Nev Dull wrote:
>
> Forwarded-by: stevef@healthcare.com (Steve Fraser)
> Forwarded-by: jar@storz.com (Alan Ritter)
> Forwarded-by: des@storz.com (Doug E. Starkey)
>
> I Believe
>
> By Michael Kelly
> Wednesday, February 4, 1998; Page A19
>
> 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 to 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 reportedly 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.
>
> Michael Kelly is a senior writer for National Journal.
-- Jay Thomas (w)617-576-4832 ICQ:5270335 Network Manager (b)617-546-2444 AIM:jpthomas68 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- I think so, Brain, but isn't a cucumber that small called a gherkin?