[Congressional Record Volume 144, Number 7 (Thursday, February 5, 1998)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E107-E108]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




              MICHAEL KELLY COLUMN ON PRESIDENTIAL SCANDAL

                                 ______
                                 

                        HON. GERALD B.H. SOLOMON

                              of new york

                    in the house of representatives

                       Thursday, February 5, 1998

  Mr. SOLOMON. Mr. Speaker, if any members are keeping a file of 
administration scandals, I would suggest including the February 4 ``I 
Believe'' Op Ed column in the Washington Post by Michael Kelly, senior 
writer for the National Journal.

[[Page E108]]

  It's a paradox that this administration has bought some time by 
giving us so many and such a variety of scandals that we cannot 
possibly keep up with them. Critics take the measure of one scandal, 
only to be distracted or overwhelmed by another, and another, and 
another, seemingly without end.
  Kelly's column serves to remind us that the Lewinski affair is only 
the latest in a series of scandals, and the White House attempt to 
change the subject merely the continuation of a pattern of dissembling.
  Mr. Speaker, I believe our present policy of deferring to the 
independent counsel is the correct one. Should it ever be found that 
such dissembling took the form of obstructing justice, we will be faced 
with a serious decision. If only a fraction of the allegations 
catalogued by Kelly turn out to be true, the House will be obliged to 
act. It will do so with a collective feeling of sorrow, but it must not 
shrink from its responsibilities.
  I include the Kelly column in today's Record.

                               I Believe

       I believe the president. I have always believed him. I 
     believed him when he said he had never been drafted in the 
     Vietnam War and I believed him when he said he had forgotten 
     to mention that he had been drafted in the Vietnam War. I 
     believed him when he said he hadn't had sex with Gennifer 
     Flowers and I believe him now, when he reportedly says he 
     did.
       I believe the president did not rent out the Lincoln 
     Bedroom, did not sell access to himself and the vice 
     president to hundreds of well-heeled special pleaders and did 
     not supervise the largest, most systematic money-laundering 
     operation in campaign finance history, collecting more than 
     $3 million in illegal and improper donations. I believe that 
     Charlie Trie and James Riady were motivated by nothing but 
     patriotism for their adopted country.
       I believed Vice President Gore when he said that he had 
     made dunning calls to political contributors ``on a few 
     occasions'' from his White House office, and I believed him 
     when he said that, actually, ``a few'' meant 46. I believe in 
     no controlling legal authority.
       I believe Bruce Babbitt when he says that the $286,000 
     contributed to the DNC by Indian tribes opposed to granting a 
     casino license to rival tribes had nothing to do with his 
     denial of the license. I believed the secretary when he said 
     that he had not been instructed in this matter by then-White 
     House deputy chief of staff Harold Ickes. I believed him when 
     he said later that he had told lobbyist and friend Paul 
     Eckstein that Ickes had told him to move on the casino 
     decision, but that he had been lying to Eckstein. I agree 
     with the secretary that it is an outrage that anyone would 
     question his integrity.
       I believe in the Clinton Standard of adherence to the 
     nation's campaign finance and bribery laws, enunciated by the 
     president on March 7, 1997: ``I don't believe you can find 
     any evidence of the fact that I had changed government policy 
     solely because of a contribution.'' I note with approval the 
     use of the word ``evidence'' and also the use of the word 
     ``solely.'' I believe that it is proper to change government 
     policy to address the concerns of people who have given the 
     president money, as long as nobody can find evidence of this 
     being the sole reason.
       I believe the president has lived up to his promise to 
     preside over the most ethical administration in American 
     history. I believe that indicted former agriculture secretary 
     Mike Espy did not accept $35,000 in illegal favors from Tyson 
     Foods and other regulated businesses. I believe that indicted 
     former housing secretary Henry Cisneros did not lie to the 
     FBI and tell others to lie cover up $250,000 in blackmail 
     payments to his former mistress. I believe that convicted 
     former associate attorney general Webster Hubbell was not 
     involved in the obstruction of justice when the president's 
     minions arranged for Hubbell to receive $400,000 in 
     sweetheart consulting deals at a time when he was reneging on 
     his promise to cooperate with Kenneth Starr's Whitewater 
     investigation.
       I believe Paula Jones is a cheap tramp who was asking for 
     it. I believe Kathleen Willey is a cheap tramp who was asking 
     for it. I believe Monica Lewinsky is a cheap tramp who was 
     asking for it.
       I believe Lewinsky was fantasizing in her 20 hours of taped 
     conversation in which she reported detailed her sexual 
     relationship with the president and begged Linda Tripp to 
     join her in lying about the relationship. I believe that any 
     gifts, correspondence, telephone calls and the 37 post-
     employment White House visits that may have passed between 
     Lewinsky and the president are evidence only of a platonic 
     relationship; such innocent intimate friendships are quite 
     common between middle-aged married men and young single 
     women, and also between presidents of the United States and 
     White House interns.
       I see nothing suspicious in the report that the president's 
     intimate, Vernon Jordan, arranged a $40,000-per-year job for 
     Lewinsky shortly after she signed but before she filed an 
     affidavit saying she had not had sex with the president. Nor 
     do I read anything into the fact that the ambassador to the 
     United Nations, Bill Richardson, visited Lewinsky at the 
     Watergate to offer her a job. I believe the instructions 
     Lewinsky gave Tripp informing her on how to properly perjure 
     herself in the Willey matter simply wrote themselves.
       I believe that The Washington Post, the Los Angeles Times, 
     The New York Times, Newsweek, Time, U.S. News & World Report, 
     ABC, CBS, NBC, CNN, PBS and NPR are all part of a vast right-
     wing conspiracy. Especially NPR.

     

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