[Congressional Record Volume 143, Number 69 (Thursday, May 22, 1997)]
[Senate]
[Pages S4943-S4944]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                     CLARIFICATION OF PRESS REPORT

  Mr. INHOFE. Mr. President, I was shocked a little bit this morning to 
read in the Washington Times a story by Ralph Hallow in which he quotes 
a statement that was supposedly attributed to me by Mr. Paul Weyrich. I 
would like to read it.

  Hallow writes that:

       Mr. Weyrich said that at his regular Tuesday meeting for 
     conservative leaders, Senator James Inhofe, Oklahoma 
     Republican,

[[Page S4944]]

     accused Mr. Lott of having ``betrayed the national-security 
     interests of the country.''

  I have to tell you, Mr. President, that I don't think anything like 
this has ever happened to me. Even though I don't have thin skin--I 
have been beat up by the liberal media quite often--this is not the 
case. I never made such a statement.
  I even checked the tape of a TV show that I had with the gentleman, 
Mr. Weyrich recently, and I find nothing but compliments which I made 
about Mr. Lott. I did say on a couple of occasions that I disagreed 
with him on the chemical weapons stand. I disagreed with him on his 
suggestion in terms of potential punishment for Lt. Flynn. However, I 
was very complimentary of him.
  Just a few minutes ago I received a memo from Paul Weyrich which 
clarifies the matter. I want to read into the Record the first half of 
that memo, dated this morning.

       Once again Ralph Hallow has caused a problem. He called me 
     on my private line and asked my views on Lott and Lt. Flynn, 
     which I was happy to give. He asked me about the rest of the 
     movement, and I told him that at the Wednesday lunch we gave 
     Senator Inhofe a message to take back to the Steering 
     Committee which was supported almost unanimously by the 65 or 
     so in attendance. I then quoted Frank Gaffney as saying that 
     twice in a month Senator Lott had betrayed the security 
     interests of the United States. Instead, he attributes this 
     quote to Senator Inhofe, who refrained from criticizing Lott 
     even though he disagrees with him. Believe me, Hallow did not 
     misunderstand what I told him because he even called me back 
     and said he had interviewed Inhofe and he--Inhofe--refused to 
     be critical of Lott.

  Thank you, Mr. President.

                          ____________________