the inquiry. Vernon E . Jordan Jr., the Presidential confidant who helped Lewinsky get a lawyer and find a job, has said that Lewinsky was "referred" to him by Currie. The possibility that Currie, 58, might be helping investigators has been a subject of anxiety for the White House for weeks, according to Administration officials. Currie was absent from work in the days after the story erupted last month, and in that time she was secretly meeting with Starr's investigators, lawyers familiar with the inquiry said. She has since returned to work and was at her desk outside Clinton's office today, a White House spokesman said. Lawyers say Currie's meetings two weeks ago with investigators were a moment of deep anguish for the longtime Democratic loyalist, who worked in the 1992 Clinton Presidential campaign. Colleagues describe her as deeply religious woman. Lawyers familiar with the inquiry say that Currie appeared to be a reluctant but truthful witness who felt torn between her devotion to her boss and an obligation to tell what she knew to Starr, whom the White House has characterized as a right-wing zealot intent on destroying the Clintons. Last month, Currie appeared before the Washington grand jury investigating the case. What she said remains a secret. Federal rules generally bar anyone except the witness from disclosing grand jury testimony until it is released in court. Lewinsky became a White House intern in the summer of 1995. An associate of Lewinsky and others familiar with her account say she has acknowledged in her proffers that she had a sexual relationship with the President from 1995 to 1997. At the end of 1995, she took a job in the White House legislative affairs office. In April of 1996, Lewinsky was transferred to the Pentagon after White House aides became concerned about her habit of turning up at Presidential events and ceremonies to which she was not invited. In the summer of 1997, Lewinsky began confiding to a friend, Linda R. Tripp, about what she described as an affair with the President. Tripp taped some of these conversations without Lewinsky's knowledge. By the fall, Lewinsky had begun looking for a job in New York with the assistance of Currie. In October, Currie asked a deputy White House chief of staff, John D. Podesta, to help Lewinsky find a job in New York , where Lewinsky's mother lives, said an associate of Currie's. On an official trip to South America, Podesta asked the chief United States delegate to the United Nations, Bill Richardson, whether he could find work for "a friend" of Currie. By the end of October, Richardson and two aides met with Lewinsky at the Watergate apartment complex, where they offered her a job. She turned it down. DEC. 5. Lawyers for Jones notified Clinton's lawyer that Lewinsky was a possible witness in the case. A few days later, Jordan, a Washington insider who serves on the corporate boards of Revlon and American Express, began looking for a job for Lewinsky. In his only statement on the matter, Jordan has said the former intern was "referred" to him by Currie. He did not elaborate and declined to answer any questions. DEC 17. Lawyers for Jones issued a subpoena to Lewinsky that demanded her testimony and any gifts she might have received from Clinton. It is not clear what the Jones lawyers knew about the relationship. After the subpoena was issued, Lewinsky and Clinton had several conversations and at least one private meeting in the White House, said an associate of Lewinsky. At that session, according to Lewinsky's version of events, CLinton told her that if she were in New York, she might be able to avoid testifying in the Jones lawsuit. Clinton also reportedly told her she could explain her visits to the White House as trips to see Currie. In a conversation with Clinton in December, Lewinsky warned the President that the lawyers for Jones were aggressively pursuing details of their relationship, including any gifts. It was at this time, according to Lewinsky's account, that Clinton noted that she could avoid turning over the gifts if she no longer had them. There have been numerous reports about Clinton's gifts to Lewinsky. After the story erupted three weeks ago, Lewinsky was quoted as having told Tripp on tape that Clinton gave her a dress. When Federal agents searched Lewinsky's apartment for any gifts or other evidence, her lawyer, William H. Ginsburg, said that no such dress had been found. Ginsburg said other inconsequential items, like a book of poetry, had been seized by the agents. JAN. 7. Lewinsky signs an affidavit denying that she had a sexual relationship with Clinton. Efforts to land her a job by Jordan reach fruition over the next several days with a post offered to her by Revlon in New York. JAN. 17. After years of legal skirmishing, the lawyers for Jones finally had their chance to question Clinton. In a six-hour, secret session, Clinton's lawyers attempted to block questioning about Lewinsky , citing her affidavit, according to people involved in the deposition. The effort failed. A Federal judge allowed some questions to be asked about Lewinsky. He denied that he had sex with her. Asked if he had given her gifts, he replied that perhaps he had done so, but only ordinary White House souvenirs, according to a lawyer who has read the President's deposition. Clinton also said he could not recall being alone with Lewinsky, though he might have done so in conducting official business. That evening, a report on the internet that said Newsweek had declined to publish a story it was preparing on an affair between the President and a White House intern. It is not known whether Clinton was aware of the report. But that evening, he canceled a dinner outside the White House with the First Lady. Currie has told investigators, lawyers said, that the President called her and asked her to meet him at the office the following day. JAN. 18. Currie met Clinton at the White House, according to lawyers familiar with her account. Lawyers familiar with the inquiry said Currie recalled that President had asked a series of questions to which he supplied the answers. The lawyers paraphrased the President's remarks about Lewinsky as being along these lines: We were never alone together, right? Clinton also asserted to Currie that he resisted the former intern's advances, Currie has told investigators. JAN. 21. News organizations report that Starr is investigating whether Jordan and the President took improper steps to hinder the lawsuit brought by Jones. The focus is on Lewinsky's affidavit denying the sexual relationship and her job offer from Revlon, which is retracted shortly after the story breaks. For the next several days, Currie was not at her desk in the White House, prompting concerns about whether she had been contacted by Starr's investigators, an Administration official said. In fact, Currie was talking. She provided investigators with the box of gifts and recounted some of Clinton's remarks about Lewinsky. After missing several days of work, she returned to her desk at the White House, where she was warmly embraced by colleagues. ========================================================================== This mailing list is for discussion of Clinton Administration Scandals. If you wish to unsubscribe from this mailing list, send electronic mail to majordomo@majordomo.pobox.com. In the message body put: unsubscribe cas - - ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 6 Feb 1998 13:08:39 -0600 (CST) From: Subject: CAS: WT: China blocks Burton's investigators (fwd) - ---------- Forwarded message ---------- Date: Fri, 06 Feb 1998 09:46:07 -0600 From: Ann Khan To: cas@majordomo.pobox.com Subject: CAS: WT: China blocks Burton's investigators China blocks Burton's investigators ("dingicat" , 4:44) Newsgroups: alt.current-events.clinton.whitewater Not to be used for commercial purposes - ------------------------------------------------------------------------ By Jerry Seper THE WASHINGTON TIMES - ------------------------------------------------------------------------ The Chinese government has blocked congressional investigators from traveling to Hong Kong and Beijing as part of an ongoing campaign-finance investigation and threatened to arrest them if they try. Four investigators for the House Government Reform and Oversight Committee were scheduled to leave for China Saturday, but passport and visa applications submitted Jan. 23 to the Chinese Embassy in Washington were refused, said the committee's chairman, Rep. Dan Burton, Indiana Republican. The investigators were told the Chinese Foreign Ministry in Beijing had issued standing orders that embassy officials in Washington were not to process visa - -- Continued from Front Page -- requests for any congressional investigators seeking to visit China as part of the campaign-finance probe. They also were told they would be arrested if they tried otherwise to enter the country. "In light of President Jiang Zemin's recent pledge in Washington to President Clinton of cooperation in getting at the truth in campaign-finance matters, I fail to comprehend China's obstructionist attitude," Mr. Burton said in a letter Thursday to Secretary of State Madeleine K. Albright. "I find it outrageous that China would seek to block the U.S. Congress from official and legitimate business abroad," he said. Chinese Embassy spokesman Yu Shu Ning denied that the visa applications had been rejected because of the investigation. He said they were withheld by embassy officials in Washington pending "instructions from home." Committee investigators have focused in recent weeks on accusations that the Chinese government sought to influence the U.S. political process during the 1996 presidential election. The inquiry has included an investigation of suspected efforts by the Chinese Embassy to funnel illegal foreign money into several campaigns, including that of Mr. Clinton. Chinese government officials have denied the accusations. State Department spokesman James Foley said he had not yet seen the letter and was unaware that visas had been denied. He said, however, that the department would look into the matter. Mr. Burton, in his letter, said the indictment last week of former Little Rock businessman Charles Yah Lin Trie on charges he illegally funneled foreign cash to the Democratic National Committee made it important for committee investigators to be allowed to enter China to pursue the accusations. "A staff visit at this time will be particularly useful to both our governments to clear the air on all matters related to the involvement of Chinese citizens in possible campaign-finance abuses by U.S. officials," he said. Mr. Trie, who fled to China after the campaign-finance probe began, was indicted Jan. 29 on 15 counts accusing him and a business associate, Antonio Pan, of obstruction of justice, conspiracy and wire fraud in their transfer of money from U.S. banks to illegally reimburse contributors. The indictment, the first by the Justice Department's campaign-finance task force, said Mr. Trie and Mr. Pan illegally diverted money to the DNC through "straw donors" who were then secretly reimbursed in cash by the two men. Mr. Trie also is accused of funneling more than $600,000 to the DNC. The indictment said much of the money came from foreign sources. Mr. Trie pleaded not guilty Thursday in U.S. District Court and is scheduled for trial on Oct. 7. Last July, Sen. Fred Thompson, Tennessee Republican and chairman of the Senate Governmental Affairs Committee, said at the start of campaign-finance hearings that China plotted to influence U.S. policy with illegal political contributions. Mr. Thompson said committee investigators believed that high-level Chinese government officials had "crafted a plan to increase China's influence over the U.S. political process." He said the Chinese government violated U.S. law by enlisting people to pour money into national and state political campaigns to influence U.S. policy toward Beijing. "The government of China is believed to have allocated substantial sums of money to achieve its objectives," Mr. Thompson said. Mr. Burton asked Mrs. Albright for her "immediate intervention with the government of China" to ensure that committee investigators are allowed into that country. "I hope that you will address this matter with the Chinese government as quickly as possible so that any further delays can be avoided," he said. The four investigators, who were not identified in the letter, included three from the committee's majority staff and one from the minority staff. They had been scheduled to visit Hong Kong from Saturday until Feb. 18, and Beijing from Feb. 18 to Feb. 25. Copyright ) 1998 News World Communications, Inc. ========================================================================== This mailing list is for discussion of Clinton Administration Scandals. If you wish to unsubscribe from this mailing list, send electronic mail to majordomo@majordomo.pobox.com. In the message body put: unsubscribe cas - - ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 6 Feb 1998 16:07:57 -0600 (CST) From: Subject: CAS: JT: Bill's problem and ours (fwd) - ---------- Forwarded message ---------- Date: Fri, 06 Feb 1998 10:30:15 -0600 From: Ann Khan To: cas@majordomo.pobox.com Subject: CAS: JT: Bill's problem and ours Jerusalem Post Friday, February 6, 1998 Bill's problem and ours By JONATHAN ROSENBLUM (February 6) - "What the president does behind closed doors is nobody's business," runs the received wisdom of the day. Morality, we are assured, can be neatly bifurcated into public and private spheres. Nothing could be further from the Jewish view. For us, all life is ultimately lived in the presence of God. The claim that one area of life has no implications for other areas belongs to the evil inclination's arsenal of tricks. Conscience and self-discipline cannot be infinitely compartmentalized. Just because someone cheats at golf - another notorious Clinton failing - doesn't mean he will rob a bank, but one would be well-advised to be careful buying a used car from him. William Jefferson Blythe Clinton himself constitutes the clinching refutation for the argument for unrelated moral spheres. The taint of personal corruption has adhered to him no less than the rumors of insatiable womanizing from the beginning of his political career. Consider some of the highlights: * The Clintons' erstwhile Whitewater partner, Susan McDougal, today rots in jail for contempt of court for her refusal to testify, despite a grant of immunity, concerning the president's role in procuring a fraudulent loan from the Small Business Administration, the proceeds of which eventually ended up in the Whitewater account. If the president has nothing to hide, why doesn't he tell his former close friend to reveal whatever she knows? * On his way to jail for embezzlement, Webster Hubbell, Hillary's former law partner and associate attorney-general, was lucky enough to have Clinton's closest aides arrange for him to receive $400,000 in consulting fees from close Clinton cronies. Hush money? * Former Little Rock restaurateur Charles Yah Lin Trie thoughtfully handed over to the Clinton Defense Fund a paper bag stuffed with $460,000 in illegal, laundered contributions. The grateful president created for him a new seat on a federal trade commission. Under federal indictment, Trie has conveniently fled the country to avoid testifying. * The White House and the president were virtually rented out to Democratic donors in 1996: $10,000-$25,000 for invitations to state dinners; $50,000-$100,000 for dinner or an hour-long chat over coffee with the president; and for really big bucks, a night in the Lincoln bedroom, golf with the president, or a ride on Air Force One. The president only stopped months of denying the "sale of the White House" when a memo outlining the plan turned up with his enthusiastic scribbling: "Yes, pursue all 3 and promptly. . . . Ready to start overnights right away." Michael Kelly of the liberal New Republic characterized the 1996 Clinton fundraising operation as setting "a level of corruption and greed . . . that is unprecedented." * One of the most successful Democratic fundraisers was John Huang, a former employee of the Indonesia-based Lippo Group, who was personally installed by the president at the Commerce Department and the Democratic National Committee. Of the millions he collected from Asians, large sums came from the Lippo Group itself, which has been described as a "joint venture with the Chinese government." * Denied White House access to sell his plans for a multibillion dollar oil pipeline from the Caucasus to Turkey, shadowy Lebanese-American businessman Roger Tamraz became a major Democratic contributor and frequent White House visitor. After one private chat with the president, Clinton told his chief of staff to press the Department of Energy to find a way to support the proposal. Quid pro quo. Bill Clinton is the most powerful man in the world, holding in his hands the power to destroy the world many times over. If he were a drug addict, would anyone claim that his addiction was irrelevant? Is it far-fetched to think that his "girl" problem similarly numbs his judgment? To the extent that a person is thrall to his material or physical desires, our Sages stress, he is incapable of objectively evaluating a situation. Certainly Clinton has repeatedly shown himself unable to make the elementary calculation, "Weigh the reward of the sin against its cost," even by his own calculus of reward and cost. We have come a long way from the days that JFK romped in the White House. Someone as bright as Clinton must surely have realized that he could not keep his activities behind closed doors. Consider the logistical difficulties alone. The president is constantly surrounded by Secret Service agents, just as he was surrounded as Arkansas governor by state troopers, who later proved embarrassingly talkative. In the nature of things, his affairs of the heart have a very limited life expectancy. At the end, there is always likely to be one embittered party, like Gennifer Flowers, eager to talk for revenge or money. And, Yael Dayan notwithstanding, there are many women who do not find the president's advances enchanting, and who will not remain silent about them, ala Paula Jones. Yet knowing all this, Clinton has apparently been unable to hold his libido in check, in the process diminishing the office he holds and turning himself into the perpetual butt of Jay Leno and David Letterman's jokes. Kennedy's judgment was so clouded that he saw no problem in sharing a mistress with a leading mob boss. Can we be confident that Clinton's is not similarly affected and that decisions potentially involving tens of thousands of lives, such as that to bomb Iraq, will not be influenced by the need to distract attention from his romantic travails. And what finally is revealed by our rush to forgive Clinton? Our eagerness to be easy on him partakes of our own desire to view ourselves as good fellows without devoting much effort to actually becoming good people. Young, handsome, and concerned, Clinton has grown used to the forgiveness that we readily grant him in the hope that we too will not be challenged to improve our character. (The writer is a Jerusalem Post columnist.) ========================================================================== This mailing list is for discussion of Clinton Administration Scandals. If you wish to unsubscribe from this mailing list, send electronic mail to majordomo@majordomo.pobox.com. In the message body put: unsubscribe cas - - ------------------------------ End of roc-digest V2 #65 ************************