October 1998 Vol. 219 No. 10  Comment

R. W. Scott

Politics etc.

Because of Billy Jeff Clinton's antics and the delivery of Ken Starr's report to Congress on Sept. 9 (which had not been released as of this writing), we've probably seen more Democrats than Republicans quasi-condemn the latter's recent conduct, albeit with a lot of caveats. That's because there'll be elections next month to fill 34 senate seats and all 435 House seats plus many governorships. And Democrats are terrified there'll be a Republican landslide. But there's also the possibility we have a bunch of Republican weenies in Congress who are afraid to open their mouths.

The races for governor are really important because governors in office in 2000 will control congressional redistricting, a powerful political weapon. It will also be important to elect — if any can be found — fiscally responsible and conservative members to both House and Senate regardless of party — especially the Senate. In no way would it be less than disastrous to allow Billy Jeff — if he remains in office — or his environmentally deranged possible successor Ozone Gore to appoint any more left-leaning Supreme Court justices, also a possibility. Fortunately, the Senate must approve any such nominees.

At this point, it is also instructive to mention that a tally by the National Taxpayers Union shows that during the first year-and-a-half of the 105th Congress, an average U.S. Senator, party notwithstanding, supported a $10 billion boost in annual federal spending. The average House member sponsored $47 billion in additional annual spending. Both houses were nominally controlled by Republicans, an excellent reason to support candidates who espouse fiscal responsibility, rather than whether they're republican or democrat. And always remember, you can't trust very many of either very far.

Quotes of note dated in an early August:

• "I think it's plain that the president should resign and spare the country the agony of this impeachment and removal proceeding."
• "(There is) … "no question an admission of making false statements to government officials and interfering with the FBI and the CIA is an impeachable offense."
• "There's not any point now in his putting the country through an impeachment since he isn't making any pretense of innocence now."
• "…now that the president has admitted wrongdoing, he should resign."

The quotee? Billy Jeff Clinton on August 6 and 8, 1974, while a candidate for the House of Representatives from Arkansas' 3rd Congressional District, whose statements were about Richard Nixon re Watergate. The first two quotes are from the now-defunct Arkansas Gazette, the other two from the Arkansas Democrat.

Billy Jeff might ought to put his money where his mouth was.

And one more quote from elsewhere:

• "Billy Jeff may have become the champion liar of all presidents..."

The above was written 23 days after Billy Jeff Clinton took office in January 1992 and appeared on this page the following March 1. It was based on the fact that he had renigged on more campaign promises in those 23 days than any of his predecessors had in four years, at least as far as we could tell. Given evidence dating back to his Arkansas days, one of the most amazing things about Billy Jeff Clinton's hanky panky troubles is that the U.S. public appears to have just woke up in August 1998 to the fact that he's a pathological liar, when it's been apparent and publicized for years.

Unfortunately, subsequent events clearly show that quote wasn't precise enough. It should have read "Billy Jeff is the champion liar of all presidents..."

Talk about duck, run and hide. That's exactly what Ozone Gore did last August when Billy Jeff Clinton went to be quizzed by the Grand Jury. Seems like ol' Ozone, who in this case reminds us a bit of Rodney, the cowardly and not-too-bright knight in the Wizard of Id comic strip, had his vacation scheduled for the exact time frame as the grand jury appearance — coincidentally, we're sure.

Well, not only did Ozone / Rodney get out of town-he got way to hell out on some itty-bitty Hawaiian island, where again — coincidentally, we're sure — there just weren't adequate facilities to support a bunch of TV network people and their cameras or even print press people. Poor Ozone. That forced him to forego outstanding potential publicity from any live interviews or questions from reporters and allowed him to issue a canned, sappy statement gushingly supporting the Draft Dodger.

Indeed, Ozone was hiding some 4,800 mi from Washington, D.C. — which is as far as he could possibly get and remain in one of the United States of America. The only other piece of solid ground in the United States that far away from Washington is Attu Island located at the far tip of Alaska's Aleutian chain next to the International Date Line. More precisely, Attu is 2.8 times as far from Washington as from Tokyo.

However, Attu is usually cold, foggy, rainy and generally downright miserable, as U.S. troops discovered when they landed there on June 5, 1942 to dislodge a Japanese invasion force sent there to try to divert U.S. attention from Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto's later attempt to take Midway Island (Midway was a Japanese disaster, of course, and U.S. troops finally secured Attu on May 31, 1943). Considering Attu's inhospitable bad weather and history, we really can't blame Ozone too much for his Hawaiian choice.

But his blatant dodge does raise two points. First, if Ozone becomes president — heaven forbid — for any reason, we have to wonder whether he'd run and hide the next time a touchy situation of any sort arises in D.C., such as an honest look at his role in the campaign donations scandal. We'd sure hate to see another Camp David retreat established on that itty-bitty Hawaiian Island. But we could go along with Attu, if he'd promise to spend a lot of time there. The second point is more sobering. Ozone's desertion to a remote location far from the press in the face of the Clinton mess may mean he's not as big a damn fool as he's made himself out to be in the past. And, if that's the case, he could really be dangerous.

The Drudge Report — which broke the M. Lewinsky story — reported on September 7 that Ken Starr has his very own Deep Throat in the White House. Who it is was unknown at that date.

But don't you wish it was Carville?

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