Greg Meyer
At 10:34 AM 2/5/98 -0800, Timothy Lorman wrote:
>I appreciated the top of the front page editorial on Clinton in the
>M-P Daily News last week. The piece was thoughtful, a bit
>experimental, even groundbreaking in my humble opinion.
> Many disagreed.
>This forward is dedicated to them. Enjoy.
>
>
>
>I BELIEVE
>By Michael Kelly
>Wednesday, February 4, 1998
>
> 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.
>
>
>
>