E2046 CONGRESSIONAL RECORD — 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 lied—more 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 head—and tobacco and children, education, childcare, looks at his report the less confidence one that responsibility is considerable—the 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. President Clinton’s right established, too much privacy invaded. parently came up empty-handed. He has to privacy has been shredded. Starr has used First and foremost, there is the attempt to therefore been forced to base an impeach- his unlimited powers to threaten White demonize a political target as the Enemy ment case entirely on Clinton’s adulterous House staff and to intimidate Lewinsky and Other. Historians like the late Frank Donner affair and attempts to cover it up. her family. He has eviscerated the right of have demonstrated how the great Red hunt October 10, 1998 CONGRESSIONAL RECORD — Extensions of Remarks E2047 of the fifties exploited the nativist impulse, ing corrections until days later, usually on Detroit and Michigan. It remains as one of the which identifies the foreign with the radical page 47. These days the conglomerated and best examples of the many colorful ethnic and the immoral. highly technologized media are anything but backgrounds that weave such a wonderfully In the days of the domestic cold war it passive. They are leading the posse, attempt- meant Hoover, McCarthy, Nixon, HUAC, et ing to whip up a political hysteria that thus diverse community profile. al.—cheered on by such as the Rev. Billy far the public seems disinclined to indulge. The Ukrainian Cultural Center has hosted Graham and the American Legion—arguing We are lucky in that, for it would be a disas- many distinguished guests in the past 20 that to be a Communist (or fellow traveler) trous precedent—far beyond what McCarthy years, including two sitting U.S. Presidents was to be a ‘‘dirty Red,’’ an agent of an wrought—to drive a President out of office and the first President of Independent Ukraine. international conspiracy, a spy. The reason as a result of a public hubbub over his pri- I have had the distinct pleasure to attend a Arthur Miller’s play The Crucible, about the vate conduct. wide variety of functions at the Ukrainian Cul- Salem witch trials of the 1600s, spoke so elo- My own study of the McCarthy era led me quently to the 1950s was that just as there tural Center. Some have been meetings with to conclude that the purpose of the Congres- leaders of Ukraine; others have been social or were no witches in Salem, there was no in- sional and other investigations of those ternal Red menace in the United States of years was not to write legislation or to de- cultural events; and still others have been for the fifties—no Enemy Other that justified velop new information (HUAC, for example, exchanges of ideas with a wide range of lead- the hysteria that resulted in the wholesale already had obtained from undercover agents ers and other members of the Ukrainian-Amer- invasion of the rights and liberties of citi- all the names it was insisting witnesses re- ican community which thrives in the 12th Con- zens. cite in public). Rather, the hearings and gressional District. Today we have independent counsel Ken- trials and investigations of those years were On so many of these occasions, I have neth Starr, Representatives Henry Hyde and for the most part degradation ceremonies. Newt Gingrich, with Chief Justice William seen the particularly effective endeavors of One shudders at the prospect of Congres- Borys Potapenko, the Center's Director of Op- Rehnquist waiting in the wings to preside sional hearings or a Senate trial that recy- over impeachment proceedings in the Sen- cles the pornographic materials Starr claims erations, Bhodan Fedorak, President of the ate—cheered on by such as the Christian Co- it was necessary to assemble. In the long run Center's Board of Directors, and other officers alition and William Bennett—arguing in ef- history has decided that it was not HUAC’s who all devote so much of their time to the fect that to have (dirty) sex in the Oval Of- or McCarthy’s targets that were degraded. It Center's unique position in the Ukrainian- fice means one should be thrown out of of- was the country itself. Let us not let it hap- American and the broader community. fice. The Enemy Other is sexual rather than pen again.—VICTOR NAVASKY. political deviance, the target of opportunity So, I ask my colleagues to join me as we is the President rather than the CP. Arthur f extend our sincere congratulations to the Miller’s image of a witch hunt fueled by re- Ukrainian Cultural Center for their 20 wonder- pressed sexuality leading to a form of cul- TRIBUTE TO THE UKRAINIAN CUL- ful years, and our hopes for continued suc- tural hysteria survives from the fifties to TURAL CENTER IN WARREN, cess in the future. link the two episodes. MICHIGAN f Second, the Red hunters of the fifties suc- ceeded in deploying the legal process to pun- HON. SANDER M. LEVIN IN HONOR OF GEORGIA AND ish people for activities that may have been DIMITRIOS KALOIDIS politically and culturally anathema, but in OF MICHIGAN and of themselves were not crimes. During IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES the fifties, that meant summoning accused Friday, October 9, 1998 HON. CAROLYN B. MALONEY members of the Communist Party (a legal OF NEW YORK organization) before official tribunals and Mr. LEVIN. Mr. Speaker, I rise to honor the IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES asking them questions the investigators Ukrainian Cultural Center, Warren, Michigan, knew would be difficult or impossible for as they celebrate 20 years as the heart of the Friday, October 9, 1998 them to answer, thereby forcing them to Ukrainian community in Michigan. The Center Mrs. MALONEY of New York. Mr. Speaker, choose among silence (which landed the Hol- will commemorate this occasion with a ban- I rise today to pay tribute to Georgia Dimitrios lywood Ten in prison for contempt of Con- quet and cultural celebration on October 18, Kaloidis. Mr. and Mrs. Kaloidis will be honored gress), blacklisting (which was visited on anyone who invoked the Fifth) or betrayal 1998. by Hellenic Public Radio-COSMOS FM at the (former comrades who answered the $64 ques- The Ukrainian Cultural Center is home to Phidippides Award Dinner for their passionate tion—‘‘Are you now or have you ever more than forty arts, civic, cultural, edu- advocacy of Hellenism on Friday, October 9. been . . .?’’—were next asked to name the cational, social, sports and youth organiza- Dimitrios Elias Kaloidis and Georgia names of others). tions. Included in these are the member orga- Christou Kaloidis (nee Manolakos) were born Today Starr uses Clinton’s unwillingness nizations of the Ukrainian Congress Commit- in Laconia, Greece. They graduated from high to testify about the intimate details of his tee of American branch for Southeastern school in Athens. Dimitrios emigrated to the (perfectly legal) sex life, and his inability— United States in 1955, followed by Georgia in for reasons of Realpolitik—to invoke his Fifth Michigan. Amendment right not to incriminate him- In addition to lending financial support in 1963. Once in the U.S. Dimitrios became in- self, to try to trap him into the crimes of grants and aid to community organizations volved in the restaurant business and Georgia perjury, obstruction of justice and the abuse and individuals, the Center's beautiful con- studied computers and business administra- of power. When is the last time a ‘‘target’’ ference halls, classrooms, gym and social club tion. They married in 1974. was forced to answer questions, especially host a variety of programs and special events Together they founded a chain of res- intimate ones, before a grand jury? throughout the year. The Ukrainian Cultural taurants and initiated major real estate ven- Third, in the fifties, under the rubric of na- Center is not only a showpiece in the commu- tures. Currently, the Kaloidises are developing tional security, the FBI and other investiga- tive agencies routinely violated the privacy nity but serves as a key site for instruction on the Terrace on the Park in Flushing Meadow, and civil liberties of alleged subversives via Ukrainian literature, history, language, arts and Queens, and one of the largest multiplex cine- legally dubious wiretapping, bugging, the use leisure activities. mas in the country. of informers and intrusive interrogations. The Ukrainian Cultural Center houses the Georgia and Dimitrios Kaloidis' charitable Today, Linda Tripp, acting in tandem with Ukrainian Museum, which collects and dis- endeavors are wide and varied. Most notably, the independent counsel and perhaps lawyers plays historical artifacts and religious relics. the Kaloidises have made a strong investment for Paula Jones, tries to induce Monica The Ukrainian Library makes available to all in our youth, most specifically in their edu- Lewinsky to say things that can be used to many Ukrainian language books and periodi- cation through multimillion dollar gifts to pri- entrap the President in contradictory testi- mony. This may or may not qualify as per- cals. Additionally, the Center publishes print, mary schools, cultural and educational centers jury or grounds for impeachment but is cal- audio and video material relevant to Ukraine and scholarship trusts. culated to cause personal and political em- American community. His Eminence, Archbishop Spyridon, has barrassment and shame. The Ukrainian Cultural Center is key to as- charged Dimitrios to head the committee for The parade of analogies marches on. There suring the strength of the Ukrainian ethnic the unification of the four Greek parochial were secret grand jury leaks then; now the identity and to all teach fellow Americans bout schools in Brooklyn. special prosecutor, in league with the Repub- the rich Ukrainian Culture. The Center also The Hellenic Public Radio COSMOS FM lican majority, arranges for the entire grand jury transcript to be circulated on the World serves as an important forum to ring to others Phidippides Award is presented to persons in Wide Web. The press then was complicit with the history of Ukraine's successful struggle for recognition of their efforts in the advocacy of the McCarthyites in the sense that it pas- independence. Hellenism. sively reported irresponsible charges on the The Center is integral part of not only the Recipients of this prestigious award have front page and didn’t get around to publish- Ukrainian community, but all of metropolitan worked to sustain vitality of Hellenism.