[Congressional Record Volume 142, Number 74 (Thursday, May 23, 1996)]
[House]
[Pages H5555-H5560]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                           NO BRIDGE TOO FAR

  Under the Speaker's announced policy of May 12, 1995, the gentleman 
from California [Mr. Dornan] is recognized for 30 minutes as the 
designee of the majority leader.
  Mr. DORNAN. Mr. Speaker, I signed up for 60 minutes, but my colleague 
from the beautiful adjoining Southern California district to the south, 
which has some of the most beautiful surf in the Nation, I am 
landlocked, Mr. Dana Rohrabacher, will follow me. I gladly gave him 30 
minutes of my time. He has some very important things upon which he 
will report to his district, the Nation, the Members of this House, all 
through you, Mr. Speaker.
  Mr. Speaker, I just left Speaker Newt Gingrich's office, and he told 
us earlier that if he got 235 signatures on a letter to Mr. Clinton 
asking him in the name of duty, honor and country, to remove from his 
legal pleadings to get out of giving Paula Corbin Jones, the young lady 
who is claiming sexual harassment, alleging a case of something beyond 
sexual harassment, at the high end of it, that category where it is a 
crime, that he not have to give her her day in court, that he not 
appear in court, because, among many other frivolous reasons, that he 
should be considered an active duty military officer as the Commander-
in-Chief of the Armed Forces of the United States.
  He refers to a not obscure, but not often used, act of this Congress 
in 1940, and it is called the Soldiers and Sailors Relief Act of 1940, 
and that is what he is claiming through his lawyer, Bob Bennett, that 
is a Republican activist and good friend of mine, Bill Bennett's older 
brother, that Bob Bennett, the principal lawyer on what some people in 
the press are calling Clinton's dream team, hoping for the same 
impossible outcome as killer O.J. Simpson got, that they are claiming 
this 1940 act.
  Back to Speaker Gingrich. He said you get 236, of course I will be on 
there, make it unanimous. Well, the gentleman from Arizona, Mr. Bob 
Stump, who is the point man on this, I am flying tight wing on World 
War II veteran Bob Stump, combat veteran, so this Korean peacetime 
fighter pilot is right there with him, and in two days we got all 235 
signatures. I just left Newt Gingrich's office. He is 236. We picked up 
a couple of veterans on the Democrat side of the aisle, and we are off 
and running with 238 signatures.
  I will read the letter, in a moment when it arrives, to the 
President, or the press release. The letter will be finally constructed 
tomorrow, delivered to the White House tomorrow afternoon, on this 
Memorial Day weekend, asking Mr. Clinton and company to take that 
example of a pleading out of his case, to delay until 1997 Paula 
Corbin's day in court, or if he were to win a second term, to delay it 
until the next century, 2001 is when Mr. Clinton would leave office, at 
noon on January 20 if he gets a second term, and then Paula Corbin 
Jones can have her day in court.
  Now, Mr. Speaker, you, who was one of the first signers of the letter 
out of 238, I think you might have been so busy today, you missed the 
inimitable Maureen Dowd, her column in the New York Times, America's 
paper of record. All the news that fits--I mean all the news that is 
fit to print. That was not deliberate. I have said it the other way so 
often that I did not mean to do that. All the news that is fit to 
print.
  Maureen Dowd was going to title her column on Mr. Clinton ``Hiding 
Behind the Soldiers and Sailors Relief Act of 1940,'' and I will 
explain that in some brief detail, what it is and what it is not. It 
involves only civil cases, by the way, not criminal charges. It does 
not cover sexual harassment. But Maureen Dowd told me she was going to 
call her column ``Sergeant Bilk.'' I said well, I would have called it 
``No Bridge Too Far.'' Cross my heart, that is what I said, Mr. 
Speaker, right in that Speaker's lobby. And guess what she calls her 
column? ``No Bridge Too Far.''
  Above her name, which appears because she would be one of their 
senior columnists, above her own name Maureen Dowd appears 
``Liberties.'' It is kind of a top headline. And then a subject-
headline says, I can hear the music, ``He's in the Army now.'' And here 
is her column, dateline ``Washington.'' That is where Maureen Dowd 
covers the whole wild scene inside the Beltway, from right here in the 
arena listening to the screams of the Christians and the roars of the 
lions.
  She says, ``As A society, we haven't preserved our sense of shame.'' 
Billy Graham signed off on that on May 2 in the rotunda.

                              {time}  1630

  We have not preserved our sense of shame. ``But Bill Clinton is doing 
his best'', his best--

       To preserve our sense of shamelessness.
       The President and his Rasputin, Dick Morris, have broken 
     creative new ground in brazenness.
       First they snatch Republican positions counting, not 
     unreasonably, on the forgetfulness of voters and the 
     expediency of Democrats who want their Republican in the 
     White House to win. And now they are both embroiled in 
     kerfuffles on Capitol Hill, where it takes a lot to be called 
     shameless.

  At my age, Mr. Speaker, when I come across a new word, it is a 
thrill. When I was a young college kid I used to read a Bill Buckley 
column and find five words I did not know. I now know that Bill Buckley 
and I are peers because I have not read a column of his in at least 2 
years where I have not known every word in the column, but this one is 
a new one.
  Mr. Rohrabacher, would you do me a favor? As you prepare your 
succinct remarks and trenchant comments for tonight, would you go to 
the big dictionary and look up this word, K-E-R-F-U-F-F-L-E-S, 
kerfuffles. That is what Maureen Dowd says, and I will read this 
sentence again. I love to learn a new word, ``And now they are both 
embroiled.'' the President and his people on the other side of the 
aisle, ``in kerfuffles on Capitol Hill, where it takes a lot to be 
called shameless.''

[[Page H5556]]

  ``In a move that marks a new level of chutzpah in American politics, 
Mr. Clinton's lawyers mentioned in their appeal to the Supreme Court'', 
this is the Supreme Court across the street there on the east side of 
this beautiful Capitol Hill, Mr. Speaker, ``on Paula Corbin Jones's 
sexual harassment suit that the President may be protected by the 
Soldiers' and Sailors' Civil Relief Act of 1940, which was designed to 
give American troops some protection from civil suits while on active 
duty.''
  And if people wonder why that is 1940 instead of 1941 or 1942, 
remember, Mr. Speaker, that in this Chamber, in August of 1941, the 
draft, which had been in existence for a year, was saved by one vote in 
this Chamber. It past a little more comfortably in the Senate. And it 
was because we were taking young men off the farms and out of high 
schools and colleges and putting them in the military. No one could 
foreclose on their home or hit them with a civil suit while they were 
on active duty and pretty soon about to face the Japanese warlord's 
treachery at Pearl Harbor.
  Mr. BONO. Mr. Speaker, will the gentleman yield?
  Mr. DORNAN. I yield to the gentleman from California.
  Mr. BONO. It appears from your dialogue here that you are rather 
emotional about an issue, and I may be going the wrong way, and I 
certainly do not want to go against a colleague, but I though it would 
be a nice gesture on our part to collect funds and buy a flak jacket 
for the President.
  I just want to make sure that that is not offensive to the line of 
dialog that you are using here.
  Mr. DORNAN. Well, you made a credible case earlier to me on the 
floor, not just in humor, that if he pursued this and got a finding of 
the Supreme Court that he truly was on active duty, at our press 
conference, one of the press, Less Consolving, of a local radio 
station, I think he is syndicated, said, ``Does that mean he would have 
to test for HIV?'' Henry Hyde, our distinguished colleague and chairman 
of the Committee on the Judiciary, said maybe he would have to go 
through boot camp. An abbreviated one, to be sure. And imagine him on 
active duty and all the repercussions and fallout from that.
  Mr. BONO. I thank the gentleman.
  Mr. DORNAN. I have just been joined by Mr. Bob Stump. I wish you 
would take that microphone, chairman of the Committee on Veterans' 
Affairs. Bob Stump has brought to me Newt Gingrich's signature. That 
makes it 236. Susan Molinari called in from crib side with her brand 
new baby.
  Mr. STUMP. Yes.
  Mr. DORNAN. I remember the baby's middle name, Ruby. I forget the 
first name. Maybe it is Susan Ruby Paxon. So that makes it 236. So it 
is official.
  Let me just thank you, Mr. Chairman, and if you would tell us briefly 
why you as a World War II veteran find this the bizarrest of stretches, 
or as Maureen Dowd put it, ``No Bridge Too Far'', that Clinton's 
pleadings in the Supreme Court on the Paul Corbin Jones case is 
offensive to you a veteran.
  Mr. STUMP. Mr. Dornan, let me just thank you for all your hard work 
on this, and the reason we got so involved in this, it is so offensive 
to anyone that has ever worn the uniform of the United States services. 
The fact that this man that said one time that he did not like the 
military and now he is trying to hide behind the service of the 
military is incredible.
  So I just want to thank you, and the Speaker signing that letter now 
makes, and I thank we are waiting for one person to call in from the 
airport that we somehow happened to miss, but that is 236.
  Mr. BONO. Mr. Speaker, will the gentleman yield?
  Mr. DORNAN. I yield to the gentleman from California.
  Mr. BONO. I would like to enter into a question and answer process, 
if I may, with you for a second.
  I am baffled. You would assume that the President of the United 
States and what he does would be considered news, especially if you are 
a newspaper. Would that be a correct assumption?
  Mr. DORNAN. Absolutely.
  Mr. BONO. Do your find it interesting that a President who has now 
stated that he is in the military and is using that for a defense and, 
therefore, should not be brought before any justice system while he is 
in the military, is only reported, and I get three papers, but it was 
only reported in the Times.
  I am just curious, and perhaps you have the answer, why would not the 
Post and the Gannett paper give us that story? It is impossible that 
they would be embarrassed to relate such a story, is it not?
  Mr. DORNAN. Well, at our press conference, two reporters began to 
argue, I do not like debates at press conferences, that it was only an 
example. They asked who had read it. Well, Mr. Stump of Arizona had 
read the Bennett part of their pleadings, I had, and it was more than 
an example. It was a hint to the judge that we will put this in formal 
language if you will go this far with this.

  And I think the answer to your question is buried in the fact that in 
a recent poll 91 percent of the elite news media, New York, Hollywood, 
all the major papers, and all the major papers here except the 
Washington Times, 91 percent said they voted for Clinton over George 
Bush. So that is the reason.
  I tell you what, I have here the one paper, the great Washington 
Times, that has driven the story. I see they have a lead editorial that 
says ``Bill Clinton Military Man?''
  So let me finish Maureen Dowd's column, stay right where you are, if 
you have the time. Mr. Rohrabacher looked up the word in this big 
dictionary and kerfuffles is not in the dictionary. So I will ask 
Maureen if she is using a British dictionary. That one is so old, 
though, it still has sodomy in it and does not have homophobia, so 
maybe it has not been updated.
  But here is the rest of Maureen Dowd's column, and then I will read 
the lead editorial in today's Washington Times.
  She says, and I will go back one sentence.

       In a move that marks a new level of chutzpah in American 
     politics, Clinton's lawyers mentioned in their appeal to the 
     Supreme Court on Paul Corbin Jones's sexual harassment suit 
     that the President may be protected by the aforementioned act 
     of 1940, which was designed to give American troops some 
     protection from civil suits while on active duty.

  President Clinton here thus seeks, these are the exact words of Bob 
Bennett,

       President Clinton here thus seeks relief similar to that 
     which he may be entitled as Commander in Chief of the armed 
     forces, and which is routinely available to service members 
     under his command. Not for criminal action.

  Robert Bennett, the President's lawyer, said he had only cited the 
act as an example that might extend to the Commander in Chief, not as 
his main argument. But Mr. Bennett is getting paid too much money to 
make the hideous mistake of reminding the public of one of Mr. 
Clinton's improvidences--his maneuvering on the draft--in defense of 
another--his wandering eye.
  Some veterans groups and Bob Stump, the Arizona Republican who is 
chairman of the House Committee on Veterans' Affairs, and I would add 
for Maureen, since she spoke to me, the chairman of military personnel 
subcommittee, myself, did not care for Mr. Clinton's opportunistic 
enlistment--Hello sailor.
  Mr. Stump is sending the President a letter signed by 170 
Republicans, addendum, 236, the entire conference plus two Democrats, 
asking him to withdraw his ``ignoble suggestion'', that is from our 
letter, from the brief. Quoting from our letter:

       The Founding Fathers wanted to enshrine the principle of 
     civilian control of the military in the Constitution and did 
     so by making the President the civilian Commander-in-Chief of 
     the armed forces.

  And the same for the Secretary of War, now called the Secretary of 
Defense, and the three service secretaries, Navy taking care of the 
Marine Corps. All of them are civilians, and civilians rule in this 
great land. And that is what makes us unique in all of American 
history, Mr. Speaker.
  Maureen continues from our letter ``You are not'' italicized, ``a 
person in military service nor have you ever been.''
  Also in the President's mailbag is a letter from Republican 
Congresswomen: Our troops here of about 8 had a press conference 
yesterday, demanding that Dick Morris, otherwise referred to as 
Rasputin, be fired for doing

[[Page H5557]]

jury duty polling, jury duty polling, for Alex Kelly of Darien, CT, the 
unsavory teenage burglar who fled the country after he was accused of 
raping two young girls. He was a fugitive in Europe for 8 years living 
the posh life of a ski bum while his parents supported him.--Family 
values.
  It is the worst thing an adviser to the President could be doing at 
this time when crime and crimes against women are such a deep concern 
to the American people, wrote Representative Jennifer Dunn on our side 
of the aisle.
  The Republican women are attempting to spruce up Mr. Dole gender-
wise, but they have a good feminist point. Ordinarily, in a case like 
this, the Democratic women would be yelping, but there was only the 
occasional brave mutter. Representative Nita Lowey of New York, ``This 
is beyond the pale.''
  One female Democratic lawmaker explained if this were a Republican 
President and Dick Morris was helping an accused rapist, you know we 
would be screaming. But it is not worth picking a fight. We just want 
to win in '96.
  So Democrats have suppressed their distress as Mr. Morris has helped 
the Clintons shape-shift, when Hillary Clinton told Larry King, ``There 
is no left wing in the Clinton White House,'' and when Mr. Clinton 
embraced the radical Wisconsin plan to abolish welfare.
  Maureen Dowd, that was not a radical plan. Governor Tommy Thompson's 
plan is highly reasonable and it is going to sweep the Nation. That is 
my own, Dornan, aside.
  Maureen finishes, ``Until yesterday, homosexual groups had fumed as 
the President slithered away from same sex marriage.'' What a great 
verb, slithered away. ``But the overly eager White House announcement 
yesterday that Mr. Clinton would sign a law denying Federal recognition 
for same sex'', that is homosexual, ``marriages if they ever reached 
his desk was too much. The Human Rights Campaign'', misnamed, ``the 
largest homosexual rights group, accused the President of caving in to 
the right wing, and disinvited George Stephanopoulos as a dinner 
speaker.''
  And here is Maureen Dowd's closing paragraph, Mr. Speaker. ``So Bill 
Clinton is in the Army. He's against gay marriage. His adviser did work 
for an alleged rapist. He moves from the left wing to the right wing 
because what he really believes in is the West Wing.''
  Mr. Speaker, unless you are one word ahead of me, we found it in the 
dictionary. Our hats are off to Maureen Dowd, who is becoming the next 
Bill Buckley. Kerfuffle is to become disheveled. Disturbance. A fuss. A 
mess. So now I will read that sentence.

                              {time}  1645

  And now both the White House and the Democrats in this Chamber are 
embroiled in kerfuffles, disheveled, disturbances on Capitol Hill, 
where it takes a lot to be called shameless.
  Now to the Washington Times. Bill Clinton, Military Man, lead 
editorial.
  When Bill Clinton famously declared that he loathed the military 
while doing his best to stay out of it, he was obviously not yet 
familiar with some of the fringe benefits that military service 
affords. But the President wants those benefits now, even though he has 
never spent a day in uniform, though perhaps Mr. Clinton thinks that 
his spiffy leather bomber jacket counts, the one with the Velcro where 
he puts on the First Armored Division patch and mixes it in with other 
visits to uniforms. Remember, Mr. Speaker, this is to be the year of 
Clinton posing in uniforms. Posing with Catholic schoolgirls and 
schoolboys in their uniforms but voting for partial birth infanticide. 
Posing with police officers anywhere in the country at the drop of a 
hat but with his own State troopers of Arkansas having condemned him 
for using them to procure. And now he is posing with the military at 
every drop of the hat. Just spoke to the Coast Guard Academy, and it is 
to be the year of Mr. Clinton surrounded by uniforms.
  So the Washington Times continues: The benefit the President is 
groping for is the protection from civil litigation provided to active 
duty military personnel under the Soldiers and Sailors Civil Relief Act 
of 1940.
  I will be putting in at the end of this, Mr. Speaker, Clinton's 
infamous disgraceful letter to Colonel Eugene Holmes, who was head of 
the ROTC at the University of Arkansas in 1969. He has been the head 
for a decade. I spoke to him last night. I will have something about 
his words later. Then I am going to put in Colonel Holmes' letter from 
September 7, 1992, which I put in the Record that day, the only paper 
in America, in America that published those two letters, the 1969 
letter and the 1992 letter in their fulsome horror, could have changed 
the election, the only other paper in America, the only paper that put 
them in was this Washington Times.
  So my staff will get those over to me, which I know they are working 
on. I will put those in at the end of this 30 minutes.
  Perhaps Mr. Clinton thought that this new and audacious gambit would 
go unnoticed. That seems to be what his lawyer Robert Bennett was 
hoping: If you read the 24-page petition through the first time, you 
would miss it. That is what Bennett says, it hit me in the face on the 
first reading, the paragraph pushing the military service claim, Mr. 
Bennett told the Washington Times. But Mr. Clinton cannot always be 
that lucky. The chairman of the House Committee on Veterans' Affairs 
noticed the claim and has expressed his outrage as he just did here on 
the House floor and in a letter to the President. The commander of the 
American Legion is similarly nonplussed. They plan a press conference 
today--we had it; it was terrific--suggesting that the issue is not 
going to be dispelled with the wave of Mr. Bennett's legal hand.
  According to Joseph Cammarata, who together with Gilbert Davis, I 
have spoken to them, represents Paula Jones in her lawsuit: The 
President's claim is not only legally inappropriate, it is 
inappropriate in light of those who served and those who have died in 
our military over the centuries.
  Perhaps if the Soldiers and Sailors Relief Act actually provided a 
shield to Mr. Clinton, it would have been worth it to the White House 
to weather the well-earned scorn now being heaped on the President.

  What I said, Mr. Speaker, is he should give Robert Bennett the Johnny 
Cochran award. Anything that works, no matter how shameless, lying, 
distorted, twisted, or ignominious. But the claim is almost little more 
than a bad joke, suggesting that Mr. Bennett has been driven to 
extraordinary and desperate measures to block the discovery process. 
For starters, as Daniel Ludwig, national commander of the American 
Legion, points out, the Commander in Chief is a civilian. The President 
isn't subject to the Uniform Code of Military Justice. He is not 
eligible for military retirement. His service doesn't fit the legal 
definition of active duty. It is bizarre that anyone would suggest the 
civilian President of the United States is on active duty.
  I would add to that, as I did before, or Mr. William Perry, Secretary 
of Defense.
  Back to the Times: That was certainly the ruling of the Los Angeles 
County superior court in Bailey versus Kennedy and Hills versus Kennedy 
to avoid being sued over damages from a traffic accident. President 
John F. Kennedy asserted that the Soldiers and Sailors Relief Act 
protected him as Commander in Chief. It wasn't such a moral stretch for 
Mr. Kennedy who, after all, had worn a Navy uniform in combat and had 
been wounded when his boat was cut in two by a Japanese destroyer. But 
it was such a legal stretch that the judge in LA denied John F. 
Kennedy's motion without even writing an opinion.
  I just learned something reading that in the Washington Times. I 
didn't know John F. Kennedy had an automobile accident out there.
  The President should also have consulted the Supreme Court's 
interpretation of the Soldiers and Sailors Relief Act in the 1943 case 
of Boone versus Lightner. The defendant had speculated in the market 
unwisely and had done so with money improperly taken from his own 
daughter's trust fund. When sued by the daughter, the defendant relied 
on the SSRA and the fact that he was a uniformed Army captain in 
wartime. The high court ruled the captain was not protected from 
litigation because he had a desk job and was himself a lawyer. Thus 
unlike the GI in the foxhole, he would certainly be able to make his 
court appearances.
  The court's language is piquant, saying that charges struck at his 
honor as

[[Page H5558]]

well as his judgment. Does that sound like Paula Corbin Jones? It does 
to this Air Force captain, me.
  The justices concluded that discretion is vested in the courts to see 
that the immunities of the act are not put to such an unworthy use.
  I am going to remember those words. To defend yourself from a charge 
that you exposed yourself and offended a 23-year-old young lady who had 
just been hired by the State of Arkansas, by the CEO of the State of 
Arkansas, the Governor. When Mr. Clinton traveled in his Guard 
airplanes in Arkansas, he would have been called a code 2. The 
President of the United States is code 1 in the Coast Guard, Army, 
Navy, Air Force, Marine airplane, code 2 is Vice President Gore in this 
case, any one of our 50 Governors and any U.S. Senator or Congressman. 
We are all code 2. I was in an Air Force base as the airdrome officer 
when they said a code 4 was coming in. That would be a major general. 
The place turned upside down.
  I had never seen a 2-star in my life. One day when they said a code 1 
was coming in, I froze in fear. It was President Eisenhower. No, a code 
1, excuse me, President, yes, President Eisenhower. A code 2 is pretty 
special. That is what the CEO is of the State of Arkansas, second only 
to the President in military respect.

  So this is an amazing series of legal cases here, such an unworthy 
use in that case, whatever I said it was, Boone versus Lightner.
  The Washington Times concludes: Mr. Clinton seems willing to use any 
ruse, however unworthy of his office it may be, to delay answering 
what, if anything, he was doing or trying to do in an Arkansas hotel 
room, second floor mezzanine, Excelsior Hotel, Little Rock, with Paula 
Jones. This ignoble pleading is a slap in the face of the millions of 
men and women who either are serving on active duty or have served on 
active duty in the armed forces of the United States, Mr. Stump and Mr. 
Dornan wrote in the letter to their congressional colleagues.
  He concludes that the President's most recent legal maneuver makes a 
mockery of the laws meant to protect the honorable men and women who 
serve their country. True. Just stop the legal goofiness, Mr. 
President, the Times concludes. Raise your right hand and get on with 
it.
  I would add, giving the young woman her day in court.
  Here is my press release today, Mr. Speaker. Washington, D.C.: It is 
disgraceful that while the rest of the Nation is honoring our fallen 
heroes of military service this long Memorial Day weekend, Bill Clinton 
is seeking shelter behind a military he once claimed to loathe, in an 
attempt to delay the sexual harassment suit filed by Paula Corbin 
Jones. On May 15, 1996, attorneys for Mr. Clinton filed an appeal with 
the U.S. Supreme Court seeking to delay the sexual harassment lawsuit 
filed by Paula Jones, former Arkansas State employee, under the 
supervision, all the way up to the top of the Arkansas pyramid, of then 
Governor Bill Clinton.
  Lawyers for Clinton try to use the Soldiers and Sailors Civil Relief 
Act of 1940, passed because we were, I repeat, we were drafting young 
men. I repeat some of the things that Mr. Stump and I said in the 
letter we circulated on the floor. Repeat again the purposes of the 
act. And this should be in this formal Record today, it is persons in 
the military service who are devoting their entire energy to the 
defense needs of the Nation, not traveling around on his two Air Force 
747's campaigning and reimbursing only a first class ticket.
  I will put the rest of my press release in with my closing line that 
he mocks his job as civilian Commander in Chief and the honorable men 
and women who have given their lives to the protection of this great 
Nation. Tomorrow I go up to Annapolis for the graduation. I spent last 
Friday at West Point. Believe me, we are turning out honorable men and 
women.
  Mr. Speaker, I include for the Record the following material:

             Text of Bill Clinton's Letter to ROTC Colonel

       The text of the letter Bill Clinton wrote to Col. Eugene 
     Holmes, director of the ROTC program at the University of 
     Arkansas, on Dec. 3, 1969:
       I am sorry to be so long in writing. I know I promised to 
     let you hear from me at least once a month and from now on I 
     will, but I have had to have some time to think about this 
     first letter. Almost daily since my return from England I 
     have thought about writing, about what I want and ought to 
     say.
       First, I want to thank you, not just for saving me from the 
     draft, but for being so kind and decent to me last summer 
     when I was as low as I have ever been. One thing which made 
     the bond we struck in good faith somewhat palatable to me was 
     my high regard for you personally. In retrospect it seems 
     that the admiration might not have been mutual had you known 
     a little more about me, about my political beliefs and 
     activities. At least you might have thought me more fit for 
     the draft than ROTC.
       Let me try to explain. As you know, I worked for two years 
     in a very minor position on the Senate Foreign Relations 
     Committee. I did it for the experience and the salary but 
     also for the opportunity, however small, of working every day 
     against a war I opposed and despised with a depth of feeling 
     I had reserved soley for racism in America. Before Vietnam, I 
     did not take the matter lightly, but studied it carefully and 
     there was a time when not many people had more information 
     about Vietnam at hand than I did.
       I have written and spoken and marched against the war. One 
     of the national organizers of the Vietnam Moratorium is a 
     close friend of mine. After I left Arkansas last summer, I 
     went to Washington to work in the national headquarters of 
     the Moratorium, then to England to organize the Americans 
     here for demonstrations Oct. 15 and Nov. 16.
       Interlocked with the war is the draft issue which I had not 
     begun to consider separately until early 1968. For a law 
     seminar at Georgetown I wrote a paper on the legal arguments 
     for and against allowing the Selective Service System, the 
     classification of selective conscientious objection for those 
     opposed to participation in a particular war, not simply 
     participation in war in any form.
       From my work I came to believe that the draft system itself 
     was illegitimate. No government really rooted in limited 
     parliamentary democracy should have the power to make its 
     citizens fight and kill and die in a war they may oppose, a 
     war which even possibly may be wrong, a war which in any case 
     does not involve immediately the peace and freedom of the 
     nation.
       The draft was justified in World War II because the life of 
     the people collectively was at stake. Individuals had to 
     fight if the nation was to survive, for the lives of their 
     countrymen and their way of life. Vietnam is no such case. 
     Nor was Korea an example where, in my opinion, certain 
     military action was justified, but the draft was not for 
     reasons stated above.
       Because of my opposition to the draft and the war I am in 
     great sympathy with those who are not willing to fight, kill 
     and maybe die for their country (i.e. the particular policy 
     of a particular government) right or wrong. Two of my friends 
     at Oxford are conscientious objectors. I wrote a letter of 
     recommendation for one of them to his Mississippi draft 
     board, a letter which I am more proud of than anything else I 
     wrote at Oxford last year. One of my roommates is a draft 
     resister who is possibly under indictment and may never be 
     able to go home again. He is one of the bravest, best men I 
     know. His country needs men like him more than they know. 
     That he is considered a criminal is an obscenity.
       The decision not to be a resister and the related 
     subsequent decisions were the most difficult of my life. I 
     decided to accept the draft in spite of my beliefs for one 
     reason to maintain my political viability within the system. 
     For years I have worked to prepare myself for a political 
     life characterized by both practical political ability and 
     concern for rapid social progress. It is a life I still feel 
     compelled to try to lead. I do not think our system of 
     government is by definition corrupt, however dangerous and 
     inadequate it has been in recent years. (The society may be 
     corrupt, but that is not the same thing, and if that is true, 
     we are all finished anyway.)
       When the draft came, despite political convictions, I was 
     having a hard time facing the prospect of fighting a war I 
     had been fighting against, and that is why I contacted you. 
     ROTC was the one way left in which I could possibly, but not 
     positively, avoid both Vietnam and resistence. Going on with 
     my education, even coming back to England, played no part in 
     my decision to join ROTC. I am back here and would have been 
     at Arkansas Law School because there is nothing else I can 
     do. In fact, I would like to have been able to take a year 
     out, perhaps to teach in a small college or work in some 
     community action project and in the process to decide whether 
     to attend law school or graduate school and how to begin 
     putting what I have learned to use.
       But the particulars of my personal life are not nearly as 
     important to me as the principles involved. After I signed 
     the ROTC letter of intent, I began to wonder whether the 
     compromise I had made with myself was not more objectionable 
     that the draft would have been, because I had no interest in 
     the ROTC program in itself and all I seemed to have done was 
     protect myself from physical harm. Also, I began to think I 
     had deceived you, not by lies--there were none--but by 
     failing to tell you all the things I'm writing now. I doubt 
     that I had the mental coherence to articulate then.
       At that time, after we had made our agreement and you had 
     sent my ID deferment to

[[Page H5559]]

     my draft board, the anguish and loss of my self-regard really 
     set in. I hardly slept for weeks and kept going by eating 
     compulsively and reading until exhaustion brought sleep. 
     Finally on Sept. 12, I stayed up all night writing a letter 
     to the chairman of my draft board, saying basically what is 
     in the preceding paragraph, thanking him for trying to help 
     in a case where he really couldn't, and stating that I 
     couldn't do the ROTC afterall and would he please draft me as 
     soon as possible.
       I never mailed the letter, but I did carry it on me every 
     day until I got on the plane to return to England. I didn't 
     mail the letter because I didn't see, in the end, how my 
     going in the Army and maybe going to Vietnam would achieve 
     anything except a feeling that I had punished myself and 
     gotten what I deserved. So I came back to England to try to 
     make something of this second year of my Rhodes scholarship.
       And that is where I am now, writing to you because you have 
     been good to me and have a right to know what I think and 
     feel. I am writing too in the hope that my telling this one 
     story will help you to understand more clearly how so many 
     fine people have come to find themselves still loving their 
     country but loathing the military to which you and other good 
     men have devoted years, lifetimes of the best service you 
     could give. To many of us, it is no longer clear what is 
     service and what is disservice or if it is clear the 
     conclusion is likely to be illegal.
       Forgive the length of this letter. There was so much to 
     say. There is still a lot to be said, but it can wait. Please 
     say hello to Col. Jones for me.
       Merry Christmas.
     Bill Clinton.
                                                                    ____


                   A Colonel Sets the Record Straight

                 [Sept. 7, 1992, Memorandum for Record]

       Subject: Bill Clinton and the University of Arkansas ROTC 
     Program
       There have been many unanswered questions as to the 
     circumstances surrounding Bill Clinton's involvement with the 
     ROTC department at the University of Arkansas. Prior to this 
     time I have not felt the necessity for discussing the 
     details. The reason I have not done so before is that my poor 
     physical health (a consequence of participation in the Bataan 
     Death March and the subsequent 3 years internment in Japanese 
     POW camps) has precluded me from getting into what I felt was 
     unnecessary involvement. However, present polls show that 
     there is the imminent danger to our country of a draft dodger 
     becoming Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of the United 
     States. While it is true, as Mr. Clinton has stated, that 
     there are many others who avoided serving their country in 
     the Vietnam War, they are not aspiring to be the President of 
     the United States.
       The tremendous implications of the possibility of his 
     becoming Commander-in-Chief of the United States's Armed 
     Forces compels me now to comment on the facts concerning Mr. 
     Clinton's evasion of the draft.
       This account would not have been imperative had Bill 
     Clinton been completely honest with the American public 
     concerning this matter. But as Mr. Clinton replied on a news 
     conference this evening (Sept. 5, 1992) after being asked 
     another particular about his dodging the draft, ``Almost 
     everyone concerned with these incidents are dead. I have no 
     more comments to make.'' Since I may be the only person 
     living who can give a first-hand account of what actually 
     transpired, I am obligated by my love for my country and my 
     sense of duty to divulge what actually happened and make it a 
     matter of record.
       Bill Clinton came to see me in my home in 1969 to discuss 
     his desire to enroll in the ROTC program at the University of 
     Arkansas. We engaged in an extensive, approximately two (2) 
     hour interview. At no time during this long conversation 
     about his desire the program did he inform me of his 
     involvement, participation, and actually organizing protests 
     against the United States involvement in Southeast Asia. He 
     was shrewd enough to realize that had I been aware of his 
     activities, he would not have been accepted into the ROTC 
     program as a potential officer in the United States Army.
       The next day I began to receive phone calls regarding Bill 
     Clinton's draft status. I was informed by the draft board 
     that it was of interest to Senator Fullbright's office that 
     Bill Clinton, a Rhodes Scholar, should be admitted to the 
     ROTC program. I received several such calls. The general 
     message conveyed by the draft board to me was that Senator 
     Fullbright's office was putting pressure on them and that 
     they needed my help. I then made the necessary arrangements 
     to enroll Mr. Clinton into the ROTC program at the University 
     of Arkansas.
       I was not ``saving'' him from serving his country, as he 
     erroneously thanked me for in his letter from England (dated 
     Dec. 3, 1969). I was making it possible for a Rhodes Scholar 
     to serve in the military as an officer.
       In retrospect I see that Mr. Clinton had no intention of 
     following through with his agreement to join the Army ROTC 
     program at University of Arkansas or to attend the University 
     of Arkansas Law School. I had explained to him the necessary 
     of enrolling at the University of Arkansas as a student in 
     order to be eligible to take the ROTC program at the 
     university. He never enrolled at the University of Arkansas, 
     but instead enrolled at Yale University after attending 
     Oxford. I believe that he purposely deceived me, using the 
     possibility of joining the ROTC as a ploy to work with the 
     draft board to delay his induction and get a new draft 
     classification.
       The Dec. 3 letter written to me by Mr. Clinton, and 
     subsequently taken from the files by Lt. Col. Clint Jones, my 
     executive officer, was placed into the ROTC files so that a 
     record would be available in case the applicant should again 
     petition to enter into the ROTC program. The information in 
     that letter alone would have restricted Bill Clinton from 
     ever qualifying to be an officer in the United States 
     military. Even more significant was his lack of veracity in 
     purposely defrauding the military by deceiving me, both in 
     concealing his anti-military activities overseas and his 
     counterfeit intentions for later military service. These 
     actions cause me to question both his patriotism and his 
     integrity.
       When I consider the calibre, the bravery, and the 
     patriotism of the fine young soldiers whose deaths I have 
     witnessed, others whose funerals I have attended . . . . . 
     When I reflected on not only the willingness, but eagerness 
     that so many of them displayed in their earnest desire to 
     defend and serve their country, it is untenable and 
     incomprehensible to me that a man who was not merely 
     unwilling to serve his country, but actually protested 
     against its military, should ever be in the position of 
     Commander-in-Chief of our Armed Forces.
       I write this declaration not only for the living and future 
     generations, but for those who fought and died for our 
     country. If space and time permitted I would include the 
     names of the ones I knew and fought with, and along with them 
     I would mention by brother Bob, who was killed, during World 
     War II and is buried in Cambridge, England (at the age of 23, 
     about the age Bill Clinton was when he was over in England 
     protesting the war).
       I have agonized over whether or not to submit this 
     statement to the American people. But, I realize that even 
     though I served my country by being in the military for over 
     32 years, and having gone through the ordeal of months of 
     combat under the worst conditions followed by years of 
     imprisonment by the Japanese, it is not enough. I'm writing 
     these comments to let everyone know that I love my country 
     more that I do my own personal security and well-being. I 
     will go to my grave loving these United States of American 
     and the liberty for which so many men have fought and died.
       Because of my poor physical condition, this will be my 
     final statement. I will make no further comments to any of 
     the media regarding this issue.
                                                 Eugene J. Holmes,
     Colonel, U.S.A., Ret.
                                                                    ____


                           No Bridge Too Far

                             (Maureen Dowd)

       As a society, we haven't preserved our sense of shame. But 
     Bill Clinton is doing his best to preserve our sense of 
     shamelessness.
       The President and his Rasputin, Dick Morris, have broken 
     creative new ground in brazenness.
       First they snatch Republican positions, counting (not 
     unreasonably) on the forgetfulness of voters and the 
     expediency of Democrats who want their Republican in the 
     White House to win. And now they are both embroiled in 
     kerfuffles on Capitol Hill, where it takes a lot to be called 
     shameless.
       In a move that marks a new level of chutzpah in American 
     politics, Mr. Clinton's lawyers mentioned in their appeal to 
     the Supreme Court on Paula Corbin Jones's sexual harassment 
     suit that the President may be protected by the Soldiers' and 
     Sailors' Civil Relief Act of 1940, which was designed to give 
     American troops some protection from civil suits while on 
     active duty.
       ``President Clinton here thus seeks relief similar to that 
     to which he may be entitled as Commander in Chief of the 
     Armed Forces, and which is routinely available to service 
     members under his command.''
       Robert Bennett, the President's lawyer, said he had only 
     cited the act ``as an example'' that might extend to the 
     Commander in Chief, not as his main argument.
       But Mr. Bennett is getting paid too much to make the 
     hideous mistake of reminding the public of one of Mr. 
     Clinton's improvidences (his maneuvering on the draft) in 
     defense of another (his wandering eye).
       Some veterans' groups and Bob Stump, the Arizona Republican 
     who is chairman of the House Committee on Veterans' Affairs, 
     did not care for Mr. Clinton's opportunistic enlistment. 
     (Hello, sailor).
       Mr. Stump is sending the President a letter, signed by 170 
     Republicans, asking him to withdraw his ``ignoble 
     suggestion'' from the brief: ``The Founding Fathers wanted to 
     enshrine the principle of civilian control of the military in 
     the Constitution and did so by making the President the 
     civilian Commander in Chief of the Armed Services. You are 
     not a person in military service, nor have you ever been.''
       Also in the President's mailbag is a letter from Republican 
     Congresswomen demanding that Dick Morris be fired for doing 
     jury-related polling for Alex Kelly of Darien, Conn., the 
     unsavory teen-age burglar who fled after he was accused of 
     raping two girls. He was a fugitive in Europe for eight 
     years, living the posh life of a ski bum, while his parents 
     supported him. (Family values.)
       ``it is the worst thing an adviser to the President could 
     be doing at a time when crime and crimes against women are 
     such a deep concern to the American people,'' wrote 
     Representative Jennifer Dunn.

[[Page H5560]]

       The Republican women are attempting to spruce up Mr. Dole 
     gender-wise, but they have a good feminist point. Ordinarily, 
     in a case like this, the Democratic women would be yelping, 
     but there was only the occasional brave mutter. ``This is 
     beyond the pale,'' said Representative Nita Lowey of New 
     York.
       One female Democratic lawmaker explained: ``If this were a 
     Republican President and Dick Morris was helping an accused 
     rapist, you know we would be screaming. But it's not worth 
     picking a fight. We just want to win in '96.''
       So Democrats have suppressed their distress as Mr. Morris 
     has helped the Clintons shape-shift--when Hillary Rodham 
     Clinton told Larry King ``There is no left wing of the 
     Clinton White House,'' and when Mr. Clinton embraced the 
     radical Wisconsin plan to abolish welfare.
       Until yesterday, gay groups had fumed as the President 
     slithered away from same-sex marriage. But the overly eager 
     White House announcement yesterday that Mr. Clinton would 
     sign a law denying Federal recognition for same-sex marriages 
     if it ever reached his desk was too much. The Human Rights 
     Campaign, the largest gay-rights group, accused the President 
     of carving in to the right wing, and disinvited George 
     Stephanopoulos as a dinner speaker.
       So Bill Clinton is in the Army. He's against gay marriage. 
     His adviser did work for an alleged rapist. He moves from the 
     left wing to the right wing because what he really believes 
     in is the West Wing.
                                                                    ____


                   Clinton's Latest Discraceful Dodge

       ``It is disgraceful that while the rest of the nation is 
     honoring our fallen heroes of military service this weekend, 
     Bill Clinton is seeking shelter behind the military he once 
     claimed to loath, in an attempt to delay the sexual 
     harassment lawsuit filed by Paula Jones,'' commented 
     Congressman Robert K. Dornan, Chairman of the House National 
     Security Subcommittee on Military Personnel, after the 
     announcement that Bill Clinton will use The Soldier's and 
     Sailors' Civil Relief Act of 1940 as part of his legal 
     defense before the United States Supreme Court.
       On May 15, 1996, attorneys for President Clinton filed an 
     appeal with the U.S. Supreme Court seeking to delay the 
     sexual harassment lawsuit filed by Paula Jones, a former 
     Arkansas state employee under the supervision of then-
     Governor Bill Clinton.
       Lawyers for Clinton contend that the Soldiers' and Sailors' 
     Civil Relief Act of 1940 provides temporary protection from 
     civil suits while the President is in office. This Act 
     requires that civil litigation against members of the armed 
     services be postponed while they are on active duty. 
     According to his plea, ``President Clinton here thus seeks 
     relief similar to that which he may be entitled as Commander 
     in Chief of the Armed Forces.''
       However, the purpose of the Act is to allow the United 
     States to fulfill the requirements of national defense, by 
     enabling ``persons in the military service . . .'' to 
     ``devote their entire energy to the defense needs of the 
     Nation.'' Furthermore, this Act clearly states that only 
     members of the Army, Navy, Marines, Air Force, and Coast 
     Guard, and officers of the Public Health Service when 
     properly detailed, are eligible for such relief. This Act 
     goes further in defining the term ``military service'' to 
     include the period during which one enters ``active service'' 
     and ends when one leaves ``active service.''
       Under the Constitution, Bill Clinton is the civilian 
     Commander in Chief of the Armed Forces. The Founding Fathers 
     wanted to enshrine the principle of civilian control of the 
     military in the Constitution and did so by making the 
     President the civilian Commander in Chief.
       ``Bill Clinton has never been an active duty member of the 
     military. In fact, in 1969, he dodged the draft and ran from 
     his obligations to both his military and his country. And now 
     as the civilian Commander in Chief, he mocks the honorable 
     men and women who have given their lives to the protection of 
     our great nation.''

                          ____________________