[Congressional Record Volume 144, Number 2 (Wednesday, January 28, 1998)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E34]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]


              LET US BACK AWAY FROM THE BRINK OF HYSTERIA

                                 ______
                                 

                          HON. MAJOR R. OWENS

                              of new york

                    in the house of representatives

                      Wednesday, January 28, 1998

  Mr. OWENS. Mr. Speaker, recent developments concerning the White 
House and the President do indeed require serious attention from 
members of Congress. But, unlike journalists, elected representatives 
are held accountable for their actions and must act responsibly. We 
should all register our strong resentment with respect to the juvenile 
behavior of the press over the last week. Media men and women have 
dared to instruct the Congress in their premature calls for 
impeachment. These same voices were much more cautious when a separate 
government was set up in the basement of the White House to support 
Nicaraguan Contras by soliciting money and illegally selling weapons to 
Iran. Certain analysts and television celebrities were completely 
silent when the banks and other savings and loan bandits stole billions 
of dollars guaranteed by the taxpayers through the Federal Deposit 
Insurance Corporation (FDIC). I am bewildered and outraged by the way 
reporting priorities have been chosen. Special Prosecutor Kenneth 
Starr's strange maneuvers should not be rubber-stamped by the Congress. 
We know our duty. We know how to assess events with a national and 
international perspective. Congress knows how to back away from the 
brink of hysteria and avoid setting dangerous priorities:


                          Dangerous Priorities

Ken Starr's million dollar peep show
Is a topsy turvy world
Trivialities become high crimes
And a woman becomes a girl
Grown commentators babble
Like hysterical babies
But remember the FDIC was raped
By vicious S and L whores
And no special prosecutors
Bothered to keep any scores
The CIA was mum
The DEA was deaf
The FBI was dumb
Bankers sabotaged the system
Board room terrorists
Bombed their depositors
Into bankruptcy
Against all taxpayers
A state of war did reign
But editorial writers
And celebrity anchor men
Never indicated public pain
Ken Starr's million dollar peep show
Media makes a topsy turvy world
Trivialities become high crimes
And a woman becomes a girl
For the bailout virus
No disinfectant was there
Now the S and L flu
Sickens Mexico Asia and everywhere
Against our virgin treasury
We watched high crimes of treason
But purchased puritanical analyst
Misplaced their penetrating reason
More exciting than soap opera
More dangerous than sin
Those who stalked White House couches
Allowed taxpayer rapists to win
Ken Starr's million dollar peep show
Is a topsy turvy world
Trivialities become high crimes
And a woman is a girl.

                          ____________________