The Best 200 Zippergate Quotes
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"Words at great moments of history are deeds."
C. Attlee's tribute to Churchill's wartime statements


Page Four:
Perjury, Foreign Reaction, Credibility, Moral Authority


"I am looking forward to the opportunity in the next few days of testifying.  I will do so completely and truthfully." B. Clinton
After being Sworn-in before the Grand Jury on August 17, 1998:
Q:  You have a privilege against self-incrimination.  If a truthful answer to any question would tend to incriminate you, you can invoke the privilege and that invocation will not be used against you.  Do you understand that?
A: I do
Q: And if you don't invoke it, however, any answer that you give can and will be used against you.  Do you understand that sir?
A: I do.
Q: And do you understand that because you have sworn to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, that if you were to lie or intentionally mislead the grand jury, you could be prosecuted for perjury and/or obstruction of justice?
A: I believe that is correct....
Q: You understand that it requires you to give the whole truth, that is, a complete answer to each question, sir?
A:  I will answer each question as accurately and fully as I can.
"Reasonable people might determine that the President had lied, both in a civil deposition in the Paula Jones case and in grand jury testimony, about his affair with Monica S. Lewinsky." C. Ruff, lead Clinton counsel
Q.  Did you have an extramarital affair with Monica Lewinsky?   A. No  Court Deposition 1/17/98
"Was he trying to mislead the Paula Jones lawyers?  Absolutely."  David Kendall, Clinton's private lawyer
"We categorically reject any suggestion, implicit or otherwise, that perjury is somehow less serious when made in a civil proceeding.  Perjury, regardless of the setting, is a  serious offense that results in incalculable harm to the functioning and integrity of the legal system as well as to private individuals."  U.S. Court of Appeals, 1994, 11th Circuit
"He's not only an officer of the court as a lawyer, he's the nation's chief law-enforcement officer, and you can't let a man in that position lie with impunity to a grand jury.  If he can do it, why can't the little guy?"  Former White House official
The Department of Justice Manual specifically addresses what it labels "The 'I Don't Remember Syndrome."  It explains that a witness who claims he cannot remember a fact can be prosecuted for perjury if it can be shown that, at one point, he knew the fact and that when he testified he must have remembered it.  Rep. P. Hoekstra
"This is what my lawyer taught me.  You really don't very often say 'no' unless you really need to.  The best is, 'Well, not that I recall, not that I really remember.  Might have, but I don't really remember."  M. Lewinsky about her first lawyer obtained by Vernon Jordan.
"The President has an extraordinary memory."  Vernon Jordan
"Well I don't know if I would -- maybe that's what she said I should have.  I don't remember.  But I have no recollections, sir, of asking her to come to my room.  I -- and I -- I'm sorry, I don't.  I can't -- I won't deny calling her.  I don't know if I did call her.  I don't know if she tried to call me first.  I don't know anything about that."  Clinton, before the grand jury when asked if he had asked for K. Willey's telephone number and called her as the telephone records indicated.
"Most of us know the President well enough that he has a bear trap memory, and here he was acting like he had Alzheimer's."  Rep. James Moran
"For the President of the United States to lie before a grand jury is a big deal.  I don't care if the lie is about a fender-bender or about sex.  We always knew that perjury before a grand jury was a dastardly, very serious act that most people would not tolerate."  Longtime advisor
Kenneth Starr did not use the word 'perjury' in telling the House of Representatives that there were 11 possible grounds for impeaching the President.

 "United Sex of America"
Words under a picture of Clinton on a billboard in India
"This is a man who has always had a very difficult time making up his mind about taking military action.  This time, he was very decisive.  I believe it was the right thing to do, but you can't tell me that it was unrelated to the domestic political situation."  Ranking foreign policy expert on the bombing in August.
"I was shocked when my son returned from a 22 month bike trip around the world and told me that the ordinary people he met all over the globe reacted to his saying he was an American with snide jokes or questions about his President's sex life."  G. Wills
"The Clinton scandal has made newspaper history in Japan.  Asahi Shimbun, with 12 million circulation, one of the largest newspapers in Japan, printed the words 'oral sex' on the front page for the first time in its 120 year old history.  Many readers called Asahi Shimbun and asked 'How do I explain these words to my kids?'" Miho Nagano
Intelligence reports showed that unfriendly nations as far-flung as Libya, Cuba, and Iraq had down-loaded the Starr Report from the Internet.  "They see the President as tarnished, probably irretrievably, and they are wondering how they can capitalize on it."  Senior American diplomat.
Since the Starr Report is in the public domain, it has been widely and freely translated and published and sold all over the world.  In China the Starr Report is considered pornography and in paperback is hard to get.
"I think in a sense foreign policy has been paralyzed."  Sen. J. Biden, ranking Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee
Anti-American demonstrators in the Sudan carried signs that bore cartoons of Ms. Lewinsky and the words "wag the dog" after the bombing.
"Two more years of a neutered chief executive, whose promises are not trusted on Capitol Hill and whose threats are not heeded by the Suddam Husseins of the world, are a high price to pay for avoiding a Senate Trial."  David Broder
Russian nesting dolls include figures of Paula, Gennifer, Monica, and Kathleen
A parade float in Germany featured a large figure of Clinton "inappropriately" groping the Statute of Liberty.
"The State Duma appeals to Lewinsky to undertake corresponding measures to restrain the emotions of Bill Clinton."  Motion by lawmakers in the Russian legislature to have Lewinsky help halt the attack on Iraq
"We were finding that every time we went past Bill Clinton the zipper was undone."  V. Brown on why they had to sew closed the fly on the presidential mannequin at Mdme. Tussaud's museum in Sydney, Australia
"We don't watch just Clinton's scandal drama in Washington.  We are watching America's justice, politics, family, and the next century behind the scene."  Miho Nagano


 "I think Clinton is finished as a serious president, whether he stays in office or not.  He's lost his credibility, his moral authority."  J. Califano, former Democratic cabinet member
"The President's relationship with Ms. Lewinsky not only contradicted the values he has publicly embraced over the last 6 years.  It has I fear, compromised his moral authority at a time when Americans of every political persuasion agree that the decline in the family is one of the most pressing problems we face."  Sen. Joseph Lieberman, September, 1998
Over 100 newspapers in the United States have called for Clinton to resign.
"When a Japanese prime minister has been caught in big scandal of any type, he has to leave office.  This is an implicit rule of Japanese politics.  Showing apology by resigning is called 'misogi,' which means purification." Miho Nagano
"A great vacuum has been created.  A vacuum of trust.  Without trust, no President can lead effectively.  So why not resign and mitigate the pain yet to be inflicted." B. Lovell
"Perhaps his political power will return.  But his moral authority is gone forever."  Dick Morris
"Through his wasteful campaign of deception, Mr. Clinton lost the tools he might have used to win important battles.  The power of the President's word is one of these of course; another is the unmatched platform that allows Presidents to mobilize Government officials and the citizens at large to common action.  If a President cannot call a news conference for fear of being asked embarrassing questions, he has no such platform."  Doris and Richard Goodwin
"This is a president described by his own White House counsel as a man who 'betrayed the trust placed in him not only by his loved ones, but by the American people,' a president who, the Judiciary Democrats said in their proffered censure resolution, has 'violated the trust of the American people, lessened their esteem for the office of the president and dishonored the office which they have entrusted to him.'  Should such a president remain?  Can such a president govern effectively?"  David Broder


The Best 200 Zippergate Quotes
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Copyright original material and format only, Hobiedog, 1999
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