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CONGRESSIONAL RECORD— Extensions of Remarks E2046 HON E2046 CONGRESSIONAL RECORD Ð Extensions of Remarks October 10, 1998 AUTHORIZING THE COMMITTEE ON A principled man, comfortable with him- attorney-client privilege for public officials, THE JUDICIARY TO INVESTIGATE self and the Constitution, should be able to and he has abused the grand jury system. WHETHER SUFFICIENT GROUNDS argue that no citizen may be compelled to And the hymn-singing, Bible-quoting Starr EXIST FOR THE IMPEACHMENT testify about intimate details of his sex life has produced the best-read piece of Puritan unless there is a showing of transcendent pornography in human history. In his zeal to OF WILLIAM JEFFERSON CLIN- public need. Clinton could have invoked pro- remove the President, he has transformed TON, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED visions of the First, Fourth and Fifth amend- the American political process into an exer- STATES ments to create a zone of privacy, a so-called cise in voyeurism. intimacy privilege. But instead, Clinton ap- Rather than needlessly drag the country SPEECH OF pears to have liedÐmore than once. Let the through the degrading process of impeach- lawyers argue whether this technically ment hearings based on Starr's document, HON. JOHN CONYERS, JR. qualifies as perjury. Clinton would be wise to the House Judiciary Committee might con- OF MICHIGAN quit quibbling and rely on the good sense of sider conducting a debate that assumes the IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES the American people to see that Congress ad- truth of all the allegations in the Starr re- dresses this transgression (which does not port. The question for the committee would Thursday, October 8, 1998 compare with Clinton's more serious failures then become: Are these charges serious Mr. CONYERS. Mr. Speaker, I am inserting in addressing the nation's problems of grow- enough to rise to the level of being ``high ing corporate power and inequality) with a into the RECORD two insightful and useful edi- crimes and misdemeanors''? If not, in what punishment that fits the crime. One of the torials from The Nation magazine. The first would essentially be the granting of a mo- most striking aspects of this surreal situa- tion to dismiss, the committee could decide one, titled ``Clinton, Starr and the Constitution'' tion has been the consistency of the public's not to present the House with articles of im- points out that ``this inquiry has been driven by insistence that what happened between peachment. The process could stop right politics from the start.'' The Nation, which has Monica Lewinsky and Bill Clinton is their there. It would then remain only for Con- been a strident critic of Bill Clinton almost from own business, and that of their families. The gress to decide whether to drop the matter the beginning of his Presidency, states that punditocracy's obsession with the salacious or to censure the President, in a form to be ``Kenneth Starr's impeachment report rep- details of Oval Office sex has been matched determined. The President, for his part, by its hypocrisy in playing morality police could do his party and the country a favor by resents an assault not merely on Bill Clinton to an audience that does not care what the but, more significant, on the presidency, the admitting he lied and making clear that he pundits think. would accept such a censure. A censure reso- Constitution and our democracy.'' The Constitution says that Congress shall lution, if it comes to that, should be nar- It also rightly points our that ``What the con- impeach only for ``treason, bribery, or other rowly focused on the nation's top law-en- servatives could not stop by election they high crimes and misdemeanors.'' The Presi- forcement official lying under oath in his have thwarted by investigation. This Congress dent's lawyers are on firm ground when they Paula Jones deposition. It should not give saw no important legislation passed on to- assert, ``The impeachment clause was de- credence to Starr's unproven claims of grand signed to protect our country against a bacco and children, education, childcare, mini- jury perjury and obstruction of justice. President who was using his official powers Going forward, Congress should also in- mum wage or campaign finance reform.'' against the nation, against the American The second editorial points out that the tac- sure, by way of changes in statutes govern- people, against our society. It was never de- ing the independent counsel's office, that no tics of this investigation have amounted to signed to allow a political body to force a person will ever again be vested with the un- ``sexual McCarthyism.'' In drawing a powerful President from office for a very personal controlled power that Kenneth Starr has so historical analogy, the Nation points suggest mistake.'' effectively misused. Inquisitions, sexual or This inquiry has been driven by politics that ``the Enemy Other is sexual rather than otherwise, are ``inappropriate'' in a constitu- from the start. Kenneth Starr is a partisan tional democracy. political deviance.'' Just like during the 1950's, conservative Republican who has been the there have been secret grand jury leaks, wire- spearhead of an unprincipled, well-funded at- STARRISM tapping has been used to entrap witnesses tack on the Administration almost from the Everyone from Alan Dershowitz to a front- and the legal process is being used to punish moment it took office. Lest we forget: Starr, page classified advertiser in the New York or defame people for activities that may be former chief of staff to Reagan Attorney Times has sounded the alarm about ``sexual ``politically and culturally anathema,'' but not General William French Smith, was chosen McCarthyism'' in connection with Kenneth necessarily crimes. Hence the need for the for his current job in 1994 by a three-judge Starr, his report and all the rest. The word ``McCarthyism,'' as many have public to hear all the salacious details con- panel that itself was selected by Chief Jus- tice William Rehnquist, who would preside pointed out [see Navasky, ``Dialectical tained in the Ken Starr report. over the Senate in the event of an impeach- McCarthyism(s),'' July 20] is a misnomer I bring these fine editorials to the attention ment trial. Starr considered writing an ami- since it describes a phenomenon that began of my colleagues and the public. cus brief to advance Paula Jones's case before the junior senator from Wisconsin ar- [From The Nation, Oct. 5, 1998] against the President. Starr continued, as a rived on the scene and persisted after he was million-dollar-a-year lawyer, to represent retired from it. And each time this umbrella CLINTON, STARR AND THE CONSTITUTION the tobacco industry while investigating term for the excesses of the anti-Communist Kenneth Starr's impeachment report rep- Clinton and planned to accept a Richard Mel- crusade is recycled as a metaphor for the lat- resents an assault not merely on Bill Clinton lon Scaife-funded deanship at Pepperdine est political mugging, it loses something of but, more significant, on the presidency, the University until a national uproar forced its original power and precision as a descrip- Constitution and our democracy. It is crucial him to give it up. And Starr's office is under tion of a social pathology. to the future of all three that it be repudi- investigation for the unprofessional and pos- Moreover, in the case of Starr & Co. the ated before its damage becomes irreversible. sibly illegal manner in which it leaked infor- metaphor seems inexact because McCarthy We have no great affection for the Presi- mation designed to damage the President. was notorious for the sloppiness of his meth- dent, who has systematically betrayed al- Whether it achieves its goal of inspiring ods, the manipulation of numbers (first there most everyone and everything for which he Clinton's impeachment, Starr's investiga- were 205, then fifty-seven, then eighty-one professed to stand during his six years in of- tion has succeeded beyond its originators' card-carrying Communists in the State De- fice. But those failings should not obscure wildest dreams. It has crippled the Adminis- partment) and, as often as not, getting the the great danger posed by the possibility of tration and the Democratic Party. What the wrong guy. Whereas the sexual allegations Starr and his minions forcing Bill Clinton conservatives could not stop by election they against Clinton appear to be well docu- out of office. Whatever the degree of the have thwarted by investigation. This Con- mented, and Starr seems obsessively precise President's responsibility for bringing this gress saw no important legislation passed on and meticulous (although the closer one calamitous situation on his own headÐand tobacco and children, education, childcare, looks at his report the less confidence one that responsibility is considerableÐthe na- minimum wage or campaign finance reform. has in its integrity). tion cannot allow itself to be decapitated by Not much planning for the future appears to Is ``sexual McCarthyism'' a misleading what is, at its core, a politically motivated be under way in the White House, as Demo- metaphor for what is happening? Not really. witch hunt. crats run for cover in hopes of surviving Though there are obvious differences, there Clinton's actions ought not to be the sub- what could be major Republican gains come are at least three significant similarities be- ject of an impeachment inquiry. Starr went November. tween then and now. It's important to iden- after possibly more serious allegations More significant, however, is the damage tify what they are before too many reputa- against the President related to Whitewater, that Starr and his team have done to time- tions get shredded, too many democratic val- Filegate and Travelgate, but despite a nearly honored constitutional prerogatives and ues violated, too many dangerous precedents crazed obsession with nailing his prey, he ap- common decency.
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