[Congressional Record Volume 140, Number 31 (Friday, March 18, 1994)]
[Senate]
[Page S]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Printing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[Congressional Record: March 18, 1994]
From the Congressional Record Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov]
MORE ON THE CLINTON YEARS
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under the Speaker's announced policy of
February 11, 1994, the gentleman from California [Mr. Dornan] is
recognized for 60 minutes as the designee of the Minority Leader.
Mr. DORNAN. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Mr. Speaker, my colleagues who are watching on C-SPAN, and to that C-
SPAN audience that at this time of the day is probably at a peak of 1
million to 1\1/2\ million people, I want to make something very clear
at the outset, that it is not my desire in discussing the Clinton years
to engage in any payback.
I was not one of those who was hurt by Watergate and the collapse of
the Nixon administration. I was not hurt personally, but I was
certainly hurt in my heart. By that time I had been over to Vietnam
eight times, seven as a journalist, the first time as an Air Force
captain ferrying a rescue airplane. I was unable to get myself recalled
to active duty, as vigorously as I tried.
It is not payback time for me. But I am going to put it in some very
simple, rough terms as I did to Mr. Richardson earlier during the 1-
minutes. I believe that Bill Clinton is an illegitimate President, and
I think he is hurting my nine grandchildren and any other grandchildren
that God gives me and my Sally. I think he is ripping the moral fiber
of this country to shreds. On the national security front, I had some
initial feeling of confidence because of the appointments of Jim
Woolsey, a Rhodes scholar who actually went to class at Rhodes and got
his Rhodes Master's Degree from Oxford, which Clinton never did--more
about that in the coming weeks and months--because of the appointment
of a great justice and former prosecutor, Louis Freeh, as head of the
FBI, and because we did not get some disastrous appointment as the
Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff--he appointed John
Shalikashvili--I thought well, maybe things might not be too bad on the
national security side.
But now I see people like Jane Hansen, Derek Shearer, Strobe Talbot,
Sam Brown, Morton Halperin coming into the State Department and it
scares the hell out of me. The White House thumbed its nose at all us
in the Senate and the House, by putting Halperin in the National
Security Council, where he does not have to be confirmed.
I think the best way to prologue my remarks today is to ask for
another resignation. Yesterday I said that Roger Altman should either
retire, resign, or be fired, that Jane Hansen who is over at Treasury
with him should either retire or be fired too, Patsy Thomason over at
the White House--she doesn't have a security clearance anyway, nor does
Dee Dee Myers, after 1 year and almost 3 months--should retire, resign,
or be fired. With St. Patrick's Day yesterday, I felt a little queasy
about calling for the resignation or firing of William Kennedy, III,
the last of the big four. Vince Foster killed himself.
Mrs. Clinton seems to be in trouble, at least speaking from her
platform of moral authority, one of the Rose employees in the
Government, and she is an appointed Government official at the highest
level, without pay and was never elected to anything--ever. Vince
Foster dead. Web Hubbell resigned in disgrace, saying that all of the
60 lawyers at the distinguished Rose institute were vindictive and
ripping him behind his back on the billing problem.
{time} 1200
It is the day between St. Patrick's and St. Joseph's Day, so Bill
Kennedy, I recommend you resign and get out of there with some dignity,
although you will spend a lot of time in court. Bill Kennedy has the
responsibility for security clearances in the whole White House
compound.
Nussbaum, had a more direct ear to the Clintons, even though he was
not a former Rose firm employee like the other four. He knew Mrs.
Clinton from the building across the street, from this Capitol, the
Rayburn Building. They served together on the Watergate House
Impeachment Committee. So he trumped Kennedy and took security
clearances into his, Nussbaum's, office and sat on them. Kennedy was
one of those panicking in the middle of the night of Vincent Foster's
death, trying to open Vincent Foster's safe. He and Thommasson and a
couple of the staffers of Mrs. Clinton were the ones that stripped the
office of all the Madison-Whitewater files, at this point heaven knows
what else.
By the way, you will see all of these people gone.
There is no big pressure on my part. They will all be gone with the
concurrent responsibility of the Clinton administration having to fill
all these slots, go through a confirmation process. The front page of
yesterday's Washington Times say it all. It shows Dave Gergen, Anthony
Lake, Thomas Mac McLarty and George Stephanopoulos, looking not 16, not
15, but 13 years of age. It says, ``Time to clean house. Young top
aids,'' Gergen must have liked that, ``seen as liability for the
President. An anonymous Democrat, a former Democrat Party boss said,
`It is hurting the President and it is hurting our party. Mr. Clinton's
top staffers are both mishandling Whitewater-Madison and damaging the
party.'''
Now, having gotten the William Kennedy, III, matter out of the way,
let me read in its entirety a column by Mona Charen, nationally
syndicated columnist. I have gotten to meet Mona personally several
times. I happen to think she is one of the best columnists in the
country. It is titled, ``When the scandal monster strikes.'' There is a
related cartoon showing little kitty cat, looks like a tom cat, and
Clinton saying, ``I have got my pride,'' and then some cuss words, all
of the asterisks and circles. Arkansas is on his neck. He is
hitchhiking. Next to him is Socks with a cat head, and he is leaving
town. This is from the Dallas Morning News.
The subheadline is from Mona. It says, ``If a Republican had done
that, the press would be echoing with words like `sleaze' and `abuse of
power.''' Listen to the sage words of Mrs. Charen.
``When President Clinton averred that he had never known anyone with
a stronger sense of right and wrong as Mrs. Clinton, it allowed Senator
Al D'Amato, New York Republican, to get off the stinging rejoinder:
`that's the problem.'
``Before anything is proved about what happened or did not happen
with the Clintons' Whitewater deals, one thing is becoming clear. These
people who came to Washington proclaiming the dawn of the new Democrat
are not just old Democrats, taxing, spending, endorsing quotas, weak on
defense,'' God knows I have spent 18 years here with those old Democrat
types and they still dominate this institution, ``but these are
practitioners par excellence of old politics, cash for influence, back
scratching, sweetheart deals and womanizing.
``Upon examination, Mr. Clinton is beginning to resemble not his
hero, Thomas Jefferson, whose memory was heavy-handedly invoked during
Inauguration Week.''
I remember Senator Al Gore walking in Monticello into one of the main
drawing rooms and saying, ``Who are these people,'' pointing at
Washington and Ben Franklin, two most easily-designated busts, Ben
because of the long shoulder-length hair and the glasses. I remember
the Monticello kickoff well that morning. I tried to avoid the rest of
the day.
Charen says, Mr. Clinton is not resembling Jefferson and not George
Washington but George Washington Plunkitt, ``the Tammany Hall pol whose
autobiography contained the memorable defense of `honest' graft.'' That
is a book for our former colleague, Tony Coelho. I always wondered
where the title came from, Honest Graft.
The Plunkitt line was, ``I seen my opportunities and I took 'em.''
``Read,'' Mona says, ``the March 21 edition of National Review. Rick
Brookhiser provides a Whitewater primer that sketches the outlines of
the Clintons' cozy business-government-friendship ties. To the constant
refrain from the White House that there have been no allegations of
wrongdoing by the President there can only be one response: How many
allegations do you want?''
I will repeat that, because I have a desk loaded with them. How many
allegations of wrongdoing, including coverup and criminality, do you
want, my colleagues and fellow Americans?
How about David Hale? He goes to court next week. He has accused
Clinton of leaning on him to approve a $300,000 SBA loan to Susan
McDougal. The SBA program was supposed to assist minority and
disadvantaged businesses. Instead, it found its way to a wealthy friend
of the Governor.
This Susan McDougal has returned to the scene of the crime and is in
Little Rock. She is under indictment in my county in California for
scamming tens of thousands of dollars from one of the Nation's great
Philharmonic conductors, Zubin Mehta. She is my choice for the first
one to crack and become Whitewater's John Dean. At her press conference
in Little Rock, she issued a short statement and said, ``No questions.
I am out of here.''
Her lawyer, I will read his name later, maybe next week, when asked,
``Isn't she going to take the opportunity to clear the Clintons, as her
husband tried to do, sort of, at least regarding Mr. Clinton yesterday
on the Brinkley this week show?''
And the lawyer said, ``No comment.'' And split.
Keep your eye on Susan McDougal. ``How many allegations do you
want,'' Mona says. And I echo it.
``There is the allegation that then-Governor Clinton asked his friend
and business partner James McDougal to help out the family finances by
hiring Hillary Rodham Clinton at $2,000 a month. It is not disputed
that HRC,'' her royal Clinton, Mrs. Clinton, ``received $2,000 a month
retainer to represent McDougal's savings and loan before the Arkansas
Securities Department, the Commissioner of which, one Beverly Bassett-
Schaffer''--learned this morning her brother was a huge contributor to
Governor Clinton--``had been appointed by Bill Clinton.'' She may be
one that cracks, Beverly Bassett-Schaffer.
``Since Madison was taking on water in 1985, Mrs. Clinton conceived a
plan to save it. She petitioned the securities department to permit
Madison Guaranty to sell preferred stock. In a letter addressed to
`Dear Hillary,' Mrs. Bassett-Schaffer, what do you know, approved. The
``what do you know'' is Mona's.
``Friends, if a Republican had done that the press would be screaming
words like `sleaze,' `conflict of interest,' `greed,' `abuse of
power.'''
By the way, for those of you out there that are, as Bill Clinton
would say, ``Feeling pain, feeling paid,'' well, I feel your pain. I
repeat again, I watched the Republican White House turn into shambles
over a stinking third-rate attempt, as I said last night, to steal the
play book of the McGovern campaign. It was the most idiotic political
thing I have ever seen in my life. Do Democrats learn from that?
{time} 1210
Back to Mrs. Charen.
She says, ``This is why the S&L screw-up is costing taxpayers so many
billions of dollars.'' Precisely because of what happened in Little
Rock the Congress was forced to vote billions to the Resolution Trust
Corporation, where Altman is within hours of resigning as its acting
head.
``James Carville,'' of Mary Matalin fame, ``former campaign manager
for the Clinton campaign, quoted Mrs. Clinton as saying, `We were never
about money.''' Well, wrong, Jim. All the columns from liberals that
are starting to see the light here are saying maybe, just maybe,
Clinton himself was not about money, but about power and sex, but Mrs.
Clinton surely was about money.
One of the reasons I am not focusing much at all on Mrs. Clinton in
any of my remarks, nor did I on this House floor in September and
October of 1992, is because I feel her pain. How would you, any woman
in this country, like to live with what Pat Buchanan called a serial
adulterer?
One of my daughters says ``serial'' is too rough a word; use
``pathological,'' use ``repeated,'' use ``constant,'' but I see they
now call rapists, serial rapists, and if somebody does something
compulsively, pathologically, over and over and over and over again,
then they are serial. Somebody tried to hand me, the other day, a list
of 26 women, and I rebuffed it. I don't want to see that. I have six in
my head who have all come public, and that is enough for this
Congressman to make the charge stick.
What makes it all so hypocritical is that this President goes to
grade schools and to junior highs to lecture young people that sex is
not a sport. After hearing that I turned on Jay Leno and he was saying,
``If it were a sport, Bill Clinton would be getting a gold medal.'' No,
not a gold medal.
Back to Mona Charen. She says Mrs. Clinton says, ``We were never
about money,'' the Carville quote. ``So they say,'' Mona writes, ``but
check the books. Even the evidence available now suggests otherwise.
The Clintons spent the 1980's buying and selling and engaging in
transactions whose complexity thwarts understanding, even today, not
the stuff of financial naifs.''
``But even if their claim to have lost money on the deal turns out to
be true,'' and imagine the Clintons feeding themselves to Rush
Limbaugh, when Mrs. Clinton, and I say offensively, surrounded by
military people in uniform, who were within arm's reach of her,
surrounded by military people, while he is surrounding himself again
with military people at Fort Drum, she says, ``Heaven knows, what would
you be saying if we made money? I am glad we lost money.''
Russ Limbaugh is grinning ear-to-ear and saying, ``Imagine people
telling you, bragging they are glad they lost money, and they want one-
seventh of our national economy to devise a socialized medical health
plan.'' Unbelievable.
Back to Charon: ``When Republicans lose money, they are accused of
excessive greed,'' reaching and failing. When Democrats lose money,
it's evidence of their moral superiority. Chew on this, Mona says,
``there is an allegation that, as Governor, Bill Clinton leaned on
David Hale, then running an arm of the Small Business Administration,
to `help Jim and me out.' The Clintons deny this, but it is a fact that
the SBA, tasked with helping minority enterpreneurs, did make a
$300,000 loan to Susan McDougal, former wife of James McDougal and
partner,'' one of four, with the Clintons, ``in Whitewater Development
Corp., and $150,000 of that sum was invested in Whitewater.''
There are the records, it was invested in Whitewater, when within
hours the next day, this is one of five books I have back in the
cloakroom that contain many of the Whitewater documents. It is so big
it reminds me of when President Reagan stood up there at the second
lectern and dropped that 14-pound book of the budget one year? Well,
you should see the size of the books back here, of some records made
available by interested folks doing a lot of digging. Isn't it amazing
how people can get into our bank records these days. Whatever happened
to privacy?
What my colleague, Jim Leach, as a Republican, and his staffers on
the Committee on Banking are finding out, I do not know, but God knows
what Fiske with Federal subpoena power, hundreds of FBI accountants and
agents is going to find out down there at Little Rock, and maybe an S&L
in Illinois. Remember the old adage, you can indict a ham sandwich?
Bill Clinton is as big a ham sandwich as you'll even see.
Mrs. Clinton defended the Lasater case. I may not get to that today,
but if somebody said to me, ``What word smashes you in the face more
than any other word in all the research you have done, what screams out
to be investigated,'' the word is Lasater. Wasn't that a good movie
here recently, Lassiter? Yes, Tom Selleck, my pal, a good, solid
conservative Republican; Lassiter, Lassiter.
Get this line. I have a habit of red underlining important things. It
goes way back to school in the Air Force. Sometimes I will underline a
whole red article and my wife, Sally, said, ``Why don't you just dip it
in ink?''
I underlined a line last year and passed the article to my wife and
she said, ``You underlined something here but you didn't even tell me
about this.'' I said, ``What? I missed it.'' It did not even sink in.
Here is the line: ``Dan Lasater paid off Roger Clinton's $8,000 drug
debt.'' This is while they were both indicted for cocaine. Roger had
already been in jail. He was on his way, he was an unindicted co-
cospirator in a cocaine trial where Lasater, Bill's friend, went to
jail.
Where did we last hear ``unindicted co-conspirator''? I don't know,
could it have been Watergate? Here is Lasater, paying off the current
President's brother's drug debt back then, $8,000.
The point is, my wife says to me: ``To whom did they pay the drug
debt? Was that to the FBI for their investigative hours wasted? Was it
to the DEA, the Drug Enforcement Agency? Was it to court costs?''
``No,'' my wife says, ``I think what they could mean here is to the
drug dealers.'' Anyway, it is a good question.
Wait until the Members see the airplane deals that I discuss next
week, at Mena Airfield in Arkansas, infamous, both for gun running to
bad guys, good guys, and much drug running.
Dan Lasater, remember that name. Guess who handled all of Lasater's
financial affairs while he was in the slammer awaiting his Bill Clinton
pardon for cocaine abuse? A big race track buff, this is the guy that
met Virginia Kelly, Clinton's mother, at the race track, got her a box,
became friends, introduced her to the then young Governor. Guess who
ran all of Lasater's affairs for 2 years while he is in the slammer?
Patsy Thomason, the person rummaging around the office of Vince Foster
while he is undergoing an autopsy. That is why I have called for her
firing or resignation.
Back to Mona, ``If it is true that Vince Foster was working on
Whitewater matters before his death, then the Clintons and he were in
violation of the law that forbids Government employees from working on
personal matters for their bosses. Remember the indictment of Senator
Kay Bailey Hutchison of Texas?
``There is a great bitterness among Democrats that the Clintons are
being subjected to any scrutiny at all. They lament for the Nation, but
their cries ring hollow,'' as Republican cries rang hollow in 1973 and
1974. ``They created this monster, the scandal machine, deploying it
first against Richard Nixon, and then against Ronald Reagan,'' and then
George Bush, and then trying to destroy Robert Bork, and then coming
within a hair of destroying Clarence Thomas, and pardon the inadvertent
pun; Ed Meese; Richard Allen, over a watch as a gift in a safe that he
never even saw, touched, wore, touched it when he put it in the safe
and forgot about a $300 watch, and it destroyed this brilliant man,
Dick Allen, for serving Reagan, although he still continues to serve
his country in the private sector.
There was Richard Allen, Carol Ianonne, Ray Donovan, who said ``where
do I go to get my reputation back?'' Theodore Olsen, Elliott Abrams,
Caspar Weinberger, and dozens more.
``The Democrats created this monster, and now the monster has turned
on its master.''
This is why it is so galling to see my Democrat colleagues take to
the well to speak against congressional hearings. We all know, and I
mean know, that if any Republican President had done anything near what
this one has done, there would be a congressional hearing before you
could say ``obstruction of justice.'' What hypocrites.
Now a word about the Rose law firm.
{time} 1220
Each State in our Union is allowed to have two big, beautiful statues
in this wonderful Capitol Building. I think there are now 98.
Only two States have submitted one statue. I think one of them might
be Hawaii. Their first statue is the great priest of the lepers, Father
Damien, who contracted leprosy himself, and who is going to be
beatified as a saint of the Roman Catholic Church this summer in Rome,
raised to sainthood by Pope John Paul. So that shows you how important
this is.
By the way, downstairs in Statuary Hall there are 9 or 10 ministers
and priests and nuns, including from my own State of California, who
chose Junipero Serra, who has already been raised to blessed and will
probably be a saint before the decade is out. The other one from
California is the great Reverend Thomas King, a Protestant minister in
California who spoke out loudly and righteously against slavery.
Let us go to Arkansas. They have two. The first one down in the Hall
of Statues is James T. Clarke. He died in 1916 as a sitting U.S.
Senator. He was a former Governor of Arkansas, a great lawyer, State
attorney, distinguished-looking gentleman, James P. Clarke.
Now the statue that sits out that door in Statuary Hall between
Jefferson Davis, who is one of the two statues submitted by
Mississippi, which honors his service pre-Civil War as an admiral. One
the left of the statue I am about to mention is Robert Fulton, the
great designer of the steam engine into the steamboat.
In between is a statue that stunned me the other day, it simply says,
and it is a 7-foot 6-inch statute of a towering thin-as-a-rail,
handsome man, looks like Hal Holbrook in the Tom Cruise movie, ``The
Firm,'' and it said only, ``Rose, Arkansas.''
The press has not written about this until this very week, often I
mentioned it on the floor. Listen to this, and you will understand why
those 60 lawyers at the Rose firm are insulted and angered by the
degradation of the name of their firm by all of the shenanigans by the
famous four in the White House, first, Hillary Clinton, then the now-
deceased Vincent Foster, Webb Hubbell, and William Kennedy.
Uriah M. Rose, 1834 to 1913, so he lived to be 79 years of age, was a
lawyer of international reputation. He founded the first law firm west
of the Mississippi in Little Rock. He was also chancellor of the State,
charter member of the American Bar Association, and its president in
1901. Author of the Arkansas Constitution and the Digest of Arkansas
Reports, appointed by Theodore Roosevelt, President in 1907, as one of
the delegates to the Peace Conference of the Hague with the rank of
U.S. Ambassador. Governor, Ambassador, president of the bar,
distinguished lawyer. And you wonder why the 60 current lawyers of that
firm are furious? And when Web Hubbell called them vindictive down
there in Little Rock, the lawyers of his former firm, I knew the man
was doomed, because the billing story was certainly going to grow to be
the undoing of Web Hubbell. Overbilling clients is poison for a law
firm.
I think it is important that people should not generalize about Park
Police, not generalize about the Rose law firm, and on my side of the
aisle not generalize about all Democrats, not generalize about the
Congress and understand so try and understand, try and be openminded
and listen when I say Clinton is an illegitimate President.
Now let me make this theme: If the troopers in Arkansas, 10 of them,
5 of them, the 4 that signed an affidavit and went on tape with the
L.A. Times, or even only the two that had the guts to see through the
media flashback firestorm, had gone public in February 1992 during the
primary process, Bill Clinton would not now be the President of the
United States.
If Jennifer Flowers had not frosted her hair and spiked it, had not
sold the story to a tabloid, the Star, and had a big press conference
in New York, the press could not have been able to ignore her story. If
she had released all 109 minutes of her recorded conversations with
Clinton in the fall of 1991 instead of just releasing 8 minutes Clinton
would not be president. By the way, those tapes were authenticated by
none other than Clinton himself in his call to Mario Cuomo, sitting
Governor of New York, to apologize for saying that Cuomo acted like a
Mafioso on those recordings. I have heard both the recordings, and as I
said yesterday, I put the transcript in the Record September 23, 1992.
At the time I was panicking at the prospect that this flawed person,
flawed in character, was going to be President of the United States.
If Paula Corbin, Now Paula Corbin Jones, had come forward, with her
sexual harassment charges, against Clinton during the primaries,
Clinton would not be President. Jones story is far more compelling and
detailed than Anita Hill's ever was. There are two friends of Jones who
have signed affidavits backing up Jones' claim. Jones says Clinton not
only propositioned her but exposed himself to her as well. You know
what the tragedy is? It is easy to believe it happened.
If Sally Purdue, Ms. Arkansas from my time in the 1950's, 8 years
older than Clinton, had come forward at a press conference in Little
Rock instead of a dumb talk show like Sally Jesse Raphael's, Clinton
would not now be President.
If the Whitewater thing had been taken seriously when it was first
raised, Clinton would not be President. You know, many people forgot
that this issue was first raised by Paul Tsongas during the run-up to
the New Hampshire primary. Recently I was picking up papers around my
house, and throwing them in the fire, stuffing them under the logs. All
of a sudden I see some red underlining which catches my eye. It is an
article saying the Clintons insist there is no impropriety in the 14-
year-old real estate transaction. I say wait a minute, that has to go
in my Whitewater file here. And then I looked at the date, March 9,
1992, the day before Super Tuesday. I raced to see the reporter,
Kathleen Decker.
The article says Clinton and his wife insisted they never made a
penny in the deal in Arkansas. We will know the truth on that when
Fiske is through with all of this. But even if it is true, so what? It
is the intent of their actions that is at issue. Would we release
attempted bank robbers because the vaults were empty?
I read on. What is this referring to? The New York Times story the
day before, on March 8, 1992. I have that New York Times story and
others in the L.A. Times and Washington Post. This Whitewater issue
came up on the radar in March 1992, and the liberal-dominant media
culture killed it? Look. Why did they dump on this, because in the
debate leading up to Super Tuesday I believe it was maybe early in New
York, Clinton turns to Jerry Brown, 8-year former Governor of
California when Brown brings up the Whitewater mess in a very
respectful way, I might add about my friend, Jerry, and Clinton very
cleverly turns to him and says, ``You're not worthy to sit on the same
stage with my wife.'' Bingo. The liberal media caves in. Let's not
touch it either or we will be accused of attacking this woman who is
going to be a liberal heroine who will do great things. She is
eventually appointed to the most important Government Commission of 511
people, not one of them even a doctor or a nurse, and we do not dare
attack her. And she pretty much got a free ride the rest of the
campaign.
Here is how I am going to structure this over the next few months:
First, it's the coverup, stupid takeoff on James Carville's line. What
is Whitewater, the coverup, who is David Hale, Madison S&L, and the
still distinguished Rose law firm, in spite of some alumni, what
happened in Vince Foster's office after this tragic suicide of a tall,
handsome, intelligent, Catholic father of three, beautiful wife, what a
tragedy; a body, just like Chappaquiddick. We have a body.
And then I am going to put in Tom Foley quotes, our distinguished
Speaker, about the October Surprise as well as those Al Gore quotes on
the same subject. They are revealing. And as I told Bill Richardson,
giving my friend from New Mexico a heads-up, I am researching
everything the whip, David Bonior, said, and everything Mr. Richardson
said, and what everybody else said about the October Surprise. When
they try to say this is just Republican politics trying to tear down a
Presidency--I will be ready. I would sit here some days at the
beginning of the day, as you may recall, Mr. Speaker, one or two of us
trying to defend George Bush, and there would be 40, 2 rows of theme
team, to use Mr. Bonior's lines about our group over here, theme team,
40 people lined up to gut George Bush, questioning his integrity,
questioning everything about his Presidency, ripping him and pulling
him down so the little 1-minute spots could be picked up, or bites out
of it, on the evening news.
We all admire Cokie Roberts. She can be tough on all of us. Not many
people know that her husband is Steve Roberts, one of the top political
reporters at U.S. News & World Report.
Listen to this before my friends on the other side of the aisle try
to get in my face. I mentioned the title last night, ``Who is cheering?
Where is the cheering press?'' he says. I repeat, I saw the cheering
crowds outside, young people cheering the institution of the
Presidency.
Here is a big photograph of a very glum-faced Bill Clinton, and
listen to what Cokie Roberts' husband, Steve Roberts, writes: ``George
Bush was recently asked what he missed least about Washington.'' George
Bush, recently asked what he missed least about Washington, ``Dealing
with the press,'' he snapped.
By the way, reporters can have a lot of fun with an adjective and a
verb. They hate to say, ``He said.'' It is so bland. So that is where
he put in a lot of loaded verbs. ``He snapped.''
I have never seen George Bush snap in my life. Maybe he responded
quickly or sadly or mused philosophically, but George Bush said,
``Dealing with the press.'' Whenever he said that to me, it was with a
big sigh. I remember he said to me in the Oval Office in July, ``Bob,
have you ever seen anything like the press now? I have never seen
anything like this in my whole career, in my whole life, not at the
U.N., not as head of the party, during Watergate. I have never seen
anything like this. It is like they take this race personally, and they
are trying to fire me.'' Keep that in mind. That was directly to me.
It says the answer reflects an article of faith among Republicans
that a left-leaning, pro-Democratic press corps cost Bush the 1992
election by leading cheers for Bill Clinton.
Well, I will tell you something, Steve; let Sally and I and you and
Cokie go out to dinner, and I will document for hours why it is an
article of faith for this Republican that a left-leaning, pro-abortion,
dismiss-pot-smoking, dismiss-adultery, press was shilling for Clinton
and covering his you-know-what. It almost made me think they wanted to
scratch out a couple of Moses' Ten Commandments.''
Look at him looking down, the only one of these 23 great lawmakers
that gets a full-face shot, his eyes focused right on your chair, Mr.
Speaker. I know a lot of liberal Democrats want to scratch out one
particular commandment, particularly in regard to Bill Clinton, ``Thou
shalt not commit adultery.'' So I will give you an article of faith.
The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. Filner). If the gentleman would suspend,
the Chair must caution the gentleman against personally offensive
references to the President.
The gentleman may continue.
Mr. DORNAN. That is going to be very difficult. But I will try and
skirt that on this issue of adultery, Mr. President, because I have
got--I mean, Mr. Speaker. I have got a----
The SPEAKER pro tempore. The rules of the House are very clear.
Mr. DORNAN. They what?
The SPEAKER pro tempore. The rules of the House are very clear.
Mr. DORNAN. OK, I will tell you what I am going to do, I am going to
sit down with the Parliamentarians, because when I see a pathology of
lying, serial adultery, draft dodging for three times and lying about
it, what are we going to do? How do we describe it without violating
House rules? I will sit down with you, Bill.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair would simply caution the gentleman
against the application of pejorative labels to the President.
Mr. DORNAN. I did not realize that I had tied him that closely to
Mosaic law. I will try not to be pejorative. It is not going to be
easy. It is not going to be easy. We have an illegitimate President
here. But I will try.
Now, going back to Steve Roberts from U.S. News & World Report, the
cheers have clearly faded. If there ever was a pro-Clinton cast of
press coverage, it has been washed away by Whitewater.
Washington journalists have only two enduring biases against
entrenched power and in favor of a good yarn.
Wrong, Steve Roberts, the press also has entrenched biases in favor
of abortion and sodomy. These are articles of faith for the dominant
media culture. I have a quote that I will read later from a journalist
named Ethan something up in Boston who says anybody who is pro-life
today is an uncivilized person in this modern society.
But I will go with your two enduring biases, against entrenched
power, in other words, circle the U-boats, the wolfpack, tear down
anybody who is in the White House, even if he is one of you own, and in
favor of a good yarn. Both prejudices are now hurting Clinton.
When Whitewater first surfaced during the 1992 campaign, if was
dismissed by the press as too complicated. I want to pause right there,
Mr. Speaker, because Mona Charen, whom I greatly admire, also said it
was complicated.
I want to tell my fellow Americans, all my colleagues, and you, Mr.
Speaker, it is not too complicated. This is not celestial navigation in
the cockpit of an F-100 at night trying to shoot the stars to train
yourself to go to Moscow alone and drop an atom bomb. That is what I
did. That is complicated. This is not rocket science. It is not brain
surgery. It is long; it is long. That is different from logarithms. It
is not complicated. It is intricate, which is different. It is long.
The American people must and will, I predict, take the time to sort
through the players and the facts and try to follow during the secret
period of Fiske and all of these engineered subpoenas blocking all of
this from us, trying to take it at least through the 1994 election, and
as the Wall Street Journal says, and I am hoping they are paranoid,
through the 1996 election.
I heard that Special Prosecutor Fiske subpoenaed George
Stephanopoulos last night. That is No. 11. I cannot believe all of
these subpoenas in the White House and Treasury. The problem is, there
should be congressional subpoenas as well.
Back to Steve Roberts. He continues that when the story was revived
last fall, Team Clinton thought the same thing would happen, that
because it was too complicated, the press would give up. But there is a
difference between to way the press covers a campaign and an
administration. The White House is finding that out.
{time} 1240
``Even what seems small in the political context takes on new size
and meaning when viewed through the magnifying lens of the White
House.'' I predicted that on this floor in September and October 1992.
I said this will all come out if he makes it to the White House.
``Moreover, a campaign ends in a few months, an administration lasts
years 4 years, giving editors more time and incentive to invest
resources in investigative projects. Almost 20 years after Richard
Nixon's resignation, the Washington press corps is still inspired by
Watergate. It was the good war of the journalistic fraternity. A whole
generation now filling the major beats and editor slots in many major
news organizations, who are dreaming of being the next Woodward and
Bernstein, of the day when Dustin Hoffman or Bob Redford or now Tom
Cruise or Denzel Washington or Holly Hunter would play them in the
movies. One of the biggest mistakes the White House made in handling
Whitewater was to set those dreams racing in the press as Clinton
advisor,'' now with his subpoena, ``George Stephanopolus admits the
administration's damage control operation did more damage than
control.'' How is David Gergen earning his huge salary over there?
``Suddenly the story was no longer about boring bank records and
intricate land deals in a small rural State,'' a beautiful State. ``The
old words, like the lyrics from a half-forgotten battle hymn, were
echoing through the newsrooms of the capital: subpoena, shredding
machines, grand jury, burn bags, and, most resonant of all, coverup,
coverup, coverup. The Republicans are doing their part playing on the
guilt feelings of the press corps.'' I have been doing that for 30
years, folks, it is not a change with me. ``They have gotten too cozy
with the Clintons by demanding equal-opportunity cynicism,'' that is
what we are supposed to be demanding, ``and many journalists are
willing if unindicted coconspirators of the Republicans,'' what was
that, Steve? ``We are thrilled to see them setting up their satellite
trucks outside the Federal courthouse where White House aides were
summoned to appear. With Nancy Kerrigan at Disney World and Tonya
Harding in the background fading,'' she was on the headlines last night
again pleading guilty, copping a plea, ``something had to fill the news
vacuum. Is that the way news and history run in America now, filling
vacuums only? Last December Bill Clinton was already starting to sour
on the press, complaining to Rolling Stone magazine that he had not
gotten one damn bit of credit from the knee-jerk liberal press, George
Bush or any ex-President would certainly nod in sympathy.''
Now, here is what I have lined up before me for a chronology next
week. Here is the toady liberal press structuring a personal 60 Minutes
show--it was only 13 minutes long--following the Super Bowl in 1992,
January 26, 1992. I ask permission to put that in the Record.
Following that is the unbelievable, disgusting Nightline show in
February, on Lincoln's Birthday, when at the request of Rick Kaplan of
the ABC, a charter FOB, friend of Bill, who meets with him at the
renaissance group. Koppel is conned by his former 10-year producer Rick
Kaplan into giving Clinton his own Nightline. They actually went into
overtime. And that is when Mandy Grunwald gave them this line: ``All I
have been asked about by the press are women I didn't sleep with and a
draft I didn't dodge.''
Now, I do not know how to handle this and follow House rules. Suffice
to say that there are two untruths in that statement about the draft
and Gennifer Flowers. That line was written by Mandy Grunwald, the
daughter of a 25-year senior editor of Time. She could not keep her
mouth shut. Pride of authorship caused her to claim that line 2 weeks
later on the Style section front page in the Washington Post. I am
going to put that in.
Then I am going to put in from March this column that I found in the
New York Times, and then those of you who want the Congressional Record
can go to the library in a few days. Please do not call me, call your
own Congressman for the Congressional Record of March 18, 1994. And we
will go through some of these things together, like in the Ted Koppel
Nightline show--and I have been meaning to call Ted about this--Clinton
calls himself a 23-year-old young man. Remember how that set me off in
September 1992, on the floor the next day. Young man? When I was 23, I
was married 2 years, had a second child born, a third was on the way,
and I was flying F-100 Super Sabres at George Air Force Base, ready to
go and defend Hungarians, South Koreans, Vietnamese, anybody else who
called. I was not a boy, I was a man.
Later on, Clinton slips and calls himself a boy again, and then after
a quick pause, says, ``a young man.'' Twenty-three? He never went to
class at Rhodes, he is not a Rhodes Scholar. He was a Rhodes
scholarship nominee. He never went to class the second year. All he did
was conduct teach-ins at London University, arranged demonstrations
that he coordinated here with Strobe Talbott. Strobe Talbott's brother-
in-law, Derek Shearer, married Strobe's sister, who was a Rhodes
Scholar over there. He has been nominated for Ambassador to Finland.
That is jammed up in the House now because raping of the truth. I am
not going to comment on that advise and consent role of the U.S.
Senate.
I held these up yesterday, Mr. Speaker. It demands, begs being said
again: Lee Hamilton, one of the most distinguished Members, calls for
hearings on Whitewater, and Rostenkowski calls for Whitewater hearings.
I am going to put in some of the distinguished Speaker's own remarks,
even though he did not believe in the October Surprise and that George
Bush was zipping across the Atlantic on an SR-71.
Do you know what one of my young staffers told me today that I missed
last night? Jimmy Carter was the President during the 1980 election.
How in the name of God did we waste $30 million on Gary Sick's stupid
book charging that George Bush had access? He was not even a public
figure then. He was retired from everything: U.N., China envoy, head of
the party, U.S. Congressman. It was all behind him. He was a private
citizen running for the Presidency in 1980. How would he get access to
a top-secret Strategic Air Command reconnaissance aircraft from Diehl
Air Force Base to spirit him off to Spain and back again? That should
have been dismissed out of hand. But with a heavy heart, Mr. Foley
wanted investigations, even though he did not believe in it.
We dipped into the treasury again for $30 million, just like the
wasted money on the JFK assassination when all we had to do was--that
was multimillions of dollars--all we had to do was, 25 years after the
fact, wait for all of the files to finally be declassified and we all
found case closed. Lee Harvey Oswald, not a right-wing Texas nut, a
left-wing, pro-Castro, pro-Moscow communist boot-licking little
Marxist, blew the head off with a lucky shot, his third shot, of John
F. Kennedy. Look at the millions of taxpayer money we wasted on that.
I am asking my fellow Americans and you, Mr. Speaker, and my
colleagues, read the 11-page story in Time magazine. Try to do an
exegesis of the truth out of this.
Time magazine has been falling all over the First Lady for the last
year and 2 months, and finally they are beginning to see that their
journalistic integrity is on the line. Get this cover story: ``Hard
Times for Ms. Hillary.'' Now you can start to read with some basis of
the trust what the news magazines are seeing now because they feel a
little bit shocked and shameful that he got a free ride on all the
stuff that is going to be difficult to discuss.
Look, I am not going to go into the gory details of all the multiple
womanizing charges and countercharges, though I believe almost every
one of them. But it is tough this way. When a person called me once,
sitting in for Rush Limbaugh, and said, ``This sounds tabloid, you
sound like a tabloid,'' I think my answer was pretty good, ``Madam,
when you discuss Bill Clinton's tabloid life, how can you not help but
sound tabloid?''
The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. Filner). The Chair must remind the
gentleman the House rules prevent offensive remarks toward the
President.
Mr. DORNAN. Aye, aye, aye, right. When you discuss Bill Clinton's
intricate, complicated life, how can you not help sounding like a
tabloid? Is that OK? I guess it is.
I am going to put in also yesterday's Wall Street Journal, St.
Patrick's Day: ``Tyson's Foods, with a Friend in the White House, Gets
Gentle Treatment from Agricultural Agency.'' Handsome picture of John
Tyson, handsome picture of Bill Clinton, handsome picture of our former
colleague, Mike Espy. This thing is now so intricate. How do you handle
this with parliamentary procedure? Here is Bill Clinton talking about
the astroturf in the back of his pickup truck. He is hit on a radio
show about this. He says, ``Well, what it really was was that was where
I carried my luggage.'' But he had said in Louisiana, in front of all
these workers, that it was kind of a Southern thing, a real sort of
Southern deal, ``I had astroturf in the back,'' he said to them, gaping
mouths from his aides standing at his side, ``You don't want to know
what I did.'' How do I handle this, what I am putting into the Record?
{time} 1250
Following up the January fake 13-minute 60 Minutes, and then Ted
Koppel's gift to the campaign crushing the draft-dodging charges, and
then in March, the suppression of all the Whitewater; how does one
handle what happened in June?
A young student on MTV, and this was after his worst month of May, he
is doing a comeback. Even though he has won most of the primaries he is
in a deep funk according to Mark Miller of Newsweek who was inside the
campaign for 14 months, never had to write a word until after the race
was over.
Deep funk in May, making a comeback. Don Imus, Rick Caplan of ABC
advising him, all his friends, the other Thomasons from Hollywood
advising him, makeup experts, hair stylists, $200 haircuts we never
found out about.
June 16, 1992, he goes on MTV. He slips. He thinks he's only talking
to young people. They said, ``O.K.,'' the moderator, ``welcome back to
`Facing the Future' with Bill Clinton. A lot of people haven't had a
chance to ask a question. What's your question for the Governor?''
Young guy stands up, does not even give a prologue:
``If you had to do it all over again, would you inhale?''
Applause, applause.
Governor Clinton: ``Sure, if I could. I tried before.''
``I remember when George Bush, Jr., came to me and said, ``We've got
him, we've got him. We've got the video of this. It's in color. It's
going to be a commercial all October.'' It shows him to be--I have got
to watch the adjectives now--it shows him to be insincere and
disingenuous on the pot smoking when he says he did not inhale:
``Sure, if I could; I tried before.''
That spot never ran in October because all the Bushes were so
hammered that they were gun shy on crime, their best issue, gun shy on
draft dodging, gun shy on any S&L story, gun shy on Whitewater, and
somebody got a free ride into the White House.
As I said in September 1992, it will all come out when he picks up,
in my very words, with the radio activity of the title: ``Leader of the
Free World.'' I should have left out ``free.'' Just leader of the
world. There are no other leaders.
Tom Foley's quote, our distinguished great Speaker, is right here.
First let me say that when I cover these categories of White House
arrogance, of who was playing politics, of hypocrisy, and occasionally
bring a column as this goes along like Mona Charen's today, I think the
American people--well, let me quote Bill Clinton.
``It is important to remember that the most irresponsible people of
all in the eighties were those at the top, not those who were doing the
worst, not the hard-working class, but those who sold out savings and
loans with bad deals.''
That was the day he declared, on my half birthday, October 3, 1991.
That is, let us see, May, June, July, August, September, less than 5
months after the charges of Paula Jones.
Let me tell my colleagues something else. Bill Clinton would not be
the President of the United States if Rick Caplan had not given the
Colonel Holmes letter to Clinton. He gave it to him. It was given to
ABC as an exclusive for the electronic media, an exclusive to the Wall
Street Journal. Wall Street Journal, Jeff Birnbaum, got his nose in the
air. He had gotten into a little jealous tiff that they gave it to a
network, so he started to play down the story. Rick Caplan gave Clinton
the Colonel Holmes letter for 3 days to digest it, for Mandy Grunwald
to write these three lines, for James Carville and Steffie to game plan
it, work it, massage it, and then he went to Ted Koppel, 18 percent New
Hampshire, in free fall, and he gets his own personal Nightline, and
then they go into overtime like he's Winston Churchill, Margaret
Thatcher or Helmut Kohl. It was unbelievable.
October 3, that was his second kickoff. The first day, October 2, he
had a press conference to condition the press. All they talked about
were the multiple adulteries. He said this is going to come out on
everybody. It never came out on Harkin, on Kerrey, on Tsongas, on Jerry
Brown. What did he mean it was going to come out on everybody? Like it
was all made up?
Wait until I read next week the lines of Hillary Clinton on that
special 13-minute ``60 Minutes'' show to Steve Croft's face, one
distortion of the truth after another.
Here is another Clinton line. This was that same kickoff day.
Remember he had a private meeting at the Press Club with the press,
talked about all the adulteries hoping that he could get himself
inoculated and that they would not bring it up the next day. Worked
like a charm. On October 3 he got to talk S&Ls.
Here is another Clinton quote for the day:
``When the ripoff artists looted our S&Ls, President Bush was silent.
In the Clinton administration, when people sell their companies, and
their workers and their country down the river, they will get called on
the carpet,''
The Clinton administration is on the Fiske carpet, and they are on
the Bob Dornan carpet.
Mr. Speaker, I shall return next week.
The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. Filner). Under a previous order of the
House, the gentleman from Illinois [Mr. Michel] is recognized for 5
minutes.
[Mr. MICHEL addressed the House. His remarks will appear hereafter in
the Extensions of Remarks.]
____________________