[Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents Volume 33, Number 12 (Monday, March 24, 1997)]
[Pages 377-380]
[Online from the Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

<R04>
Remarks on the Withdrawal of the Director of Central Intelligence 
Nomination and an Exchange With Reporters

March 18, 1997

    The President. Let me begin by saying that while I do understand his 
reasons, Tony Lake's decision to withdraw from consideration as Director 
of Central Intelligence is a real loss to our country and to me. He 
would have been an outstanding CIA Director because of his intelligence, 
his unquestioned integrity, his extremely valuable experience. I respect 
his decision because nobody should have to endure what he has endured in 
the course of this nomination. But make no mistake about it, it's a loss 
for the country.
    For 4 years, Tony Lake was one of my closest advisers and one of my 
most trusted ones. He was an integral part of every foreign policy 
decision we made, and his legacy can be seen around the world, from an 
end to the war in Bosnia to a fresh start for peace in Haiti, from real 
hope for peace in the Middle East and Northern Ireland to real progress 
on arms control. He is a patriot, a professional, and a statesman. Our 
Nation will miss his service very much and so will I.
    This episode says a lot about how so much work is done in our 
Nation's Capital. For too long, we have allowed ordinary political 
processes and honest disagreements among honorable people to degenerate 
first into political sniping, then into political revenge. And too 
often, that results in political destruction that absolutely builds 
nothing for the American people and is not worthy of our 
responsibilities to them. It is past time for all of us to stop 
remembering who shot first and why, and instead, to start remembering 
why we are here and the fact that the American people sent us here to 
work on their concerns and their future.
    The cycle of political destruction must end. And I hope we will let 
it end today. We can't let partisan bickering stop us from doing the 
work we were sent here to do. I sense that more and more Democrats and 
Republicans believe that and believe as I do that we have to seize this 
opportunity to pass a bipartisan agreement to balance the budget.
    There are now some new and hopeful signs that we are in a position 
to do that. Last month, I proposed a balanced budget plan that secures 
Medicare and Medicaid, extends health care coverage to more children, 
strengthens education, gives working families tax relief, and protects 
the environment. I believe that's the best way to balance the budget.
    As you know, as part of that plan, the day after my Inauguration I 
made an offer to the Republican Congress on Medicare, proposing savings 
that moved halfway toward those envisioned in the most recent Republican 
plan. Yesterday the Republican leaders showed me flexibility on tax cuts 
and economic assumptions. This new flexibility is a very positive sign, 
and I applaud their comments. They move us closer than ever to the point 
where we can reach an agreement on a balanced budget that is good for 
the American people.
    I'm also encouraged by the extensive work being done by people of 
good will on both sides of the aisle throughout the Congress. Now it is 
time to build on all this momentum and make this a season of bipartisan 
coopera

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tion on the budget. I want a balanced budget plan that can win the 
support of majorities in both parties in both Houses in Congress.
    To that end, I am announcing three steps: First, I'm asking the 
leaders of the Budget Committees to meet with me tomorrow before I leave 
for Helsinki to give me their assessment of progress in Congress and the 
prospect of reaching a bipartisan balanced budget agreement. Second, 
I'll ask my budget team to meet with the congressional budget leaders 
over the congressional recess. I'll instruct them to be open-minded and 
flexible and to work in the spirit of bipartisanship. Third, I will ask 
these budget officials to report back to me and to the congressional 
leadership at the White House after the congressional recess on the 
progress they have made and the best means for reaching the bipartisan 
agreement we all seek.
    This balanced budget plan must be tough and credible. It must 
strengthen education and protect the environment and protect health care 
while extending coverage to more children. But let us recognize--
balancing the budget will require cooperation from all sides. No one 
will achieve everything he or she wants. Everyone must be prepared to 
compromise if we're going to break the gridlock and finally balance the 
budget. And that is true for the President as well as for the Congress.
    I am determined that we will seize this moment to end the political 
stalemate and to show the American people how we should do our work here 
in the Nation's Capital. If we work together in the right spirit, we can 
achieve what both parties clearly want, a balanced budget that reflects 
our values, helps our economy, and preserves and strengthens our future.
    So let me say with that, also I'm looking very much forward to my 
trip to Helsinki, and I'm looking forward to coming back, making a 
positive report to the American people, and getting on with this work on 
the budget. I'm very hopeful because of what was said yesterday.

Director of Central Intelligence Nomination

    Q. Mr. President, have you thought of a successor to your nomination 
of Mr. Lake? And in doing so, what will you demand of Senator Shelby in 
that process to avoid what you have stated Mr. Lake has gone through?
    The President. Well, first of all, all I want from any Member of 
Congress and any committee chair is to give any nominee of mine a fair 
hearing, a reasonable benefit of the doubt, a respectful listening, and 
a prompt disposal of the matter, one way or the other. So that's all I 
want for anybody that I send up there. I support the senatorial review 
process, but like anything else, it has to be run in an efficient and 
forthright manner if it's going to be effective.
    In answer to your first question, yes, I have given some thought to 
it, and I expect that quite soon I will have a name for you. But I would 
ask you to respect the fact that, you know, we have to do some review of 
our own before we send a name up there, and it's really not fair to put 
someone out on the line on this until we know that the President has, in 
fact, determined to nominate him or her.
    Q. Mr. President, Mr. Lake said he had enough votes to get 
confirmed. Why not just stick with it, fight the good fight, and go all 
the way to a vote?
    The President. Well, that was, of course, my preference. I told them 
that I was deeply disappointed and that I wanted to fight. I know Tony 
Lake. I have seen him operate. I know how tough-minded he is and how 
confident he is. I know what a role he played just in the Bosnian 
matter, just to cite one example. I know how he kept us working on many 
different fronts for 4 years in national security. And just yesterday I 
talked to one Republican Senator--I called him about another matter, but 
I talked to him about Tony Lake, and he is a strong supporter of Tony 
Lake, and he talked what an able man he was and how much he regretted 
how politicized this process had become.
    I think Tony felt two things. First of all, that it was--that he did 
have the votes to get out of the committee if he could ever get a vote. 
I think he was convinced after he even went so far as to let the leaders 
of the committee look at FBI data, which was really an unprecedented 
thing to do in that kind of forum and, although it was apparently very 
appropriate and positive toward him, that there still was--there's 
always something

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else, always something else to delay. I think he believed that they 
might have the ability to delay his hearings for another month or two or 
three. Already, this is very late for any kind of nomination to be stuck 
in hearings by any kind of historical standard. And I think he was 
afraid that there might never be a hearing.
    And secondly, I think he was afraid that the longer this went on 
with delay, the more it would damage the Agency. He was very concerned--
all the time he worked for me, he was very concerned about the 
integrity, the strength, the effectiveness of the intelligence 
agencies--all of them of the Government--and especially the CIA, and he 
didn't want to do anything that would further weaken the Agency.
    So that's what he said to me, and I accept his reasons. But if it 
had been up to me, I'd be here a year from now still fighting for it 
because I think he's a good man.
    Q. We're told there were some personal accusations, Mr. President. 
Did anyone on the Hill cross the line in your view?
    The President. Well, let me say, I don't believe that I can 
contribute to the public interest by getting into what I think has 
already been an example of what's wrong with Washington, not what's 
right with it. What I wanted to say is that we need to put this hearing 
process in a proper context. Hearings need to be scheduled properly, 
matters need to be resolved. When questions are asked, everybody 
involved needs to be able to believe and see and sense that they're 
being asked in good faith and not simply for the purpose of trying to 
undermine someone or delay a process forever. That's what I think needs 
to be done.
    But I don't want to contribute to the difficulties of this 
particular moment, and neither does Tony Lake. And personal 
recriminations are not important here. The public's interest is all that 
matters. And we are not serving the public interest here when we waste 
our energies on trying to undermine each other. That's the point I--
we're not doing that. That does not serve the public interest.
    And all of us are up here to do that and only that. So we can have 
these honest disagreements in a proper context without doing it. And 
nearly everybody I know understands where the balance is and knows when 
it's gone too far.

Helsinki Summit

    Q. Mr. President, what tone does it set for the Helsinki summit when 
President Yeltsin is quoted yesterday as saying he'll give no more 
concessions and your Secretary of State says today that's inappropriate 
language?
    The President. Well, let me say, first of all, I'm glad to see 
President Yeltsin up and around and healthy, and I appreciate, in light 
of my condition, that he agreed to move the meeting from Moscow to 
Helsinki so it will be a little closer to me than it otherwise would 
have been.
    We have never had a meeting that didn't result in constructive 
progress in the relations between the United States and Russia and in 
matters of our common concern. And I believe this will be such a 
meeting. There's been a lot going on in Russia in the last several 
weeks, and I would just caution everyone not to overreact too much to 
any particular event or statement. Let us get in there. I have always 
had a good, honest, open relations with President Yeltsin. I expect we 
will continue to do that.
    And let me remind you of the stakes involved in Helsinki. Number 
one, we're going to talk about our shared desire for a Europe that is 
free and democratic, secure and united, and my hope that we can achieve 
an agreement between Russia and NATO that will be part of that. We do 
have some evidence that Russia and NATO can have a positive, not a 
negative, relationship in our remarkable partnership in Bosnia.
    Number two, the United States and Russia still have a heavy 
responsibility to lead the world further away from the nuclear issue. 
And we've got to go forward with START II; we've got to go forward with 
what happens after that. We've got a whole range of issues around 
nuclear issues that have to be dealt with.
    And number three, there are a lot of economic issues that have to be 
dealt with. Russia has the potential of having terrific economic growth 
in ways that would, I think, alleviate a lot of these other anxieties 
that

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are there and a lot of other questions people have, if we do the right 
things from here on out.
    So we've got a broad, tough agenda. We're going to have to do a lot 
of work in a day and an evening before. But I'm very optimistic about 
it, and I just wouldn't overreact to any particular thing that's said or 
done between now and then. Let us have the meeting, do the work, see 
what kind of product we can produce, and discuss it.

President's Health

    Q. How's your health? How's your health, are you getting around all 
right?
    The President. I'm getting around all right. I'm doing two sessions 
of therapy a day of, more or less, an hour each. And I'm trying to, 
number one, continue to get more flexibility and strength in this leg to 
keep it from atrophying and also to just get the flexibility back. And 
then I'm trying to make sure that I know how to use the rest of my body 
to keep it protected. Some of it's sort of embarrassing. I had to learn 
how to get in and out of a shower again, you know, with a walker and all 
that kind of stuff--but just using the crutches properly, getting up and 
down stairs with crutches, when I should use the wheelchair. We're using 
the wheelchair more now, before Helsinki, because we want to minimize 
the chance of any kind of injury, and I want to keep my energy level as 
high as possible. So I'm using the wheelchair more. And when I get back 
I'll probably use my crutches relatively more. So I'm dealing with all 
that.
    But basically, it's been an interesting learning experience--rather 
humbling. I've been very blessed. I've got a great team of sports 
doctors and therapists who have helped me, and I'm hoping that I can 
avoid gaining a lot of weight and that I can stay in reasonably good 
shape during this period of convalescence and repair. But it's been 
good.

Efforts to Balance the Budget

    Q. Mr. President, you praised the Republicans for flexibility. Are 
you willing to forgo the tax cuts you sought yourself?
    The President. Well, let me say, first of all, I've actually 
produced a budget that does give the tax cuts that I believe--that are 
much more limited than they had previously proposed and are sharply 
targeted toward education and childrearing. That's first. Secondly, I 
consider those education investments and the children's investments a 
part of advancing America's family and education agenda. But in terms of 
all the details of the budget, I think all of us have to be willing to 
show some flexibility. They have shown some flexibility here, and their 
comments--their recent comments by the leaders were really quite 
forthcoming. And we all need to recognize that, and all of us need to be 
flexible as we go into these negotiations.
    There are all kinds of things that each of us will care about more 
than other things. But I think that I have to say that on all these 
issues I have to show flexibility; they have to show flexibility. We'll 
put our heads together and we'll come out with an agreement. And I think 
that if we do that it will be in the best interests of the American 
people.
    Thank you.

Note: The President spoke at 4:25 p.m. in the Residence at the White 
House. In his remarks, he referred to President Boris Yeltsin of Russia.