[Congressional Record Volume 140, Number 30 (Thursday, March 17, 1994)]
[House]
[Page H]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Printing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[Congressional Record: March 17, 1994]
From the Congressional Record Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov]
THE CLINTON YEARS
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the
gentleman from California [Mr. Dornan] is recognized for 60 minutes.
Mr. DORNAN. Mr. Speaker, I said during the 1-minute today that I
would be doing the first of many special orders at the close of
legislative business but before the gavel comes down reaching out to
the audience that C-SPAN says is 1,300,000-plus or more. A lot of
people have called my office and other offices and said they would be
watching tonight from both parties.
I want to present something in a very fair way on not only Whitewater
but what I called this morning all of the ``Clinton years,'' from his
first defeat against a colleague that I served with here for a decade
and a half, J.P. Hammerschmidt of Arkansas, the only Republican in
Arkansas for all the years that I served with him, from that 1974
defeat of then a very young 28-year-old Clinton to his election 2 years
later to the attorney general's office, where after only 1 year of
service in Arkansas, he was ready for the governorship. And he won that
office at age 32, lost it at 34 and made his comeback in 1982, thanks
partly to the recession nationwide.
{time} 2210
Mr. Speaker, let me begin by saying that ``I am introducing a
resolution calling for a formal congressional investigation of the
charges that have been made by many, including many distinguished
journalists. The evidence which has thus far trickled into the public
domain is still fragmentary. Much of it is circumstantial, but it is
compelling. If the allegations are not true, this country needs to know
they are not true. If they are true, of course, the country needs to
know that, as well.
``Mr. Speaker, there is a great deal more circumstantial evidence
which has been brought forward by a number of these reports, and I
believe the air needs to be cleared,'' Mr. President, I mean, Mr.
Speaker, ``so I am today,'' or ``next week calling for a formal
investigation of all these charges and allegations, without prejudging
what the investigation, might find, but believing deeply that it needs
to take place in order to establish the truth or falsehood of the
allegations that have been made.''
None of those preceding words, Mr. Speaker, back to the point where I
said, ``I am introducing a resolution,'' are my words at all. They are
the words of then-Senator Al Gore, now Vice President of the United
States, all on June 24, 1991.
My friend, who I saw this morning and wished him a happy St.
Patrick's Day, Al Gore, after I met the senior Clinton for the first
time, and told him I would be doing this special order tonight, and
told him to please have Gergen tape it tonight, so he could watch it in
his spare time, this might be a busy night for Bill Clinton, I told
him, ``Give Gergen something to do before he is out the door.''
He smiled, a rather frozen St. Patrick's Day smile, but I told him I
would be doing this special order tonight, told Clinton I would be
doing one tomorrow, and I told him I would be doing dozens throughout
the year. He said, ``How are you?'' That is what he said when I
started, so I assumed he was searching for a response, so I wished him
happy St. Patrick's Day and moved on to Al.
These are all the words of Al Gore. What was Al referring to, our
Vice President, June 1991? He was referring to one of the most asinine
charges ever brought against an American public official, this happened
to be President Bush, that I have ever encountered in my life. I will
tell the Members why they were the most ignorant charges ever brought.
First of all, we spent $30 million of this House's budget, right out
of the taxpayers' treasury, $30 million of the taxpayers' money trying
to investigate the sick and, I am sorry for the byplay on his name, the
sick charges of Gary Sick, a former State Department employee, that
George Bush had broken away from the presidential race in 1980, where
he was the bottom half of the Reagan-Bush ticket, and was spirited to a
secret meeting with Iranian terrorists in Spain, asking them to keep
our hostages until through the election of November 4, which was
precisely the 1-year anniversary of the day they had been captured,
against all international law in Tehran, Iran, and that George Bush had
then, after a brief meeting with these terrorists and their negotiating
lawyers, got an OK from them that the hostages would be kept imprisoned
and maybe in danger of losing their lives until Ronald Reagan had won
the Presidency, and then they could be released. Nobody ever suggested
that they would be released at noon, right as President Reagan was
being inaugurated with George Bush.
Then President Bush was whisked back to the campaign trail, I believe
in New Jersey, and all of this was done without Secret Service
knowledge, since there are logs of the Secret Service that we went into
to the tune of $30 million.
How could George Bush have done this? This is my piece of the action,
where I found this a personal affront to me as a taxpayer. George Bush
was supposed to have gotten into an SR-71, a Blackbird, the world's
fastest record holding airplane ever, and holds all the world's time-
to-climb and altitude records to boot.
To my knowledge, George Bush, as a Congressman for 4 years, earned
all of his well-served government positions, he was Vice President for
8 years and President for 4, has never flown faster than the speed of
sound, unless it was on the British, French Concorde. He has never
taken any physiological training classes on how to use oxygen or what
to do at Mach 3, at 82,000 feet, if you lose an engine in that
Blackbird.
Everybody on the Blackbird flys in a space suit. I have flown the SR-
71, as has a Democratic lady, Beverly Byron so it does not mean it is
any great, you know, physical accomplishment, but Beverly Byron, former
great conservative Democrat from Maryland, still out there doing great
work on the Base Closing Commission, Mrs. Byron and I and the gentleman
from Arizona, Bob Stump, current Member of Arizona, who also flew in
the Blackbird to see if we were getting our money's worth out of it,
our taxpayers' dollars worth out of it.
We had gone up to Beale Air Force Base in California and gone through
a 4-day program, 3\1/2\ days: physiological, training tests,
unbelievable tests tracking the heart, and then flown the simulator,
and I flew it for 8 hours; I think they wanted 4 to 6 hours flying it,
even if you are not a pilot.
Beverly was pretty good. She had flown the A-10 tank killer, the
Thunderbolt II. She had flown the F-16, I believe, and a lot of
preparation with into that.
George Bush in his sixties, in 1980, his late fifties, was supposed
to have been put into this plane cold turkey, somewhere in the United
States. At a secret base, and at Mach 3 spirited to Spain; not so
easily done, Mr. Speaker. It requires two or three midair refuelings
from a special refueling wing, one of a kind in the world, also at
Beale, the 100th Strategic Refueling Wing, using a special kind of
fuel, JP-7.
After he landed at some base in Spain where the SR-71 Blackbird, the
world's most exotic looking aircraft, nobody had even seen it there
before, they would have seen it taxiing in at the base, he was then
spirited to the meeting, out of the space suit, back to some secret
hangar, into the space suit, into the back of the SR-71 dual-control
model that actually could take somebody other than sitting in the
reconnaissance officer's seat, and then all the way back to McGuire Air
Force Base, New Jersey, and actually Gary Sick speculated in his sick,
sick ramblings that it was probably McGuire, and then into the hangar,
out of the space suit, back into his campaign trail three- or two-piece
gray suit, out on the trail, and the Secret Service supposedly said,
``Where were you, Secretary Bush,'' or ``Ambassador Bush,'' whatever
the title they wanted to use, probably Ambassador.
``Where were you?'' ``Never mind, I had a little stomach problem,
been gone for a day,'' What an absurdity, what absurdity. Just the
refueling logistics problems alone, a nightmare. Yet this House spent
$30 million of taxpayer money proving that there was not a shred of
truth.
Mr. Speaker, I have a letter that I will introduce into the Record
tomorrow night, and I see with all the material there is one I forgot
to bring, of how Tom Foley, our distinguished Speaker, Mr. Speaker pro
tem, wrote to a gentleman in Florida who faxed me this letter
yesterday, saying that he, Tom Foley, Speaker of the House 2 years ago,
did not believe a word of this, did not think any of it was true, but
like Al Gore in these three sentences or paragraphs that I read, he
felt that we had to ``find out the truth, even if it is circumstantial,
even if the allegations are not true.''
He said, ``I,'' Tom Foley, ``don't believe they are true, but we must
find out.'' Then $30 million were spent. The chairman of that select
committee to spend that $30 million was a very distinguished
Congressman from Indiana, a man I truly admire and respect, I told him
so again today, Lee Hamilton.
Here is yesterday's headline. ``Lee Hamilton Opts For Hearings On
Whitewater,'' Our beloved Danny Rostenkowski of Chicago, he is on the
headline of today's Roll Call, ``Rosty Wins Big,'' it says. He is also
on the front page of the newspapers today.
Here is the green St. Patrick's Day battered Washington Times:
``Rostenkowski Joins The Call For Whitewater Hearings.'' After winning
in the primary, he calls the action inevitable. He might not have
wanted to turn off the loyal, hard core Democratic faithful in a
Democrat primary on Monday, but he has a general to win, so he reached
out to what his taxpayers want, and he calls for a hearing.
My good friend and pro-lifer, the gentleman from Michigan, David
Bonior, the distinguished majority whip, I do not think that David, if
he is in the cloakroom listening, meant to impugn the integrity of the
gentleman from Indiana, Lee Hamiltion, and the gentleman from Illinois,
Danny Rostenkowski. They are all tight friends.
{time} 2220
But why would he say it is only the Republicans, only the
Republicans? You see, my wife told me, reminded me, that on the
Gennifer Flowers tapes, which KFI radio in Los Angeles sent to our
family during the election, and we cranked it onto our stereo and
listened to the mellifluous tones of Gennifer Flowers wafting through
our house and the high raspy Arkansas twang of Bill Clinton rasping
through the house, as Clinton was on the Gennifer Flowers tapes, and
also said, ``Well, we'll more or less, we'll blame it on the
Republicans.'' If you want the exact quote, I put the 8 minutes that
Flowers released of written transcript into the Congressional Record on
September 23, 1992, in the election year, so you can write your
Congressman or anybody listening knows that, Mr. Speaker, and he will
send you September 23, 1992, and you can read it right in there how
there has been a lifelong pattern for Clinton saying, ``Blame it on the
Republicans.''
Now, I know Dave Bonior did not mean that it is all political,
because I did not sign that letter, but I do not think so. Maybe I did,
but about Mrs. Clinton driving down pharmacy stocks.
But here is the way I would like to preface my remarks other than
saying I am only doing what Al Gore and Speaker Tom Foley did about
clearing up rumors that can divide our country severely.
Bill Clinton's background has already divided our country severely. I
have been to enough military bases and flown with enough people from T-
birds and Angels to big C-5's across several oceans to know the
disrespect with which the line people, NCO's, and officer corps hold
their Commander-in-Chief to know that this is not going to help, and
that to even keep the situation from deteriorating worse with people
who wear uniforms and put their lives on the line like sheriffs and
cops, anybody who wears blue, khaki, or a military uniform, they are
not too inspired by this Commander-in-Chief, so this will only make it
worse if we do not clear things up.
But let us look at what I am going to begin to try and do to put this
Whitewater scandal in perspective for my fellow Americans, I am going
to not only try to tell the facts surrounding the case, but weave it
together with other facets, draft-dodging, rampant, almost serial,
womanizing, and tell why it is important that Congress hold the
hearings. I will offer my opening remarks also with this pearl
of wisdom to those at the White House who still do not understand why
they are so miserable, why they have those butterflies in their
stomach, why they are feeling the way this simple lay conservative
Republican broadcaster, Bob Dornan, felt about Watergate in the early
stages.
I never did become a Watergate buff, studying every detail, and I do
not expect a lot of my Democrat friends and colleagues are going to
want to become as expert on this whole mess as I am going to try to be,
because it is utterly, thoroughly, and totally demoralizing to see the
leader of the world, and we do not have to say free world anymore, in
spite of China, North Korea, Cuba, and Communist Vietnam, it is pretty
much the leader of the world, that Presidential spot.
I know how demoralizing it is, and I thought I would never have a
political career in the Grand Old Party, because I called for Richard
Nixon's resignation before Barry Goldwater, but after Jim Buckley then
the junior Senator, Federal Senator from New York, and it was painful.
I did it on a television show when I just could not defend him anymore
before the smoking-gun tape, before a lot of the revelations; I called
for Nixon to resign basically for one simple reason, burned my job up,
and I went home unemployed. I probably would have had a 5-month job as
the Republican or conservative side of a Nixon Watch, they called it.
My opponent was a very capable head of the ACLU in Los Angeles,
smart, attractive woman, Ramona Ripston. She is so smart she is still
there after all of these years, and I am talking about 20 years ago,
1974. She is still the head honcho of the ACLU. But I walked. It was
painful to see the Presidency collapsing, and I believe to this day the
ignorant handling of this cheap shot, third-rate burglary to steal the
playbook, to use one of the Mr. Bonior's analogies, to steal the
playbook of the worst team in the league, and Clinton was on that team,
by the way, the McGovern team, when they were losing 20 to 30 points
behind. They just fired their Vice President who had undergone electric
shock therapy at some point in his life, as though that was something
wrong, to seek medical help, and put a Kennedyite, one of the brothers-
in-law, on the ticket to try and let the Kennedy mystique salvage the
ticket. The McGovern campaign was in disarray. There were rumors about
Castro was going to endorse them, and they were going to try to hold it
off.
And they steal the playbook over in the Watergate offices from this
team. I could not believe it. To this day I believe that that
mishandling cost Vietnam its freedom and cost about 10 million dead
human beings in the killing fields of Cambodia and Laos because we lost
our Commander-in-Chief, not because he had schemed in the burglary, but
because of the mishandling. Pathetic.
Let me read a letter from one of the most distinguished and
intelligent men I have ever come in contact with in public life, and
this goes for his great wife with whom I work in an excellent group
called the Catholic Campaign for America, Jean Bork.
Here is what a great jurist, Robert Bork, who should be sitting on
that Supreme Court now, here is what he says in the Wall Street
Journal, March 11, Friday: ``Well, it's the early days, Mr.
President,'' That is the title. And Mr. Bork says, ``Clinton insists
the two situations have nothing in common,'' meaning Watergate and
Whitewatergate. I will just call it Whitewater, but I admire Bill
Safire, who will not give up on Iraqgate. I am not going to argue with
him on that mess, either.
He says, ``Watergate, Iraqgate, Whitewatergate,'' much to the chagrin
of some liberal honchos at the New York Times. ``The flames of
Watergate ultimately engulfed the Nixon Presidency,'' Mr. Bork says.
``So far there are no flames here. There are only wisps of smoke and a
crackling sound from the tinder under the Clinton Presidency. Well,
it's the early days, Mr. President. At a comparable stage of the
Watergate investigation, nobody had accused President Nixon of an abuse
of power, either. There never was evidence connecting Mr. Nixon
directly with the Watergate break-in,'' not to this day, Nixon-haters
to the contrary. ``The end came when the Oval Office tapes showed the
President planning to use the CIA to deflect the FBI investigation. If
it is true, as Mr. Clinton and his defenders insist,'' defenders like
my good friend on the Intelligence Committee, I serve with him, good
friend, Bill Richardson, ``If it is true as his defenders insist that
they have attempted no concealment of evidence, it is also the case
they have certainly given a virtuoso imitation of a coverup. One could
easily mistake it for the genuine article. We may never know whether
there is serious wrongdoing that the White House is trying to hide.''
That is a tough line that we may never know. ``But the sounds
of document-shredding raise legitimate questions, and they amount to an
obstruction of justice. If Mr. Nixon had burned the tapes,'' and by the
way, as William F. Buckley, my pal, advised him to do in the early days
when they were his property. That is questionable since they were run
through a White House taxpayer employer system. ``If Mr. Nixon had
burned the tapes, he might conceivably have avoided removal from
office.'' I believe he would have. It does not make anything right or
wrong, but I believe he would have avoided that, and it sure would have
been good for 2 million Cambodians and about 186,000 Vietnamese who
worked for us or liked us who were executed in the concentration camps
throughout conquered newly Communist Vietnam in 1975, 1976, and 1977.
But his Presidency, the Nixon Presidency, would have been paralyzed,
and I believe the Clinton Presidency is close to paralysis in about a
month.
If persons close to the Clintons should be indicated for the removal
or shredding of files, a similar paralysis may afflict their
administration, Bob Bork continues. There was not in Watergate anything
similar to Vincent Foster's death. Bill Safire said that on Meet the
Press this Sunday, and it is a freezing type of a statement. Safire
puts it very dramatically, as is his wont. There was no body in
Watergate, There is a dead body here, as there was a dead beautiful
young women in Chappaquiddick.
{time} 2230
Scandals seem to be propelled, when someone has lost their life, into
a whole different category.
I continue, ``Nor is the inexcusable way it was handled by the White
House giving the park police the responsibility for the
investigation,'' stop. I am going to call Bob Bork on that. I have a
letter here from the Police Association of the District of Columbia,
and I will defend the park police, much to the chagrin of a lot of
developing Whitewatergate busts. Park police is the oldest uniformed
police service in the United States of America, 1791, to defend that
man whose picture is on our floor, George Washington, in his third
year; first and oldest uniformed police United States. I will defend
their honor here as I have already called my pal Rush Limbaugh and told
him he owes an apology to them. Most of his fans--there are a lot of
rumors that park police are ``Smokey the Bears.'' They are not. They
did a competent investigation and did nothing where the FBI was not at
their side, or the Justice Department.
The Justice Department makes me a little queasy if it was people way
at the top, but Justice career employees, I feel comfortable with that
too.
Bob Bork continues, ``Giving the park police responsibility,''
nothing wrong with that. ``Secret removal of files from Mr. Foster's
office; the lame statement that the so-called suicide note in Foster's
briefcase had been overlooked earlier.'' I do not believe that.
The litany goes on. There was far more coverup here than there ever
was in Watergate until the tapes were played. ``I came into the Nixon
administration June 26, 1973.'' Let us see, the resignation was August
9, so he was there 1 year, 1 month and 2 weeks. The way people talk
about Bob Bork and the way he was attacked viciously in the worst
character assassination that I have seen of anyone in a Senate
confirmation, you would think he would have been there from day 1 with
Nixon. Just 1 year, 1\1/2\ months.
Bork continues.
The Watergate break-in was long past, and there was no House
impeachment committee when he came in June of '73. But the acrid smell
of the wisps of smoke was unmistakable as the matters grew worse. By
the way, Watergate break-in--I said I was not a buff, but I do remember
some of the dates--was June 17. I think of it every June 17 because
there were 2 million people dead in Cambodia. June 17 of '92. So Bob
Bork came exactly 1 year and 9 days after the original break-in when he
said, ``There was a wisp of smoke and a crackling.
``As matters grew worse, trips to the White House were more frequent
and steadily more depressing.'' I know what they are going to start to
go through, the Democrat colleagues over here and in the Senate and
downtown.
``The building exuded a thick atmosphere of desperation. Then as now,
senior staff rushed from one damage control meeting to the next. Then
H.R. Haldemann went down, then Erlichmann went down, they were
jettisoned. Now it is Bernard Nussbaum, with surely more to follow.''
I called and found out this story went to bed before Webster Hubbell
went down. So now we have 2 for 2 and many more to follow in the next
weeks, and I will address that in a minute.
``Then as now, under pressure the Attorney General appointed special
counsel. The firestorm that followed the firing of Archibald Cox which
fell to me means that Robert Fiske's tenure is secure. He will not
suffer the fate of Archibald Cox unless the Clintons are determined to
repeat every stage of Watergate. Their common element in Watergate and
in Whitewater is the hatred that both Mr. Nixon and Mr. Clinton arouse,
though from different ends of the political spectrum. That contributed
to the bunker mentality in `73, as it now appears to be doing in `94.
And that bunker mentality always produces mistakes. I think I know a
little of how the Clinton group feels. It is a unique experience to be
inside an administration that may or may not be collapsing. The
frustration of not knowing the facts, the anguish of hoping that
ultimately investigation will bring vindication, the pain of seeing the
desperation of those are the center of power, in Watergate only a very
few people, perhaps no more than two or three knew, that is probably
true today.''
I would say ``wrong, Bob Bork.'' It was two or three under Nixon,
because I do not think that even Pat Nixon was in the circle, I would
say now it is a minimum of six, seven, eight. ``That is probably true
today. The rest must be hoping against hope, as we were in the Nixon
White House.'' Robert H. Bork, Nixon's solicitor general, and then a
top acting Attorney General and now American Enterprise Institute
Fellow and one of the greatest legal minds of my lifetime.
Mr. Speaker, let me first, since on the radio for the least 2 months
I have been calling regularly, had been calling regularly for the
resignation of Bob Nussbaum, I found out all the White House people,
even though they liked him, called him ``Buzz Bomb.'' I have been
calling for the resignation of Webb, Clinton's golfing budding, Webster
Hubbell.
Now let me add to that list since it seems someone listened to me in
those cases. I believe the next resignations should be four, well,
three and one firing. I believe Patsy Thomasson, who managed Dan
Lasater's assets, which we will get to later during the FSLIC case,
while he was in jail on drug charges. She is now White House aide. She
is among those who searched legally Bill foster's office. She is going
to have to go. You will probably see that within a month because she
does not have her security clearance yet. I do not want to do too much
speculating, but how can someone in her position be in that White House
now 2 months into her second year, as Dee Dee Myers is 2 months into
her second year, and they do not have their top-secret security
clearances. It leaves one to wonder if they can get them, if they ever
turn in their paperwork.
So I think since she has told the press, people inquiring over and
over, ``I am filling out the forms. I am getting them Monday, on
Tuesday.'' On Tuesday she will tell you I never told you I would be
ready on Monday. I completely forgot about it. This has been going on
just for the last 2 weeks.
She goes.
Over at Treasury, and this is sad, a close friend of the Clintons, a
man who everybody thought would replace former Senator Bentsen, a
distinguished combat B-24 Liberator pilot from World War II, who wants
the hell out of all this mess with his great reputation intact, who we
now hear in the rumor mill in both cloakrooms that the Clinton
administration is on its knees begging Lloyd Bentsen not to quit
because then they would have to go through the confirmation process of
the head of the Treasury Department and all of the pressure and one of
the top people walking out of the Cabinet at the Cabinet level. They
have lost their senior White House counsel, they have lost their No. 2
man to suicide, and they have lost the No. 3 man at Treasury--or
Justice, who people said really was the No. 2 man, particularly when
Phil Heymann left after a while. Since he could pick up the phone and
jingle his golf buddy in the Oval Office, Webster Hubbell was
demoralizing all the people at the Justice Department because they said
it was being run by friendship and cronyism.
Now he is gone, and meanwhile back at Treasury it appears that Lloyd
Bentsen did not know all these underlings were having these secret
meetings over at the White House. He is livid with anger. He wants out.
But being a good soldier, a guy who knows what real combat is like,
Lloyd Bentsen would probably stay for a while.
But I do not think the smoke is going to clear. I do not think the
flak is going to back off William Lloyd. You are going to have to,
probably to keep your honor, walk. This man, Roger Altman, tall,
handsome man, looks like Vince Foster, he was going to be the man who
was going to walk into the job. He is only acting as head of RTC. But
the deputy treasury secretary, and this RTC Chairman Altman admits he
called White House officials and then recused himself from any further
consideration. So we have to get a head for the RTC.
But more than that, at his side was Gene Hanson. Gene Hanson is
another top-level employee who knew there were other critical meetings
and never tapped Mr. Altman on the shoulder like the typical television
scene in movies or in real life where the lawyer has a little whisper
off camera with his hand over the mike.
{time} 2240
She sat there and let him say what was wrong, that he knew of only
one meeting. We have got to give some people the benefit of the doubt
here, that he was not boldly lying to a Senate committee and,
therefore, she hung him out.
You read last week's Time and Newsweek, and you will see a line in
one of them, I think it is in Newsweek--yes, where an unnamed, and
there is going to be a lot of these leaks, just like with Watergate--an
unnamed, highly placed, Democratic source at the White House said,
``She's going to take it in the eye.'' That is the exact quote because
of what she did.
Ms. Jean, J-e-a-n, Hanson with an o-n, in a critical meeting at the
Treasury, an acting, acting, RTC counsel, told Nussbaum the Clintons
were mentioned as criminal referral. That is what was all over the news
tonight with Senator Al D'Amato, and as, potential beneficiaries of
Madison misconduct, she is one of the ones who tipped them off. Clinton
says he cannot remember who tipped him off, but she is already saying,
``I did.'' She will be gone soon. Resign with your health, and try and
get a public defender because we are getting down to people now that do
not make as much money as the lawyers they are hiring to defend them,
but they do not want to go to jail.
So, Patsy Thomasson will have to go, and that is Thomasson with two
s's, Roger Altman, Deputy Treasury Secretary goes within the next few
weeks, and Gene Hanson goes.
Now here is the one who should be fired. I will do more on this
tomorrow: Buddy Young, the former commander of troopers in Arkansas.
Mr. Speaker, the day after Vince Foster committed suicide, and I am
not just speculating anymore, I believe he committed suicide; I think
he did from the start. The day after, and there is no connection there,
but this helps you with the dates. Vince Foster committed suicide on
July 20. The very next day Buddy Young in Arkansas was told by probably
the President himself:
``Buddy, Captain, you're on your way to Denton, TX, to be head of
FEMA, and you're getting double pay of what you are getting right now.
You're going from the high forties to about $95,000 a year. Thanks for
all the good years, and thanks for bottling up those troopers.''
Off to Denton, TX, in July, Buddy Young.
Here is why I think he should be fired: Buddy Young on camera to ABC
said he was up in the Oval Office the week before Christmas, the very
week all of the troopers' stories are breaking, and I am sitting in for
Rush Limbaugh on 650 stations. He flies up from Denton, TX, to
Washington, takes a car. A limousine picks him up, and he goes to the
White House compound, and he goes into the Oval Office and sits down
with the former man that he guarded for 12 years over a 14-year period,
1978 to 1992, and they started calling troopers.
Now imagine this scene. Very few press people want to write this
scene, it is so depressing, but it is true. It is true because Clinton
has admitted it is true, and Buddy Young talks about it on live camera.
While the White House calls him on the phone--excuse me, I will get
this call. Excuse me, it is the White House.
No, no. Buddy Young was probably telling the truth.
They sit there, and with all the things to do, men in Somalia. At
that time there were not--yes--but at that time we had lost 30 men
killed in action and four from accidents in a combat theater, and the
President is sitting there Christmas week ringing up personally----
``Hi, Danny. It's the President.'' Danny Fergusson. ``Danny, what's
this about all your troopers coming forward with stuff about all the
womanizing? Geeze, I thought we liked one another, covered one
another.''
I wonder if it was on the spot that Danny Fergusson got promoted from
sergeant to lieutenant. More about Danny later.
Then he rings up Ronny Anderson. This is tough. Ronny has five kids;
three of them are triplets, beautiful triplets. The man is worried
about his family.
``Ronny, what are you doing to me? What are you telling all these
stories for? Why are you telling these stories about Vince and missis?
Come on.''
The L.A. Times had these two officers, troopers who were still on
active duty, on tape, and they leave their friends, as I said on
Limbaugh, out there on the battlefield alone to be hammered on and
chewed over by the liberal media, to have their backgrounds exposed,
and to show that their two marriages were lost, Roger Perry and Larry
Patterson, I met them both, they are still on the payroll in Arkansas
as peace officers protecting people, protecting someone that I served
here with, Jim Guy Tucker, the current governor.
I know all these troopers were talking about it. They are not only
drunks at some bar that were kicked off the payroll in Arkansas. They
are on the taxpayers' payroll right now, just as they were when Clinton
was abusing their trust, and they were stupidly going along with it
until they have a stomach full of it. Some of them and others did not
get the proper guilt, so he was long gone, and he realized that this
man that they watched for over a 14-year period was the Commander in
Chief and leader of the Free World.
These two troopers tried to pull back everything they did. As I said,
Danny went from sergeant to lieutenant on the spot. It does not work
because the L.A. Times has them on tape. I already have the names
because somebody else has leaked them to David Brock during the
definitive trooper story in the American Spectator, so I use their
names right there on national radio, and I am still using them here on
the House floor to a million and a half people maybe, and I think it is
about time that these two troopers join Roger Perry and Larry Peterson
and either say that they are both lying and now we are taking back what
we said, what we signed in the affidavits, what we said on tape
recordings to the L.A. Times, and we are going with Bill and Hillary,
and to heck with Larry and Roger Perry. They are wrong.
No, no. There were five troopers initially. There is all ten around
Little Rock will say all of it was true, and Buddy Young, who came up
to the White House, into the Oval Office in an Nixon/John Dean type
meeting claiming that they never discussed specific jobs but that
Clinton said to Danny, ``Why is Roger doing this? Did Roger want a job?
Where is his bio? I'll look for his bio around here.'' The President
all but admitted that to the press.
What? That the leader of the Free World has time to look for one
trooper's biography, and it is not discussing jobs and silence?
Geraldo Rivera can rant all he wants, he can rant about these two
troopers, but they are on the payroll, the taxpayer payroll in
Arkansas. More about the troopers probably by Wednesday of next week.
Now there was a hot rumor just flashing around this place. It came up
in the Speaker's office Thursday or Friday morning last week that Bob
Dornan was going to take to the well and reenact the suicide of Vince
Foster. Now how could I do that when I never read a report, I have
never seen a photograph until that afternoon, and how did the rumor
start that Bob Dornan was supposedly going to reenact the suicide of
Vince Foster?
Well, it started because Thursday morning last week there was the
biggest traffic jam I've encountered in 18 years here, 17 and a half
years, so I took a different route in, and I started down George
Washington Parkway which I had used for 12 or 13 years when I lived in
Vienna, VA, with my then much younger family in my freshman and early
years as a Congressman. Beautiful George Washington Parkway, along
there, and there I see it, Fort Marcy Park, one of the great Civil War
smaller forts, a structure of eight or nine of them to defend the city
from the cavalry of Jeb Stuart.
So, I said it is time to go in there. I called the House. They said
there is no votes for an hour. I said, ``That's it.'' I wanted to see,
one, if that park was closed to the general public who pay the bills to
feed the trees and mow the grass, take care of the parking lot there,
polish the big Napoleon cannons and take care of this little,
historical guard fort that overlooks ancient Chain Bridge.
And I pulled in, and sure enough, sure enough because Vince Foster,
the No. 2 lawyer at the White House and the personal key lawyer for
both Clintons who, as the Washington Post, the liberal Post, said was
their key confident lawyer on all matters public, and political, and
private. Unbelievable. He kills himself in an historic Civil War park
so the park has been closed ever since. That is wrong. That was one
thing I wanted to see.
And two was a very simple thing. I wanted to see if there were big
dirt berms built up around the cannons on either side which would make
it very important whether Vince Foster was standing or sitting when he
committed suicide, or lying down, whether his body had been dragged
from somewhere else. Those rumors were hot and heavy on all the talk
show circuit, and it was being speculated in the New York Post, a
million person circulation magazine--I mean newspaper, tabloid shape,
that is read on all the subways along with the New York Daily News by
millions of people every week. It was being speculated how could the
body be heels together as though it were lying in a coffin, hand by the
side, one hand over here with the arm looking like it was carefully
placed in it. I did want to see if there were big dirt berms by the
cannon, and I went in there in the rain.
First of all, a guard approached me and says, ``You can't come in
here.''
Handsome, young worker.
I said, ``Woo, woo, woo, woo, wait a minute. I'm on the taxpayer
payroll here. I'm a U.S. Representative. I am going to go in there.
Please let's not have a hassle.''
``Oh, no, no, sir, you go right on in; it's OK.''
{time} 2250
I go in and find the cannon. I said where is the cannon? He says in
there. I find the cannon very easily. Then I walk up this very high
inclined path, and all of a sudden there is another cannon. I never
read anywhere there were two cannons. But maybe I had not been reading
enough.
I said which cannon was he at? I looked at them both. They both had
big dirt berms. There was a field of fire, a V cut in front of the
barrel. So if he was standing in front of the barrel touching with one
hand when he shot himself, this way, or reversed thumb, then the bullet
would have gone through the V. If he was faced the other way, the
bullet would have sailed over the House of Prince Bandar--it is under a
multi-million dollar reconstruction right now. A huge Saudi Arabian
compound over the Potomac--and dropped into somebody's yard. Somebody
would pick it up and say what is that funny little thing and throw the
slug away. Or it goes into a tree somewhere.
So it was important. I came back and I called the park police. The
first person that answers the phone is a sergeant. He says, I am a Rush
Limbaugh fan. Why is he beating up on us, Congressman? We ran a good
report. We had competent investigators. We worked closely with the FBI
and Justice.
I said, I want to know which cannon he was by. I don't know. I did
not conduct the investigation. Here is who did. He gives me the name.
But maybe you better call our Major Hines.
Then suddenly a lady captain calls me. I will not give her name. She
says she has been with the Park Department 18 years when I asked her,
and she said he was lying by the north wheel of the north cannon. It
turns out that she should not have spoken, because that is not exactly
true either. But I called Rush Limbaugh and said, Rush, to the whole
Nation, Guam, Puerto Rico, all the ships at sea, marine expedition
force ships off the Virginia coast, and now on Armed Services Radio,
thanks to me, all the way down to the South Pole where I heard Rush
down--or actually he was starting the Monday after I left the South
Pole in January.
So I get Rush. He is a gentleman, and he says I do apologize to the
park police. I didn't mean to call them Smokey the Bears, but I am
reading a lot of Chris Ruddy's columns in the New York Post, and it
looks like there is a lot that can't be cleared up.
I said Rush, the report should not be bottled up. The family has had
enough time to adjust to at least the initial agony of having an
autopsy report released. They can avert their eyes. I said something
dumb on Rush's show. I said they ought to release all the photographs
of the crime scene.
Well, you can never release all the photographs of a crime scene
until you are absolutely positive there is going to be no legal
ramifications and you have decided totally it is a suicide.
However, 3 hours after I spoke to Rush, and here is a mystery that I
am going to leave for next week, somebody at Justice leaked selectively
to one privileged selected network, ABC, one photograph of Vince
Foster's thumb in the trigger guard. The accompanying story says the
gun was pried off his hand. How could it be? It was just his thumb
hanging in the trigger guard. I am convinced it was a real photograph.
Then I read this story in the Daily News, what Limbaugh calls the
American tabloid war, but he doesn't mean tabloids like flying saucers
or bringing women dates in for high politicians or two headed wives
have two headed babies, that kind of garbage. It doesn't even mean
National Enquirer, which has broken a lot of stories. It means
newspapers in New York, like the Chicago Sun, which are shaped to be
read on the subways.
The Daily News goes back over a century, New York's hometown paper,
says Vince Foster's suicide report ends rumors. Case closed. By Mike
McKlary. I haven't spoken to Mike, but I think I will tomorrow or over
the weekend.
It says the unfostered D.C. suspicions, aide's suicide is confirmed
by head's up cops. It is an excellent story.
It says most of what happened in Fort Marcy Park on July 21 has
remained secret. The Park Police report has only been reviewed once by
the Daily News.
Now, what I want to ask Mike McKlary is why was he hand picked to
read the report to count. To counter Chris Ruddy? Terrific reporter
over at the Washington Post. Who is playing these games? Why was ABC
picked. Because Rick Kaplan stuck his nose into Clinton's life again?
FOB, Friend of Bill, Renaissance Group companion down in South
Carolina? Why was ABC singled out for one photograph, and then ran in
all the papers as it moved on the wires after that?
No, here is the photograph, credit ABC news. And why was Mike McKlary
given all this special treatment?
But if you are going to accept the first part of the story, that it
was legitimately a suicide, then you have to accept the rest.
Now, here is the name, I can release one police officer's name
without hurting him, because it is in this article. It says Peter
Marklin, that is the man, the sergeant that was told to me was the
chief investigator, he said Marklin told the reporter that he was asked
by a furious Nussbaum and a park police investigator captain was
furious, he said why can't you handle this as a normal case, Nussbaum
demanded at one point?
Because this isn't a normal case, said the chief investigator, Peter
Marklin.
Why not, Nussbaum said?
Because if this is normal case, I would have all of the dead guy's
files an the back of my car, Marklin said.
No one can say why Vince Foster killed himself. Oh, I think we all
can. I will tell you that in a minute. Only that he did.
The coverup? Well, if there was one, it started with Nussbaum. The
President's lawyer acted like someone with a client who had something
to hide. He calls it all moronic, the reporter.
I thought the all should have been arrested for obstruction of
justice, said one investigator familiar with the suicide.
And there is one more mystery to decide. There is one small
triangular shaped piece of the so-called suicide note missing. It is
about an inch and a half wide on the bottom of the so-called suicide
note, right-hand part of the paper.
It is not a part of the main content and nobody is allowed to analyze
the handwriting, although the say they did and its is Foster's. Why is
the Wall Street Journal being stiffed and photocopy of the text which
has been released in every paper in the Nation and all over Europe and
Hong Kong ever since say August or September.
It is not part of the main content. It could be a date, the
investigators believe. They are surmising, I am not. The Park Police
and FBI investigator still are not sure the note is real. Who tears a
note into 28 pieces and then throws it in his briefcase for
safekeeping, and these investigators say they looked in the briefcase,
there was nothing there, and it turns up in the briefcase 3 days later?
This is what Judge Bork means about these people are pulling off a
virtuoso performance of a coverup.
Now, this story goes on with more tough stuff right to the end. What
I would like to see is investigators like Mike McKlary of the Daily
News and Chris Ruddy of the New York Post working together and sharing
the same reports and the same evidence.
Here is a letter. Let me see if I was given permission to read this.
Why not? Police Association of the District of Columbia.
Dear Congressman Dornan.--This comes from Pennsylvania Avenue,
Washington, D.C., and the building in the New York area is building 272
at Floyd Bennett Field.
I am the chief delegate for the Police Association of D.C,.
representing the interests of the Members of the United States Park
Police as well as other Federal law enforcement agencies. This
correspondence is in reference to the Vince Foster death investigation
by the United States Park Police.
Mr. Congressman, I would like to begin by voicing our appreciation
for the kind words that you spoke on the Rush Limbaugh show on behalf
of the Park Police. Because of your close ties to Mr. Limbaugh and your
interest in the case, I thought I should clear up some misinformation
and express our membership's collective displeasure on the media
coverage of our investigation.
You must take into consideration that the investigation remains open
and is being actively pursued by Mr. Robert Fiske and a Federal grand
jury. Therefore my comments must remain limited and guarded. However,
as a union official, I cannot stand by and let our membership and the
U.S. Park Police become smeared with the graffiti passing as
investigative journalism in both print and the electronic media.
Essentially, we contend the following.
Now, most of America is hearing this for the first time through this
Member in this great distinguished Chamber on St. Patrick's Day.
The U.S. Park Police were not assigned the case by White House
officials, who could easily influence our determinations of cause and
fact. This was a Park Police investigation simply because it occurred
on National Park Service property.
I knew that. I knew that when it happened.
Simply because under the it came under the full jurisdiction of the
U.S. Park Police. The chief of the department notified the FBI on the
following day as soon as he became aware of the potential political
implications. Vince Foster had left his coat in his car in the small
Fort Marcy parking lot with his wallet, and when they saw his White
House ID in there and the car had Arkansas plates, it didn't take a
rocket scientist to say aha, we have a FOB, possibly a high ranking
person in the White House. Call the FBI. And they did.
From that time on at least one FBI and a Justice Department or a
Justice Department or FBI was present with our investigators throughout
the entire critical follow-up investigation starting on that second
day.
To my knowledge, there was not one instance that either supporting
agency, FBI or Justice, did not fully agree with the direction of the
investigation as conducted by the U.S. Park Police investigators.
To infer that the Park Police could be politically influenced is
ludicrous. I ask that you question any Member of Congress serving
during the period of the Wilbur Mills Tidal Basin affair--in the early
seventies before I got here or you got here, Mr. Speaker--if the Park
Police can be influenced. I am certain you will recall that Wilbur
Mills, powerful chairman of the Ways and Means Committee, that is the
seat that Mr. Rostenkowski has now, he was placed under arrest by a
U.S. Park Police officer and subsequently lost his entire career over
the incident.
{time} 2300
I think he might have survived one election. I do not know. Strange
voting patterns in Chicago.
``Absolutely every action and test that should have been performed
forensically at the crime scene was professionally completed. Full
crime scene photographs were taken.''
I told that to Rush. I believed it, when I was told by a sergeant.
``All of the potential physical evidence was identified, collected
and either processed or held for future processing. As I'm sure you are
aware,'' and this was a stupid contretemps on the Limbaugh Show the day
before yesterday. Some guy sounding like an expert called up and said,
``And Dornan should have known that you can't pick up lead with a metal
detector.''
Why does he think people illegally come on the battlefields of
Gettysburg, Fredericksburg, Chancellorsville, and Antietam in the dead
of night with metal detectors trying to pick up lead mini balls. And I
am sorry Rush did not take him up on this. But this expert says, ``Of
course, lead is easily detected. One of the heaviest of all metals and
by our state-of-the-art metal detectors. Interesting he used that term.
That is what Captain Fernandez used to me, state-of-the-art, when I
asked her about warehouses of confiscated metal detectors, get one and
look for the bullet.
``And the area in question was fully swept. The autopsy was completed
with our investigators in attendance. I feel that when the results are
finally released,'' I hope it is not 2 years, Mr. Fiske, ``it will be
clear that the conclusions reached by the investigators will be fully
supported by the forensic evidence, the coroner's report and the
follow-up investigation. Regrettably, this investigation remains
confidential pending review by the grand jury and the special
prosecutor.''
Now, this gentleman, I better give his name at this point, this
William G. Stray, S-t-r-a-y, Chief Delegate, New York Field Office of
the Police Association of the District of Columbia. I wonder why they
have a New York field office. Yes. They take care of Grant's Tomb and
other things, I guess, up there.
What he did not know when he wrote me this letter and faxed it to me,
he wrote the letter on March 16, was that on March 14, he should have
known this, the Daily News went with the story. They had been given
this privileged information. And as they described the story, I have to
buy it until someone proves otherwise. And that is that Vince Foster
did sit down, that he was in shirt sleeves, hot July day. And it was on
an incline not close to either cannon exactly, and that he put the
bullet, the gun, this 1913 Colt made up of parts from two different
1913 guns, held it with both hands, one thumb in the trigger grip. And
you can imagine this father of a beautiful wife and three children
entering their teen years, where they need him so badly, a man who
probably never fired a gun, was shaking badly. Put the gun way so far
inside his mouth there were powder burns on the palate, pulled the
trigger with the gun at a down angle, and the bullet went through the
top of his head, the release, killing him instantly. His legs went
straight. And if he was sitting, they could end up side by side. His
hands could drop. Odds are one in 20 that the gun would not have flown
away, but that is all right. One in 20, that is not bad in roulette.
And his hand dropped down. You see the photograph with the thumb barely
in the thumb guard, but that takes care of all the mystery surrounding
where the bullet went all the speculation about the body moved from a
safe apartment or from a luxury apartment in Boston or this or that,
all that could be solved by at this point, after a decent interval for
the family to try, well, they will never overcome this ghastly tragedy,
but to understand that America must know about its public officials
that are in the White House but kill themselves over an about-to-
explode scandal, that we could relieve the country of all this agony,
all this gum beating, if we could just see that official report the way
the New York News saw it. Because not everybody is going to accept the
New York News report.
Now, the representative of the police continues.
``How can the U.S. Park Police respond to the accusations made on the
investigation through the media? Constant misinformation surfaces,
mostly through the published columns and on the radio,'' and I will
leave out people's names here, ``and other publications and media
outlets. These columns contain distortions, incorrect suppositions and
outright falsehood. When published in the New York Post and repeated on
the Rush Limbaugh Show, these comments take on a sense of factual
determination which not only misleads the public but irreparably
sullies the reputation of the U.S. Park Police on a national level.
``Mr. Dornan, how will the U.S. Park Police ever regain the
outstanding reputation that they deserve?''
Does that not sound like Ray Donovan in the Reagan Administration:
``How do I get my reputation back?''
``When the reports are released, will Rush Limbaugh spend day after
day extolling the abilities of the U.S. Park Police investigators''--
yes, Rush is an honest man; he will probably be the only one to do it
right--``as he has been castigating them based on false information?
What page will the New York Post publish the true findings and how big
will the headlines be? When a New York Daily News columnist, Mike
McAlary, reports that the investigation was thorough, complete and
professional'' and that all the people should have been arrested for
obstruction in the White House, he says, why isn't his column given the
same direction?
``Well, Mr. Dornan, I submit that people have clearly demonstrated
they are not dedicated to review the facts''--I am going to try and
correct that--``to disseminate the truth to the public. Mr. McAlary did
an amazing job of uncovering the facts, locating investigators, naming
names and reporting on his investigation,'' and getting privileged
treatment, I might add.
``In closing, we ask that you forward our concerns to Mr. Limbaugh,''
done, ``and ask him to be sensitive to the fact that he is greatly
contributing to the unwarranted defamation,'' I say unknowingly,
``unwarranted defamation of the ability of the oldest police department
in the United States of America.'' 1791.
``If I can be of any further assistance,'' fine. I hope I have set
the record there.
Now, tomorrow, sometime, I guess, we are going into pro forma
session, sometime after 11:30, I would guess. I am going to discuss the
Time article on Hillary, ``Where is the cheering press,'' with Mr.
Clinton. I saw him cheering out in front of here today. Why these
multi-millionaires, Barbara Walters, Peter Jennings, Diane Sawyer,
Koppel, Rather, Chung, Brokaw, why they have not shown true grit on
this whole story. I am going to put in the MTV Show transcript from
1992, the special Steve Croft 13 minute abbreviated Sixty Minute Show.
I am going to put in Ted Koppel's show on Lincoln's birthday,
February 12. We are going to cover a lot of stuff.
Let me close on one line. I am going to answer what is as common,
easy to figure out as anything I have ever seen in my life. I will
close on this provocative answer.
Why did Vincent Foster kill himself? Mr. Speaker, Vince Foster killed
himself because he did not have the courage or the guts to face up to
this fire storm that he saw coming, and that is a tragedy for his
family and also a tragedy for America.
____________________