WJPBR Email News List [EMAIL PROTECTED] Peace at any cost is a prelude to war! **COPYRIGHT NOTICE** In accordance with Title 17 U. S. C. Section 107, any copyrighted work in this message is distributed under fair use without profit or payment to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for nonprofit research and educational purposes only.[Ref. http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml ]
WJPBR Email News List [EMAIL PROTECTED] Peace at any cost is a prelude to war! Clinton gets angry at reporter's questions at picnic by James V. Grimaldi Seattle Times Washington bureau WASHINGTON - The president seemed buoyant and relaxed. He was smiling, shaking hands and socializing with reporters Friday night during the annual picnic for members of the White House press corps when a guest asked, "When are you going to have your next formal press conference, Mr. President?" President Clinton kept shaking hands and after a few moments said: "I don't know. I'll have one." The reporter, Paul Sperry, Washington bureau chief of Investor's Business Daily, asked, "When?" The president replied, "Why?" Sperry: "The American people have a lot of questions about illegal money from China and the campaign-finance scandal." Suddenly, the president's mood changed, his face turned red and he launched into an argument that lasted nearly 10 minutes as he defended himself and the Democratic Party against allegations of Chinese attempts to influence the 1996 U.S. presidential election. During the extraordinary exchange, Clinton suggested that Republicans were hypocrites on the subject of campaign-finance violations. He complained about the length and cost of the investigation and suggested that the FBI would prefer that the news media report on political funding irregularities rather than questions about the April 19, 1993, federal raid on the Branch Davidian compound in Waco, Texas. "We've spent $4 million and gave the (campaign-finance) task force millions of records and every shred of evidence, and they haven't found a thing," Clinton told Sperry. Sperry replied that FBI agents who testified before Congress this month raised serious allegations of Department of Justice stonewalling on the campaign-finance matter and reminded him that FBI Director Louis Freeh thought enough evidence existed to call for an independent counsel. At that, Clinton laughed and said, "Yeah, the FBI wants you to write about that rather than write about Waco." President Clinton and the FBI have been at odds during the investigation of allegations that China attempted to make illegal donations to Democrats in 1996, but the comment marks one of the first times Clinton has publicly expressed this level of exasperation over the nation's chief law-enforcement agency. `Pretty peculiar' Brookings Institution presidential scholar Stephen Hess said he found the president's anger unusual, given that Clinton has survived a series of political storms, investigations and attacks on his presidency. "The idea that the president is acting as if the FBI is some kind of independent operation that is outside the executive branch of government and is trying to do him in is pretty fascinating," Hess said. "It is very peculiar that this guy would have gotten under his skin in this way, that he would have answered him in this nondiplomatic manner when he could have just pushed him down the receiving line. It is not typical. He has this temper, and it flares up from time to time, but not that often." American Enterprise Institute political scientist Norm Ornstein said that given the recent testimony of FBI agents regarding the handling of the campaign-finance probe and the earlier memo, the president's reaction could have been anticipated. "What the FBI agents did was naturally going to get a tremendous amount of antagonism in return from the Justice Department officials and the White House," Ornstein said. On the Waco issue, Clinton has publicly backed Attorney General Janet Reno but has remained cool toward the FBI - which is part of the Justice Department - after recent revelations that FBI officials might have misled Reno and Congress about federal agents' actions during the Branch Davidian siege. `Ready to engage' White House spokesman Mike Hammer, who was too far away to hear the conversation, said the president has in recent months made himself more accessible to reporters. "We've had several press conference, and he is planning to be having another fairly soon," Hammer said yesterday. "The president is always ready to engage, as he did last night." Clinton began his response to Sperry by saying that Republicans were as sullied as Democrats by campaign-finance allegations. "You want to know the only person who has been linked to money from China? Haley Barbour and the RNC, that's who," he said. He apparently was referring to allegations by former Democratic fund-raiser Johnny Chung, who told investigators that he was told by a Chinese contact that an aide to Barbour - who was then the chairman of the Republican National Committee - helped arrange a $2.1 million loan to Republicans with the help of the Chinese in 1994. The aide's attorney has denied the allegation. The president suggested that reporters were bowing to an agenda set by Republicans and not following the issues the people care about. "The GOP wants that to be the story rather than guns or their tax plan," Clinton said. Sperry replied that the public wanted answers about the allegations of illegal contributions. But Clinton wasn't buying it. "I've been all around this country, and you are the first person to ask me about it," Clinton said. "Not one person has brought that up." The conversation got so heated that a White House photographer attempted to end it. "This is so inappropriate," the photographer said, defending the president. "Mr. President, there is a nice little boy here who wants to shake your hand." Midway through the encounter, the president tried to downplay any lingering concern he had about the campaign-finance issue, saying, "I don't have to run for re-election anymore." At one another point, Clinton directly criticized the reporter and the tone and tenor of his questions, calling them accusatory. Both Ornstein and Hess suggested that it was rude for the reporter to argue with the president at a party to which he was invited. The party on the South Lawn of the White House was "Jazz on the Lawn," and featured blues, jazz and zydeco bands and Cajun food and Chicago barbecue. Yesterday, Sperry said he regretted that the exchange got out of hand. "I hope he didn't think I was trying to ambush him," Sperry said. "I really wasn't. I really feel bad that that happened and it was such a scene." Sperry said he was hoping to encourage a news conference soon to answer questions raised by the FBI agents at the congressional hearing. Near the end of the exchange Friday, the reporter again told the president that, and suggested he answer the questions. Replied the president: "I just did." God bless America Dr Kamikaze "If Darwinism is true, may we hope that liberals will someday evolve into a higher life form?" Joe Sobran "An army of sheep led by a lion would defeat an army of lions led by a sheep" Arab proverb **COPYRIGHT NOTICE** In accordance with Title 17 U. S. C. Section 107, any copyrighted work in this message is distributed under fair use without profit or payment to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for nonprofit research and educational purposes only.[Ref. http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml ]
