[Congressional Record Volume 142, Number 112 (Friday, July 26, 1996)]
[House]
[Pages H8589-H8595]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
BOOKS ON BILL CLINTON
The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. Petri). Under the Speaker's announced
policy of May 12, 1995, the gentleman from California [Mr. Dornan] is
recognized for 60 minutes as the designee of the majority leader.
Mr. DORNAN. Mr. Speaker, good afternoon. This is not my bag to go to
the airport. This is a show and tell special order.
It is 10 minutes to 1 in Chicago. It is 10 minutes to noon in Denver.
It is only 10 minutes to 11 in Orange County, in Los Angeles and
Seattle. Still the shank of the morning in Hawaii. And in Guam it is
tomorrow. I have people that write to me from Guam where America's day
begins. I just spoke to a whole bunch of students outside. They said:
Why does the news media still persist in saying that those of us on
both sides of the aisle who do special orders, 5 minutes or 1 hour or 1
minute, why do they persist in saying that we are speaking to an empty
Chamber? I see 10 people, I see 10, 20, 30, 40 in the gallery. A few
more over here. I see some more staffers and chief staffers back there.
There are 1,300,000 people watching.
Is that not right, Mr. Gutknecht, who is going to be elected by a
landslide in his great district. And may I do radio spots for you, as
many as you want. May you put them all on Rush Limbaugh's show. A
million people are listening to me right now.
Let me get serious. This case is what I am taking on the road as head
of a Bob Dole peace task force. I am not going to read the titles until
I get them in chronological order here. This is turning into a cottage
industry of books on Bill Clinton.
And respecting rule XVIII of the House, which I intend to change
after the election, if we are in the majority, and I will explain rule
XVIII. It keeps us from going for one another's throats around here. It
implores us to say, will the distinguished and honorable and wonderful
Member yield. And if you just cannot get that out of your throat, you
at least have to say, will the Member from Massachusetts yield. That is
as mean as we can get.
We get our words taken down if it gets too rough and if we start to
talk about something they are doing in the Chamber that likes to call
itself the upper Chamber, which I sometimes love to call the House of
Lords, but it certainly is coequal with us. Superior in foreign affairs
and ratifying treaties, but we are superior, and it was by design, on
issues like money, taxation, raising taxes. And all spending bills
originate in the House.
So that rule XVIII is to protect the camaraderie, what we call
comity. I do not use that word very much because, no matter how hard
you hit the T, it sounds like you are saying comedy to the average
American. But comity means goodwill and camaraderie and it keeps us
sane with one another in the two Chambers when we have to come together
in conference, which we will be doing for the next 2 or 3 months on the
major 13 major appropriations bills.
We are way ahead of the Senate, as usual, because the money bills
start here. But we cranked into this protective rule XVIII the Vice
President, Al Gore, and whoever is sitting in the White House. I
watched my friend of fifty-eight, combat Navy hero, and a grandfather
of 14 children and a wonderful, trustworthy friend, George Bush. I
watched that President of the United States, as he was sitting
President, trashed in the well regularly from the Democratic lectern.
I watched Ronald Reagan hit sometimes over the edge with words taken
down and withdrawn. But we have a tripartite system of Government here,
checks and balances. As I said on this floor a few days ago, I can just
tear into any one of the Supreme Court Justice. I can shred Hazel
O'Leary's terrible stewardship and horrible squandering of taxpayers'
dollars renting a Madonna luxury jet that Madonna had used to party
around the world to take hundreds of staffers around the world in
expensive hotel suites and all running up credit cards.
I can do anything I want to show that I do not think she or Bruce
Babbitt or anybody should have a Cabinet seat. I thought Janet Reno,
and this would have definitely happened in Great Britain, I thought
Janet Reno, a very nice lady, should have resigned after 20 children
and several pregnant mothers were suffocated to death. Hopefully they
were not burned to death. But as far as I know, they were all
suffocated to death, little faces could not have a gas mask, in the
Waco government tragedy.
I would never, ever have had them come out of my mouth, and I
resented it, to call any good law enforcement person who is poorly led
any kind of a thug, let alone use military terms that would harken up
the image of the Gestapo, but that was a disaster and heads rolled.
People were fired, then rehired. A lot of agents quit in disgust. A lot
of those guys tried to join the FBI first, and the FBI did not do much
better at Ruby Ridge. Besides, the DEA mess, my favorite agency of all
law enforcement agencies, firearms, Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms, ATF.
DEA, fantastic since its inception, which was since I have been a
Congressman. The ATF, a lot of those people wanted to join the FBI
first. So when the FBI came in, I had ATF agents call me on the quiet
and they said, we thought the FBI was going to come in and rescue us,
and they made it even worse. By that time we did not want a fire in the
compound or to press religious zealots to the breaking point where a
few men destroy their women and children on their ego.
She should have resigned over that. I still believe that. I still
believe her presence cripples the agencies under her, including the
FBI. I think what is so tragic here is that she was not in command of
the agency at that time. We all know that she had to answer, even
though she did not know it, to Webster Hubbell. He, the man who is?
Jail now, No. 2 at Justice. He created a title for himself. That is in
some of these books I am about to show you.
Pressing rule XVIII to the outer limits.
I will try to put these in order. And the newest one, Unlimited
Access, by an FBI agent, has a bibliography in the back with books I
never even heard of. I hope I did not forget some. My wife is reading
Blood Sport, by James T. Stewart.
So, let us see, what is the first book I read on Bill Clinton? On the
Make. That title alone might push rule XVIII. Before the
Parliamentarian thinks about it, it means seducing the voters with a
smooth line. All politicians like to think about that. It is by a lady
journalist without peer in the great State of Arkansas. A great State,
23 Medal of Honor winners. I campaigned in seven towns last year for
one of our great Congressmen down there, one of our two, soon to be
three, Republicans. And this book, On the Make, by Meredith Oakley, the
Rise of Bill Clinton, is the subtitle, takes you back to one of the
only two Federal races Mr. Clinton has been in, and he lost it.
He tried to take on a combat veteran who flew the gooney bird over
the hump in the China-Burma-India theater, a great Congressman. I
served with him over a decade, J. P. Hammerschmidt, in 1974. He did not
wipe out that World War II great veteran. But it put him on the map.
And 2 years later in 1976--I cannot go to surgery; pardon me, I had my
beeper on--2 years later, he was the Attorney General at 30 years of
age. And 2 years after that, he was the Governor of the great State of
Arkansas, at 32 years of age. And 2 years after that, he was defeated
Governor at 34 years of age.
Then the other books pick up the story. But this takes him from his
first race and before his involvement in the McGovern campaign with
Betsy Wright, chief cook and bottle washer and suppressor of scandals
and hirer of Jack Palladino, who had thousands of dollars of campaign
money, intimidated and shut up people on the campaign trail to grease
the path for Clinton to the White House.
[[Page H8590]]
On the Make by Meredith Oakley.
The next one that came out that I came across was the incomparable
Pulitzer Price-winning Bob Woodward's book, The Agenda. In this book he
talks about Clinton having volcanic eruptions where lava flows out of
the top of his head and that he treated George Stephanopoulos like an
abused spouse. Number 2.
I find out that there are books in between here that I did not know
about.
Then I come across, and in this book it has Mr. Clinton in an
argument with a friend of mine who is a Democratic Senator, Bob Kerrey,
Medal of Honor recipient, chastised me in the hall the other day and
told me to lose 10 pounds. These ex-Navy Seals are tough, Mr. Speaker.
And started pulling on my coat. Bob Kerrey is yelled at by the
President with the ultimate, by Mr. Clinton with the ultimate Anglo-
Saxon obscenity on page 267, I think. And I turned the page, expecting
a Navy Seal to fire back at him. Instead, he keeps his cool and says
that his responsibility is to the voters of Nebraska before anything
else.
Blank you, Clinton yelled. Senator Kerrey always tried to be
respectful of the Commander in Chief, but he also wanted to defend
himself. And he continued shouting back. Clinton pressed on two themes.
He just had to have Kerrey's vote.
announcement by the speaker pro tempore
The SPEAKER pro tempore. The gentleman will suspend.
The Chair thinks the gentleman referred to the rules of the House
several times and knows that it is not in order to refer to the
President's personal character even if one is reading material.
The Chair thinks the gentleman is getting pretty close to, if not
over, the line as far as being personally offensive to the Chief
Executive of the country.
Mr. DORNAN. We have 103 days to change American history, Mr. Speaker.
I will ask the Chair to refer to the Parliamentarians.
These are books out there on the marketplace. I know there are
probably some favorable books out there. I have never heard of them.
{time} 1400
These books are either objective, and that is certainly what the
Woodward book is, or very critical. But it is important to our
country's future, and I am going to press on and have you and the
Parliamentarians listen closely. I will speed it up and go through
titles. I am already past the roughest title, ``On the Make.'' ``The
Agenda'' is the simple title, and I will lay out the titles.
Not selling books; these are books that I own and I have read.
The next one has a positive title that I read. It is called ``First
in his Class.'' But that does not mean he graduated first in his class,
ever. It is by David Maraniss, also the winner of a Pulitzer Prize, a
top Washington Post reporter, one of America's three prominent liberal
papers of record, and there are no conservative national papers, just
our great Washington Times inside the Beltway, which is in the top
eight, but the New York Times, the Washington Post, and the L.A. Times,
arguably in that order; I put the L.A. Times first, they have more
foreign correspondents, and it is an easier to read paper with better
print; it does not come off on your hands like the Post.
But this book was serialized on the front page of the Washington
Post: ``First in his Class,'' by David Maraniss. And I read this and
could not believe some of the stories in there. I will not discuss them
until I think more about pushing the envelope here.
The next book I read was ``Inside the White House.'' Now, this did
not include just Mr. Clinton. This included several Presidents. It is
by the best-selling author of ``The FBI;'' that is on my bookshelves,
and I skip read it, and ``Inside the CIA,'' which I slowly read. Those
are Ronald Kessler's two other books, ``FBI,'' ``Inside the CIA.'' It
says has a subtitle, this is ``Inside the White House: The Hidden Lives
of the Modern Presidents and the Secrets of the Worlds Most Powerful
Institution.'' He interviewed cooks in the White House. I think we
should call them chefs. He interviewed valets, a term that Presidents
do not like to hear, but Roosevelt, President Franklin Roosevelt,
needed a valet. The man was in a wheelchair, was overcoming, as he said
at the lectern just below you, Mr. Speaker:
``I'm sorry I'm late to a State of the Union Message. But you will
recall I have 10 pounds of iron on my legs,'' the only reference he
ever made publicly to his polio wounds that kept him in a wheelchair
all of his life.
So when you talk to the valets, the housekeepers, the cooks and get
the inside story, I cannot quote anything from this book about both the
Clintons in the White House, although I could do it to Hillary, and as
I said, and the Parliamentarians know this, I choose not to attack Mrs.
Hillary on this House floor. Her power all comes from her husband. She
was elected to nothing, and he warned us, he said you will get two for
one if you elect me. She will have power. There must have been deals
cut because after the ``60 Minutes'' show on January 26, 1992,
everybody knew that his entire future career to ever get elected dog
catcher and Govenor again was in the palm of her hand. Whatever she did
on that show or from that moment forward would determine if he would
ever hold elective office again, because he had already broken his
promise he would not run again as Governor.
So I could quote Mrs. Clinton in this book, but I will not, because
if I quoted her in the context of being his wife, I cannot quote
anything on him because it absolutely would go over the line on rule
XVIII.
But the title, and since there are other Presidents in here, ``Inside
The White House,'' from another award-winning author.
Then there was a slight gap, and I got hold of ``Clinton
Confidential'' by a terrific writer, George Carpozi, Jr., bigger than
the prior three, equal in size to Meredith Oakley's ``On the Make.'' I
told him after the fact I did not like his title, ``Clinton
Confidential: The Climb to Power.'' I said ``confidential'' is a
tabloid-type name. I said why did you not just name it, George,
``Clinton: The Climb to Power''? but in here he broke the code on the
trip to Moscow that I, as an U.S. Congressman under a Republican
President, George Bush, talking to FBI and Foreign Service people, no
one had the information that he found in this book on why Clinton went
to Copenhagen, to Stockholm, Sweden, to Helsinki, to Leningrad, to
Moscow, and stayed with the founding member's family of the Communist
Party in Prague, Czechoslovakia. George Carpozi does it. He has written
fantastic books on Senators, and on past Presidents, on the Kennedys. I
think he lives on Long Island. And his may be coming out in pocket
book. That one my wife grabbed for me and finished before I was able to
read it.
Then there is a long gap, and I was not aware of some other books
coming out until I got hold of ``Unlimited Access'' until ``Blood
Sport'' comes out. ``Blood Sport'' is by James B. Stewart. He was
brought into the White House. The subtitle is ``The President and his
Adversaries.'' He was brought into the White House; let me give his
credentials. Author of ``Den of Thieves'' and winner of the Pulitzer
Prize.
Now, if I am pushing the rule here, Mr. Speaker, I have got three out
of six are Pulitzer Prize winners, and Meredith's is the winner of
other awards. All of them have been bestsellers.
James T. Stewart comes into the White House, by Hillary Clinton
staffers, to clear up the Whitewater confusion and to write a good
book, as a Pulitzer Prize winner, establishing their innocence. He
starts doing research, and when he starts getting close to the truth,
the door starts slamming in his face, and finally he did the same thing
that the author of the book on the Green Beret; his name will come to
me, Joe McGuinness; the Green Beret doctor who had murdered his wife
and children and is still in prison for it, he started to write a book
declaring the innocence of that Army doctor. I am not going to use that
Army doctor's name because he is in prison and his family has changed
their name, and they have a life, and it has been a movie, been a TV
movie. Same guy, Gary something, that played Custer, played him very
effectively.
In the middle of researching the book, Joe McGuinness breaks off with
the doctor who already has been found guilty and is in prison, and
writes the definitive book that this guy did it trying to blame it on
imaginary hippies,
[[Page H8591]]
and he is still in jail, and that was so much for hiring Joe
McGuinness, another, I think, Joseph Pulitzer Prize winner to try and
clear you.
I would suggest to guilty people in prison, if you ever want to get
out after 30 or 40 years, do not hire honest reporters like James B.
Stewart and expect them not to find the truth and to write lies and
cover you up.
So James T. Stewart writes the definitive book on Whitewater, called
``Blood Sport,'' and I am going to make, not a confession, but an
admission that I am only that far because my wife took it away from me,
and Whitewater is complex, like the early days of Watergate. It is not
a fast read. It is not exciting stuff. It does not have much to read in
the airport in here, it does not have much of the Thomases or the other
Thomasson or the guy who was running cocaine to everybody in the
structure, cut it off right under Clinton. Everybody below Clinton and
all of his best friends were into some kind of cocaine scam here, and
the guy that was doing it was pardoned by Clinton and put in a halfway
house, and he paid off--I cannot remove this one--or I am allowed to
tariff Roger Clinton--he paid off Roger Clinton's drug debt, and I
underlined that once in the L.A. Times and passed it to my wife to
read, and she said you should have pointed this out to me. Why? She
said, Roger Clinton's cocaine debt. And I said, why? It says this
friend of Clinton that he pardoned paid off his drug debt, and she
says--Lassiter is his name--and she says, well, to whom was that debt
owed? To the FBI? Was he paying off his court trial costs? No, we
taxpayers pay that, or in this case, State case, the good taxpayers and
the families of those 23 Medal of Honor winners in the State of
Arkansas and my friend, Carl Eugene Holmes and his wife, Irene, their
tax dollars. That is the colonel that was deceived and trampled upon
his honor, the Bataan death march survivor and was nominated for the
Congressional Medal of Honor, not enough witnesses, so he gets the most
guy getting it, the Distinguished Service Cross. It was Colonel Holmes
and Irene Holmes who had to pay the tax bill for Roger Clinton's
cocaine trial. So to whom was the debt owed? And my wife said was it
owed to drug dealers?
That is worthy of a big long pause: Sally Dornan says to me, did
David Lassiter pay off Roger Clinton, the President's only brother? He
has no sisters. Well, he has got half brothers around, and he called
them on the phone and then would not even invite him to the White
House. He denies them in this essence: his only brother, and that is a
half brother. And I said, Sally, I am going to check this out.
Guess what? David Lassiter and Patsy Thomasson, who is head of
personnel at the White House or something, or head of the
administration at the White House, testified on the Senate several
times, faulty memory like everybody who has testified here or at the
Senate from the White House, she ran the office while he went to prison
for a few minutes until Clinton pardoned him for cocaine. It appears
David Lassiter paid off the President's half brother's cocaine debts to
organized crime.
If someone has a different take on that, call me here at the capital.
Blood Sport, James B. Stewart, best seller, has not come out in paper
back yet.
And then I get, well, these two books came out the same week:
Unlimited Access by an FBI agent, subtitle: ``A FBI Agent Inside The
Clinton White House,'' Gary Aldrich. I read the reviews on that. A few
days later ``The Choice,'' Bob Woodward; so of these eight books
Woodward has two, Woodward's book, ``The Choice,'' comes out. I send
for them both, and they arrive the same day. I am just starting ``The
Choice.'' Cannot give you a review on that one, but I hear it is very
fair to Bob Dole and not all that subjective on Clinton, that it is
objective on both, and somebody told me if the whole Nation read this
book and disregarded polemical skills, disregarded crying in public--I
have cried in public; so has Bob Dole; but we do not make a habit of it
like somebody else I am looking at.
If they disregarded all of the surface television imagery the way
Democrats used to beg us to look aside from Ronald Reagan's just
commanding demeanor; they did not know about his heart, that it matched
his intellect. His heart and his communication skill were a match. They
synched up; what you saw was what you got, an anti-Communist, ex-
Democrat who believed in smaller government and paying your debts, and
when somebody kills two American sergeants, Goines and Ford, two
Specialist Fifth Class, in the LaBelle disco April 5, 1986. The planes
were in the air to Libya 9 days later.
Ronald Reagan said you cannot hide. There was a man of his word who,
although he had not seen combat because he was the father of three kids
and was over 30 years of age, had turned 30 a month, a year before
Pearl Harbor, turned 31 on February 6 of 1942. So people, Democrats
say, well, Reagan did not serve. No, Reagan was not at Oxford in his
early twenties getting the third request from Uncle Sam: I want you.
Reagan volunteered and did wear the uniform. How many times did I hear
in that well or on television? At least Jeff Greenfield corrected
himself, that Reagan never wore the uniform. He served in the Army Air
Corps and was a National Guard cavalry officer before that. If we had
gone to war in 1934, 1935 or 1936, Ronald Reagan could have been killed
in combat. He was a loyal son of Dixon, Illinois.
Now, ``The Choice,'' to come back to my first thought on this, if
everybody in America read this book, people tell me Bob Dole would win
in a landslide. So there is much material in here on Hillary and
Elizabeth that would confirm the victory for the Doles, and Bob Dole
nor Elizabeth have been running around saying you get two for one.
There are seven of them. Here comes ``Unlimited Access: An FBI agent
inside the Clinton White House.'' Mr. Speaker, if I knew Gary Aldrich,
and I will meet him one of these days, I would say, FBI Agent Aldrich,
did you succumb to your publisher's request to put in a unsubstantiated
wild rumor about a certain U.S. President hiding in automobiles under
blankets when there was nothing to substantiate it or to involve the
newest and maybe the biggest hotel in the core of Washington, DC., the
flagship of the great father and son--father now gone to heaven--
Marriott line of hotels, the J.W. Marriott Hotel, named after the
founder?
{time} 1415
He apparently started putting sandwiches on airplanes out here from a
little restaurant next to National Airport, and turned it into a
worldwide Marriott classy hotel operation. Why involve the J.W.
Marriott in a lot of rumors when it was not substantiated?
Because that mistake, and I will bet he knows it was a mistake, and I
will bet the publishers know it was a mistake, that mistake caused a
lot of liberal journalists who I like and a lot of conservative
journalists who were fair, like George Will, they had to trash the
book, because everybody focused in on the excitement of a U.S.
President evading the Secret Service and slipping out.
I had read that there are people who--the Secret Service has an
expression, hogs in the tunnel. It does not mean anything mean about
people's eating habits, it means Razorbacks, Arkansas Razorbacks in the
tunnel, the tunnel between the White House and the Treasury Department
built in World War II. It means cover them, protect them. Do not let
them get away.
The people who told me this firsthand did not necessarily mean, they
just smiled, that there was anybody near the top, at the very top. They
just said hogs in the tunnel means the tunnel is being used between the
White House and the Treasury Department.
If Mr. Gary Aldrich, an honorable FBI agent, and I will tell you
somebody else who succumbed to this; a friend of mine, Lt. Col. Ollie
North. His publishers told him, your book will boom over the top if you
say that Ronald Reagan knew all about the Contra arms deal with Iran.
Ollie's book came out. It was a best-seller. It was very exciting.
But Nancy Reagan, my friend, knew that her husband did not know the
details of the Contra arms deal. She knew he called the Contras freedom
fighters and he was trying to break the code in Iran, and end the
deadly growth of religious, notice I am not saying Islamic, I have a
lot of Islamic friends, religious fanaticism; it happens in every
faith. It happened in my faith in Spain, at one period.
[[Page H8592]]
He was trying to deal, at the Commander-in-Chief level, with some
very tough problems, including the aforementioned bombing of terrorist
camps outside of Benghazi, Tripoli. But when my pal Ollie succumbed, in
the non-military, he had never done this in uniform, Ronald Reagan
probably knew, he said, about the Contra arms deal, to sell books, it
enraged, properly, Nancy Reagan; all wives are protective. Nancy set
the standard for that kind of loyalty.
And when Ollie went to run for the Senate, at the worst possible
time, about 10 days out, in a hot primary between Ollie North and the
incumbent, Chuck Robb, two Marines duking it out, Nancy Reagan, and she
did not initiate it, she was in a hotel lobby, I remember, or a hotel
ballroom that was empty, being interviewed by somebody for PBS or one
of the networks, and she said, used tough words, I believe she said
``That's a lie.'' Bingo, it just brought Ollie's campaign to a
screeching halt.
All writers must stay on the truth, confirm their facts, like all of
these seven books here. Gary Aldrich may be able to recover in
paperback. This is growing slowly. It is published by a very honorable
house. I have even talked to them about putting down some thoughts with
hard covers, Regnery. This, it is my favorite publishing house in the
world.
The rest of the book, this is my point, is filled with such deadly
information about, talking now from the top down, not covered by rule
XVIII, talking about all the people going to jail and coming up here
with total memory losses, this is a corrupt administration. They are
wrecking the youth of our country on drugs.
When I leave here, I have to call my pal, a great hero, Barry
McCaffrey, two distinguished service crosses, two silver stars, three
purple hearts, and he carries his wounds proudly on his arms, when he
is in a short-sleeved shirt; the point of the spear in Desert Storm,
the ave in the Hail Mary left hook around Kuwait into the center of
Iraq to liberate Kuwait and win a 4-day land war; in other words, the
Commander of the 24th Infantry Division, Mechanized; hero from Vietnam,
a two-star general, Barry McCaffrey, who retired as a four-star SYNC,
Commander-in-Chief of southern command in Panama, and who learned down
there the enormity of the drug war. It is not a war; it will be a war
under him, maybe. But in today's paper, because he is a friend and a
solid American patriot, I have to give him the benefit of the doubt
that it is out of context, he said ``Prior drug use should not stop
anybody from serving in government.''
I know some reporter clipped that one, because you cannot serve in
the FBI, you cannot serve as an officer and NCO in the military if you
have touched cocaine once, as far as I know. You cannot be an LAPD
street cop. I cannot speak for New York, where I was born, but you
cannot touch cocaine and serve in the DEA, the FBI, the CIA, or the
aforementioned Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms, but you can serve in the
White House and be in a drug rehab program.
Now guess who is involved in this drug use and in the rehab program?
Scott Livingstone. And I am hearing today that he lobbied to control
the nuclear weapons systems code briefcase, affectionately called ``the
football,'' or in Hollywood parlance, the red button, which does not
make much sense.
The White House drug scandal is a nightmare. It is all in here. And
how do liberal talk shows hosts dismiss the 95 percent of this book
that is dynamite and valuable, and most of it confirmable? They first
deflect you with the silliness of putting in this rumor about the
President's sneaking out under blankets in cars and Bruce Lindsey at
the wheel, they dismiss it with that, ``unsubstantiated rumor''; a wild
rumor, I guess.
Then they say that all the rest is that Gary Aldrich was an older man
and did not like ex-hippies and baby boomers running around the White
House in jeans using foul language and having the domestic help report
people having sex in some of the showers. And when the person said,
well, it has happened before; no, sir, no, sir, these are both of the
same sex. When all of that was reported in here, they said, he just
does not like hippies, and then Gary Aldrich gives his birthday. Lo and
behold, it turns out he is a baby boomer, and younger than the
Clintons. So it is not a generational thing. His honor was offended
because he served 2 years under the Bushes and 2 years under the
Clintons, and never the twain would meet.
I would recommend, skip over the part about the automobiles and the
midnight sojourns, and read this first. And maybe, because there are
only 103 days left, 100 days in the campaign, and when we wake up
Monday morning, I just found out we have no votes on Monday. So when we
are next voting, Mr. Speaker, we are inside the 99-yard line. The count
is on.
I had Ronald Reagan tell me that is the most important 100 days in
your life, but particularly in your first race. He was endorsing me,
helping me in 1976. I was his congressman. I had helped him try to
overtake another great naval officer, Jerry Ford, because I was a
Californian. Ronald Reagan, as I say, endorsed me.
I drove up to his house once. There he was watering, in a red bathing
suit. He told me he liked red because he was a life guard. I said, gee,
why can't I look good in a bathing suit? He was tan, he was healthy, he
was vigorous, and he was 65 years old, and he was 4 years away from
winning the Presidency.
I said, I have the John Birch Society on my case, and all these
people, parties trying to force Rockefeller on me. He said, Bob,
Rockefeller and I worked together on this committee, me as Governor,
and he was a Governor in New York; two Governors, the biggest States, I
overtook him with the biggest State during that period. He said, we
worked together on this committee to analyze the CIA. He was terrific
on the intelligence issues, and he helped save the honor of the CIA.
I said, what does that do to my core base? I am not a country club
Republican. He said, that is your call, and that is the end of the good
things I can say about my pal Rocky. The next thing I know, the
Republican party says, if you are not enthusiastic about having him,
then we will not send him. He did not come to campaign for me.
My staff did not revolt. They are not extremists, just good solid
fiscal Republicans that were looking at the fiscal mess in New York, so
he never came out for me. But Ronald Reagan was as astute, and I will
bet he still is, on most days, a political analyst and a good loyal
guy.
Maybe he would say, since we are inside the 100-day mark on Monday
and time is of the essence, then read these books backward. If anybody
lays any pretension to being a scholar, read Unlimited Access first, by
Gary Aldrich. Then, The Choice, to get a fair profile of the two
competitors that will be inside the 100-day mark on Monday. Then read
Blood Sport, and realize why I am allowed to stand here on this floor
and say this is a corrupt administration.
Then read why Clinton raped the truth on his road to the White House
in 1992. Then read Inside the White House, and hear it from the hired
help.
announcement by the speaker pro tempore
The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. Petri). The gentleman is out of order
with his comment about the truth.
Mr. DORNAN. Yes, over the line, Mr. Speaker, When I first said it, he
was only the Governor of Arkansas.
Mr. Speaker, I remove my verb ``rape'' and replace it with ``had
trouble with the truth.'' No, let me go back.
Clinton Confidential. Decline to Power, the incredible problem that
the news media had getting candidate to answer direct questions, like
the New York Times on Whitewater, who wrote that story on March 8,
1992; 60 Minutes on January 27; Ted Koppel, on General Holmes and all
the draft problems, on Lincoln's birthday, February 12, 1992; and on
and on and on. It is in Clinton Confidential.
Then read Inside the White House, and here what the hired help has to
say about the foul speech ricocheting off the walls. Then First in his
Class, which takes you back through the whole life. You should now be
into October, and you will get to The Agenda, with Bob Woodward, and
the volcanic eruptions and the wife abuse of George Stephanopolous. By
then you ought to be ready to be a scholar and read On the Make, and go
back to the early days. By then you ought to be ready to write your own
book.
[[Page H8593]]
I talked about the bibliography in the back of ``Unlimited Access.''
Mr. Speaker, guess what I left out? I thought I had it. Somebody swiped
my book. That is not it, that is ``POW,'' the definitive book on the
torturing to death of Americans by people who are now giving, fighting
for the torture masters to get most-favored-nation status.
I left out ``Primary Colors,'' anonymous, by anonymous; no long
anonymous. Random House, Joe Klein. Maybe it is good that that is not
in here, because that is fiction, or Joe Klein will tell you, fiction
based on fact.
I understand that some news organization has told Joe Klein to go on
what we Catholics call a retreat, a spiritual, prayerful, reflective
retreat, and think about his period of direct denying to his friends
that he was not anonymous.
Since he has now made $6 million on ``Primary Colors,'' and I just
remember where it is, my wife has it upstairs and she is reading it.
She is staying busy, getting ready to write her own book on Clinton.
Joe Klein's book, ``Primary Colors.'' It will say anonymous on the
cover, but believe me, it is Joe Klein. He and I had some long talks in
1992 and in the 1988 convention. I withheld my judgment whether a
reporter has a right, for public relations reasons, to advance a back
without laying claim to it when it is fiction.
I guess it is tough when you are writing tough columns in one of
America's three major news magazines, dailies. I cannot find a time to
read them because I am reading three others: National Review, the
Weekly Standard, and Crisis, and First Things. Those are the four I
read, so I am not reading much Time, Newsweek, and U.S. News anymore,
because there are too many good conservative, factual, truthful
magazines out that take a more global, I mean, a more theological and
broader, metaphysical view of the world than the news magazines that
when I was a young man in college, or when I was a child and first
started to read them, at my mother and father's encouragement, and
heroes were on the cover, like Roosevelt, Churchill, and fake heroes
who were despots, like Stalin and, evil personified, like Adolph
Hitler; those magazines, with not as many ads, and thoughtful essays.
But of course Henry Luce was around, the guy name that named that and
Fortune and other things.
{time} 1430
Now, he gives books that are not necessarily just related to the
Clintons. I see he has got this ``Unlimited Access,'' FBI agent Gary
Aldrich. He has Saul Alinsky's book here, ``Rules for Radicals.'' He
has Bill Clinton: ``Comeback Kid.'' That is not here. I always thought
that was a book that was just a puff piece because of that title.
He has John Barron's book that I have read, ``Operation Solo,''
inspiring story of an enormously successful FBI operation involving two
heroic brothers, Jewish brothers who had escaped Stalin's wrath and
went back under harrowing circumstances to operate openly as member of
the U.S. Communist Party. And all this time, seconds away from death
sometimes in the Kremlin itself, pretending to be loyal Communists when
they both dumped out of the Communist Party because of the
antisemitism, murder of millions of farmers and the purges of military
officers by Stalin, the only man in history bloodier than Adolf Hitler
except for possibly Mao. So he has got all sorts of books.
He has got Lee Brown's book, ``National Drug Control Strategy.'' And
of course Lee's office was gutted by Clinton.
He has Califano's book, ``The Triumph and Tragedy of Lyndon
Johnson.'' So he goes way far afield there, but has got ``Clinton
Confidential.'' He has got Hillary's ``It Takes A village.''
He goes way back to one of my school heroes, Alexis de Tocqueville.
Remember that quote.
New chairman in the chair, once a marine, always a marine.
Remember Alexis de Tocqueville's most famous quote: ``As long as
America is good, she will be great. When America has ceased being good,
she will cease being great.''
Then he has DeLoach's book on Hoover. Elizabeth Drew's book is not
here. I have got to get it. She is excellent, a fair liberal, hard to
find. Not sounding so liberal lately. Her book is called ``On The
Edge.'' Clinton always on the razor's edge. Simon & Schuster. It has
been out 2 years. How did I miss that? I am busy, Elizabeth. I am a
double chairman, intelligence, military personnel, conference
committee.
He says, the FBI agent, one of the better books on Clinton--my gosh,
I am running out of time.
Tip O'Neill's book here, ``Man Of The House,'' great book. He has got
``The Ruling Class,'' Regnery, favorite publishing house, 1993. ``The
Dysfunctional President.'' Now there is a title that is pushing rule
XVIII. One of the possible explanations for Bill Clinton's aberrant
behavior, by Paul Flick. I never heard of it.
He has got a book I do not recommend because it is semipornography,
``Passion and Betrayal.'' Gennifer Flowers.
Announcement by the Speaker Pro Tempore
The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. Petri). Remarks in debate may include
criticisms of the President's official actions or policies, they may
not include criticism on a personal level.
The gentleman may proceed.
Mr. DORNAN. Mr. Speaker, I understand.
The title of the book was ``The Dysfunctional President.'' I never
heard of it. That could mean politically dysfunctional. I read the
subtitle. I accept that because it discussed behavior. Gennifer
Flowers.
I had a discussion with the Parliamentarians here whether I could
ever say her name on the floor. I disagree with him so let us try this.
Emery Dalton books, do not read it, it is stupid. It comes under the
heading--I cannot read the subtitle because it involves cocaine. But
Gennifer Flowers wrote a book called ``Passion and Betrayal.'' Tough,
she deserved to be betrayed.
Now, here is one, ``The Sixties: Years of Hope, Days of Rage.'' That
is a book from the 1980's, Bantam, captures the essence of the new
left. That is a fabulous book that I have read. ``The Sixties: Years of
Hope, Days of Rage.'' But it is about 80 percent puffery; 20 percent
lets you know the modus operandi of people who were stoned most of the
time.
The Glazers, husband and wife, Myron and Penina, ``Whistleblowers:
Exposing Corruption In Government and Industry.'' Well, that is
bipartisan. That takes place everywhere.
``Reporting the Counterculture,'' Richard Goldstein. Sounds good.
I know the next one is good, Mr. Speaker, ``The Federalist Papers,''
by Alexander Hamilton. James Madison. We finally passed his 27th
amendment that we cannot give ourselves pay raises while we are sitting
here. I do not think we deserve pay raises for a long time to come,
sitting or even in the next Congress. John Jay, great Justice, ``In
Defense of Elitism.'' That does not sound like a good title. A good
pocketbook on American society from a liberal perspective. ``In Defense
of Elitism.''
Elitism stinks. In the Republican Party it is called country clubism.
In that party it is called limousine liberalism. Pass on it.
Al Gore, ``His Life and Career.'' A puff piece written by a former
FBI agent. It might be good.
Alice had a great career, we are classmates, 1976.
``Hill Rats,'' this was by one of our staffers. Great depiction of
shenanigans at the other end of Pennsylvania Avenue. Fair enough.
``Hill Rats.'' I am not calling it the Hill anymore.
I have got a bumper sticker on the back of my window, my Bronco
sitting out there, I own a Bronco. I have owned three of them 10 years
before double-throat-slashing O.J. Simpson. I got a big sticker, Mr.
Speaker, on the back window. It says ``cutthroat island.'' That is what
I am calling this place until further notice, not the Hill. This is an
island up here, old Jenkins Hill, cutthroat island. That is what we got
going here until further notice. That sticker's great on the back of by
Bronc.
Here is one, ``Hill Rat, Inside the FBI''; I already mentioned that
by Kessler. Kessler wrote the book ``Inside The White House.'' He
mentions, remember this is an FBI agent, so he likes all these FBI
books.
Then ``The Secret World of American Communism.'' I got to start going
fast here. ``The Adult Children of Alcoholic Syndrome.'' Whoa, that
ought to be interesting given some backgrounds we know about.
[[Page H8594]]
``Whistleblowers In The Soviet Union,'' complaints and abuses under
state socialism.
``Doing Time.'' Well, that applies to a lot of people that Mr.
Clinton put on the job. Gordon Libby's book, ``Will.''
I see Bob the actor, what is his name, strapped to the front of
something in a prison where Gordon Liddy was inside reforming prisons.
He is quite a guy. No fear, that is his middle name, the G-man.
Rush Limbaugh, ``See, I Told You So.'' Boy, do they hate it when Rush
keeps bragging about all the things he predicted.
``The Way Things Ought To Be.'' Well, Rush went positive there and
was not quite as painful as, ``See, I Told You So,'' because he was
right on most things.
Here is David Maraniss, ``First In His Class,'' recommended by--see,
if you get ``Unlimited Access'' and buy it first, it is an easy read.
Forget the stuff that is rumor. And then you get this bibliography in
the back. ``Healing For Adult Children of Alcoholics'' by Sara Hines
Martin. That book has been out 7 months, probably good.
Mary Matalin and James Carville, I have got that at home. Mary is my
buddy. Cannot say much about the other Catholic for abortion, but
``All's Fair,'' Simon and Schuster. That was a big hit and they are
great on a show. But to get the Cajun off message, you have to, I
guess, dunk him in ice water or something because he is like a broken
record. He just keeps saying, cocaine, so what? Scandals, so what?
Whitewater, so what? Webster Hubbell, so what? Vince Foster, so what?
So what, so what, so what? Have a shrimp, have a catfish. Mary, keep an
eye on that guy. I guess he is cute.
``Unraveling of America: History of Liberalism in the 1960's.'' This
one I know of, excellent description of new left infiltration of
academia, the media. And they are still all around us here in
Government. I will read that one again, Allen Matusow, M-A-T-U-S-O-W,
``Unraveling of America: History of Liberalism in the 1960's.''
Peggy Noonan, I got that one at home, ``What I Saw at the
Revolution.'' But that only brings you up to 1989. Ollie North and
William Novak, ``Under Fire''; good book. ``On the Make,'' thank you,
agent Gary Aldrich. You have got all my books here, ``On the Make.''
Regnery again, 1994, Tip O'Neill, I already said that is a great
book, ``Man of the House.'' Tom Pauken, ``The Thirty Years War,'' best
book on this page. Tom Pauken, terrific Vietnam vet, decorated,
wounded, President Republican State chairman of Texas State, ``The
Thirty Years War.'' He sent me the book. This is a confession, I have
never read it. Why? Is there a pocket book? Thomas, send it to me, I
hope, Mr. Speaker.
Personal experience of the new left with which agent Aldrich says he
could readily identify. John Podhoretz, fast read, great book, ``A Hell
of a Ride,'' it is called. John Podhoretz, great family, intellectual
family, ``Hell of a Ride,'' Simon and Schuster, 1993. Is it a pocket
book?
Gail Sheehy, oh, I want to stay on her good side. She writes for
Vanity Fair occasionally, and, boy, it is a rough ride. Her book is
called ``Character.'' This is 1990. A good book from a liberal
perspective, useful on Al Gore. I bet she is fair to him because Al
Gore is a man of character. Gail Sheey, ``Character.''
James Stewart, ``Blood Sport.'' I got it covered, Aldrich.
Michael John Sullivan, ``Presidential Passions,'' up through 1990, so
it is probably talking about overall White House years. ``See How They
Run,'' November publishing, that is also 1990. Pane Taylor, P-A-N-E.
Cal Thomas, my buddy. This one is like going to church, ``The Things
That Matter Most,'' HarperCollins, 1994. Great man, great book. Cal
Thomas, ``The Things That Matter Most.''
Gregory Walden, ``On Best Behavior.'' Who does that apply to?
``The Hudson Institute.'' Great institute. Al Haig was last up there
running that, great four-star general, my pal. Good Secretary of State.
Should have hung around a whole term, the whole 8 years of Reagan. A
good book but written mainly for lawyers about ethical lapses in the
Clinton administration. I say administration, it is OK.
``Whitewater,'' the Wall Street Journal, highly recommended. Wait a
minute, better than ``Blood Sport''? Better than Robert James B.
Stewart's ``Blood Sport''? The Wall Street Journal's book
``Whitewater,'' and it has been out 2 years? I will accept the FBI's
analysis. Get ``Whitewater'' and read it before ``Blood Sport,'' but
read ``Blood Sport,'' too.
``The Agenda,'' got it covered, agent Aldrich. ``The Agenda,'' Simon
and Schuster, now 2 years old, a book with its own agenda. It is
inaccurate, uh-oh, and this misses most of the salient characteristics
of this Clinton administration. Well, then read it last, read ``The
Choice'' first. Read Woodward's book ``The Agenda'' last. I just like
those temper tantrums in it, that is all.
Here is the last one, oh, my gosh, agent Aldrich, let us have lunch.
Mr. Speaker, let us, you and I, have lunch with agent Aldrich. Listen
to his last recommendation. George Washington, the most prolific
writing President in American history. They still have handwritten
journals of the Father of our Country, first in war, first in peace,
first in the hearts of his countrymen. Ninety journals have not yet
been updated, ended and published. The most prolific writer. Everybody
thinks Jefferson is the scholar and he is the warrior Statesman. This
is an intellect, George Washington.
Listen to what he says: His book, ``George Washington's Rules of
Civility and Decent Behavior in Company and Conversation,'' Applewood
Books, 1988. I want that book, Mr. Speaker. You know why? George
Washington, when he was 16 years of age, wrote down and published
``Rules of Civility and Behavior for Children'' at 16, 35 points of
behavior.
When I was an aviation cadet, I was asked not so politely, ordered to
memorize the following on words like hell and damn and filthy speech,
not in front of women but in front of combat veterans like yourself in
combat in Vietnam. George Washington wrote to his men at Valley Forge
under a general order; that is where we get the name for these special
orders. There are special orders in the military and general orders.
The general orders come from the general, and General George
Washington, Commander in Chief, rotten record-breaking winter at Valley
Forge, a third of his men dying from the inclement weather and the
snow, half of them without shoes, griping at the weather, looking up to
God for assistance, far enough outside Philadelphia so as not to be
attacked by the British but close enough to keep the pressure on.
And he says to them, general order:
The general, Washington, is sorry to be informed that the foolish and
wicked practice of profane cursing and swearing is growing into
fashion. He hopes the officers will endeavor to check it. And he meant
NCO's, too. He hopes the officer will endeavor to check it and that
both they and the men will reflect that they can have little hope of
the blessing of heaven upon our arms if we insult heaven by our impiety
and folly. Added to this, it is a vice so mean and so low without any
temptation that every man of sense and character detests and despises
it.
They ought to clean up their mouths at the White House, get George
Washington's book and read it.
{time} 1445
Now, Michael McCurry, who is not protected by Rule 18, I assume. He
is Irish. He may be Catholic with that name. That was a disgraceful
performance of his to stand before this Nation and say: When I was a
kid, I used marijuana. A New York Times reporter told me he swore the
next line our of his mouth was going to be, And I snorted coke a little
bit. Thank heavens he did not say that. But he was cavalier about that.
What did I do? I checked his birthday. October 27 of a year that made
him, in the 1970's, 15 to 25. Now, is a 15-year-old kid on September 2,
the fiftieth anniversary of World War II, I was with five people who
were in combat at 12 and 13 and 14 and 15 years of age.
But, yes, when people are slaughtered like a school in Israel, they
were seniors in high school, a bomb was thrown in, we called them
children. Okay. They are adults to have sex and get condoms and be
lectured to about homosexuality when they are 10, 11, and
[[Page H8595]]
12. But I have got a 15-year-old grandchild and, yes, he is a kid
sometimes and other times he is a top A scholar and a student.
But if he is talking about his high school years, what a disgrace.
But what I meant, let me jump to the other end. Does McCurry mean he
smoked pot at 25? I had been out of the Air Force 2 years at 25 and I
was an F-100 element leader at 23 years of age, a supersonic fighter.
And if I had smoked pot, I would have been betraying my officer's oath
and military oath and if I had been an enlisted man I would have been
kicked out of the Air Force. You cannot be an FBI agent like Gary
Aldrich if you are cavalier about drug use. You still cannot touch it
at West Point.
Who does Michael McCurry think he is to say: I smoked pot in the
1970's and here I am now. If you do not inhale, you get to be
President? If you smoke it and you are cavalier, you get to be press
secretary? It is unbelievable.
Why did not he say and it was wrong and I broke the law? Smoking
marijuana is 40 times worse for your lungs in carcinogenic effect than
a cigarette. This is unbelievable. I will do an hour next week on drug
use in the White House, as I did an hour press conference out there
today with my classmate, Bob Walker.
Mr. Speaker, we are in a war for the soul of our country. Read these
books, and vote for Bob Dole.
____________________