The far right has hijacked the Republican Party and poses the greatest danger to our nation in decades.  Desperate to further their own agenda, the far right abuses power and does not play by the rules or follow the U.S. Constitution.  They decide what they want to do and then pursue a win-at-any-cost strategy to achieve it.

This article is about the damage done to our nation by the  far right while al-Qaeda was making a series of attacks on the United States.  In the face of these attacks (backed by a declaration of war), the far right tried to force a twice-elected president to resign by: 

(1) Engi­neering a series of fruitless investigations of the president,

(2) Misusing our judicial system   to entrap him, and 

(3) Forcing his impeachment on an unwilling public and in violation of the U.S. Constitution. 

These actions distracted the nation, disrupted government  and weakened our national security.   It all started with --

The far right refuses to accept our election results

After much campaigning and political infighting, we elect a president every four years.  Then, traditionally, the country pulls together and supports the elected president.  Threats to our country unify us even more.  That tradition was broken in the 90’s.

Previously, the opposition party had owned the White House for 12 years and was outraged at the loss of the presidency.  Clinton was seen as a usurper, his victory had to be illegiti­mate and he had to be driven from the White House.  He had to be brought down.  As a result, in the aftermath of Clinton’s election, far-right members of the pri­vate sector, church organizations, and the political establishment collec­tively mounted covert and other efforts to wreck the Presi­dent’s Administra­tion and remove him from office.  Some of the play­ers were:

·                  Investment banker Peter Smith and Richard Mellon Scaife, both of whom paid huge sums to finance any possible scandal no matter how far fetched.  Scaife also spent about $300 million trying to “steer this country to his brand of hard-core conservatism.” He financed a

right-wing maga­zine, American Spectator, whose role was to trash the President without too much regard for the facts, and drive him from office.¹

·                  Richard Porter, Kenneth Starr’s law partner and member of the first Bush Administra­tion and Theodore Olson, mem­ber of both Bush Administrations.  They were actively involved behind the political scenes, playing important roles in vari­ous assaults on the President.  Olson participated in several Scaife-funded activities and was intent on undermining the Clinton presidency without disclosing his own involvement.²

·                  Jerry Farwell and Pat Robertson who represented the opposition from the religious right.  Farwell’s organization, for example, promoted video tapes accusing the President of drug-dealing and murder of the White House aid, Vince Foster, among other things.³ 

·                  A group of Arkansans, who stood ready and willing to feed the far-right net­work. They included political opponents incensed over Clinton’s success, as well as people willing to do almost anything for money. The “Arkansas Project,” sponsored by Scaife, was a four-year, $2.4 million attempt to gather information "leading to political ruin of the President."⁴

·                  Newt Gingrich, who became the new right-wing Speaker of the House in 1994.   Gingrich called the Clinton Admini­stration “the enemy of normal Americans” and said in a private meeting he would use “subpoena power” to wage war against the White House.  He envisioned as many as 20 congressional investigations being conducted simulta­neously.⁵   Smith and Scaife were both major contribu­tors to Gingrich’s campaigns and causes.  Soon Gingrich would try to use a government shut-down (blackmail) to force an unacceptable budget on the President -- a violation of the U.S. Constitution.⁶

·                  Tom DeLay, then the House Majority Whip.  Following the third terrorist attack on the United States, he diverted the nation from preparing for future ones by using extraordinary measures and blackmail to force impeachment of the president.⁷  

The above facts, and those which follow, are just a small part of far-right activities documented by highly reputable journalists and five recently-published books … “The Hunting of the President,” “A Vast Con­spiracy,” “Blinded by the Right,” “The Breach: Inside the Impeachment and Trial of William Jefferson Clinton” and “The Clinton Wars.” 

Plot to misuse our Federal judicial System

Against the president

The Paula Jones incident first surfaced in an American Spectator article by David Brock.  He later expressed regret for having written it and confessed to using innu­endo and unverified charges to spice up his material.  He received $5000 from Peter Smith to begin researching the article.  Brock found out later that Smith had paid another $30,000 to sources of the article (known in the trade as “cash for trash”).⁸

Richard Porter (Starr’s partner) formed a group of lawyers to support and advise Paula Jones.⁹  Rather than sue Spectator magazine, her advisors decided to forward their own agenda by working covertly to manipulate the courts in a sexual harassment suit against the President.  Referred to as the “elves,” they kept their participation a secret from their own law firms.¹⁰

Before taking over the job of Independent Counsel, Starr himself offered to work free for Jones.  He also had six telephone conver­sa­tions with Jones’ lawyers, in which he offered his opin­ion that presidents were not immune from civil suits.  He stated publicly several times that the suit should proceed without delay.⁹

Scaife donated $50,000 to help Jones sue the President.  A member of Gingrich’s House staff would be her chief fund raiser.  People close to the case suspected that anything that happened between the two prin­cipals was consensual, but they pursued it to humiliate the Presi­dent and hasten his destruction. The plan was to set a perjury trap when the case came to court by interrogating the President about past relation­ships.  This plot to undermine the presidency was pursued for years without knowledge of the Lewinsky matter.¹¹ 

senators secretly arrange to install

starr As Independent counsel

Following Republican demands for inquiry into a failed Arkansas White­water land deal (which took place in the 8o’s), Attorney General Reno appointed a special counsel (Fiske) to investigate it, as well as the President and First Lady’s involvement.¹²  In the next several months Fiske moved fast, initiating several local prosecutions in Arkansas.  Unex­pectedly, a three-judge panel replaced him with Starr. They did so after far-right Senators (Helms and Faircloth) secretly put pressure on the panel.¹³

The switching of a sitting independent counsel was improper because Fiske was aggressively pursuing the Whitewater case and had impec­cable credentials and reputation for fairness.  On the other hand, Starr had no investigative experience and opposed Clinton on every major issue of the day.  Starr was the “designated point man in a strategy … to destabilize the Clinton presidency.”¹⁴

Investigations of White House travel office firings and possible misuse of FBI files were added to Starr’s domain.¹⁵  Including Vince Foster’s sui­cide, Starr now had four investigations of the President.  He spent several years and vast resources investigating these matters and abruptly resigned from his job.  Under great pressure Starr reversed himself, as will be explained.

Following his reversal, Starr went beyond his authorized scope to make numerous inquiries into Clinton’s private sex life while Governor of Arkansas (a fifth investigation).¹⁶  Eventually, Starr would spend about $70 million trying to bring down the Clinton presidency.  Other Independent Councils spent another $40 million investigating members of his Administration.   In the end, not one top official was convicted of a public crime.¹⁷  It's your money.

In face of Far-right/media Outrage,

Starr returns to the job

Recognizing that any case against the Clintons was over, Starr’s best people began leaving his employ. Those who stayed on were “the unemployable and the obsessed.”¹⁸  Suddenly, Starr announced plans to accept a teaching position at Pepper­dine University in California (arranged earlier by Scaife), without closing any of his investigations. 

The far right and the media were stunned.  The Washington press corps had succumbed to allegations of Clinton’s wrongdoing, but Starr couldn’t prove them.  Outraged, William Safire of the New York Times described Starr as “a man with a warped sense of duty” who “had brought shame on the legal profes­sion by walking out on his client -- the people of the United States.”¹⁹

Meanwhile, the far-right had published a fu­turistic book,”The Impeachment of William Jefferson Clinton.”  It imagined Clinton’s pay­ment of hush money during the Whitewater investi­gation and his later impeachment.  The book had an anonymous author (widely rumored to be Ted Olson) and included a forward from a congressional right-winger (Rep. Barr) saying, “... required reading for every citi­zen of this country”.²⁰

The far right continued to hope that Starr would inflict a mortal wound on the President.  This was the theme of Ted Olson’s anonymous satire in Spectator magazine.  Bombarded by protests and attacks on his reputation, Starr decided to stay on.²¹

High Court blunders and      

Allows jones plot to proceed

Meanwhile, the Supreme Court allowed the Jones sexual harassment suit to go forward during the Presi­dent’s term in office on the grounds that it would not be a distraction.  The Dean of American Journalism, David Broder, explained the Court’s decision this way:²²

“One of the great blunders of American history ...  one of the dumbest decisions in the long history of the Court ... when they decided that a President should have no immunity against civil suits while serving in office, they may have broken their own record for ignor­ing reality.”

Under our Constitution, once a president assumes office he owes the public his full time and attention.  Civil suits can tie-up a president’s hand during his term in office, especially controversial ones.  During an NBC interview, Jones acknowledged the disruption her suit could create and said she was willing to wait until the President’s term was over.  However, the Supreme Court placed her case above the public good --- not only poor judg­ment but also a departure from our Constitution. 

Years later Jones publicly admitted (Larry King Show) to being used by people with a political agenda.

Empty handed, starr Blackmails

His way into the Jones plot

These were desperate times for Starr and his men.  They had drilled dry holes concerning the Clintons for several years and their sup­port­ers were unhappy. Starr’s people had given up on charging the President with any wrongdoing but they were in no rush to close the cases or tell the Washington press corp.²³  

Suddenly, a new cast of characters surfaced -- “The Rat­woman” Tripp and “The Bag Lady Sleaze” Goldberg (so named in the book, “American Rhapsody”) plus a reporter from Newsweek, Michael Isikoff.  Tripp had (illegally) wiretapped her friend, Monica Lewinsky, and knew of her relationship with the President -- one that he might deny.²⁴   Starr had no authority to intervene, but he moved fast.  He went to the Justice Department and begged for more authority on the grounds of a link between the Lewinsky matter and his Whitewater land investigation.  The presumed link in the two cases was the President’s friend, Vernon Jordan.²⁵  

According to Starr’s people, Jordan had given job assistance to Lewinsky in exchange for false testimony she would give for the President.  Starr’s people then pressured Attorney General Reno into a snap, overnight decision, by telling her that soon Newsweek would be reporting a sensational sex story and cover-up,²⁶ --- including any refusal by Reno to let the Independent Coun­sel investigate it.  In making their case, Starr’s office misled Reno twice and omitted three conflicts of interest.

 

Starr misleads the justice department   ·       Newsweek’s top echelon actually had decided not to publish the sexual affair. It was Reno’s overnight approval that eventually tipped the scales.27   ·        Starr’s people omitted the important fact that Vernon Jordan’s job assistance to Lewinsky started well before she had any inkling of receiving a Jones subpoena.  Getting Jordan’s help was not even the President’s idea; it was Linda Tripp’s.  There never was any overlap with the Whitewater land deal.28

Starr kept secret  his conflicts of interest   ·       Starr did not disclose his previous involvements in the Jones case.  He had a number of consultations with her lawyers, had advocated her case in public and had offered to work free for her.29 ·       Starr’s office said they had no contacts with the Jones team.  Actually, they had already invaded the Jones case and were in collusion with Jones’ advisors --- the ones Porter had assembled, without their firms’ knowledge, to covertly assist her.30 ·       Starr did not disclose that his law partner (Porter) was conspiring behind the scenes to undermine the presidency, as well as to further the Jones plot (see pp. 2-3).31

After getting their new author­ity, Starr’s people implored Newsweek to hold up publication until the President had answered the Jones deposition -- the long-awaited ambush was set.³²

Justice succumbs to misinformation; improperly

Authorizes starr’s investigation

The Independent Counsel statute was clear.   Attorney General Reno had to make a pre­limi­nary review herself and find “credible evidence” before the stat­ute could be triggered.  Had she done so, she would have found (1) the suspicions about Vernon Jordan were untrue, (2) there were no grounds for expanding Starr’s authority and (3) several conflicts undermined Starr’s capacity to do an independ­ent and impartial review.³³  

The problem with Reno’s overnight decision is that the Independent Coun­sel statute did not operate on suspicions or hearsay, but on evidence determined to be credible by Justice Department officials themselves.  Further, Starr had an axe to grind and was not the right person for the job.   Reno pulled the trigger too fast, too soon, based on a false premise.

Unfortunately, her ill-advised decision triggered a situation impossible to control --- the assignment of a sex scandal to a biased team of investi­ga­tors with an unlimited budget, who were intent on finally getting the President.  

A few weeks after Starr got his (6^th) investigation, the presiding judge dismissed the Jones lawsuit and concluded that the Lewinsky matter was not material to that case.  So, now we have Starr abandoning several unfinished investi­gations to chase obstruction in a sexual harassment case – and there was no genuine case to obstruct.

Starr violates his own Statute

To advocate impeachment

As Bob Woodward of the Washington Post reported, Starr’s decision to send a massive narrative of the Clinton-Lewinsky sexual relationship to Congress was “pathetic and unwise.”³⁵  To the dismay of many, House far-right leaders made the report immediately available to everyone (including children), in all its excruciat­ing detail, via the Inter­net.

The history and charter of the Office of Independent Counsel is clear; he is a prosecutor and fact-giver, not an impeachment advocate for a particular political party in power.  Because of this major departure, Starr’s well-known ethics adviser from the Water­gate era, Sam Dash, imme­diately resigned.  Dash said that by acting as the House’s “prosecuting counsel for impeachment,” Starr had violated the statute requiring him to present evidence but not conclusions.³⁴

Impeachment thought to be dead on arrival

Well over two thirds of the America people favored Clinton remaining in office and made their views known by rendering a huge setback to Republicans in midterm elections.  At this juncture, impeachment was for all practical purposes dead.³⁷   Impeachment would not have proceeded further had it not been for the actions of one person, the far-right House Whip at the time,Tom DeLay.

House leaders railroad Impeachment

In a condressional lame duck session

Two decades earlier, impeachment proceedings led to President Nixon’s resigna­tion for abuses of power and misconduct in office.  Success depended on three things: (1) factually-based hearings with witnesses, (2) biparti­san cooperation and (3) statesmanship.   All three of these were conspicuously missing in the House actions taken during the impeachment of President Clinton.

Chairman Hyde of the Judiciary Commit­tee had promised the American people a fair hear­ing on the Starr report.  Meanwhile, the Republican setback in mid-term elections reduced their majority in the next Congress to almost nothing.  Instead of a deliberative, bipartisan approach, far-right House leaders moved with all the speed of “The Roadrunner.”  The “lame duck” House called no witnesses, conducted partisan hearings and had party-line votes.³⁸  The President’s lawyers had to testify without knowledge of what the charges would be.³⁹  

Without waiting for cessation of military operations over Iraq (for UN violations), right-wing leaders drove two impeachment articles through a final House vote in Decem­ber, just days before the people’s newly-elected Congress would con­vene.    At the last minute Speaker Livingston reversed himself saying, “Stop this ... This is crazy ... We’re going to have a censure vote.”  But others prevailed on him to go ahead.⁴⁰

The House action was a rush to judgment never before witnessed on a matter of such profound importance.  A few moderate Republicans refused to go along.  Several others immediately regretted their vote and said so publicly ... but it was too late.⁴¹

House leader Delay's mission:

To force the President to resign

House leaders would not permit a vote on censure ... the one option favored by most Americans and many in Congress itself.  Powerful Majority Whip Tom DeLay orches­trated events from behind the scenes.   He crushed all attempts to consider censure the moment they arose.  As a result, moderate congress­men on both sides had no middle ground to vote their con­sciences.

DeLay realized the Sen­ate would not convict.  His real mission was to drive Clinton from office ... first impeach, and then force him to resign.  He ordered his staff to “dedicate yourselves to it or leave” (his employ) ... “to work day and night.”  He took this step in August ’98, before receipt of Starr’s report.⁴²