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 Five
Independent Counsel, Lawyers, Impeachment,
History
What did you expect? The lawyers are
in charge!
"The Pope couldn't stand up under this investigation."
J. Guerin
Jimmy Carter was also subject to an Independent
Counsel who investigated loans by the National Bank of Georgia. The
difference was at the outset President Carter pledged to cooperate fully,
and did so, responding rather than quashing subpoenas, raised no claims
of attorney client or executive privilege, and made or permitted no leaks
or public statements or attacks against the special prosecutor.
If the law is against you, argue the facts;
if the facts are against you, argue the law; if both the facts and the
law are against you, attack the prosecutor. Legal aphorism
"It is awfully tough to argue that the Republicans
-- who, so far, are two Speakers and five House seats in the hole -- are
behaving the way they are as the result of cool partisan calculations,
based on a careful analysis of the latest [polling] data." E. Kolbert
"I don't want to have to work for this position,
I just want it to be given to me." M. Lewinsky. Lewinsky obtained
a job within 48 hours of signing the affidavit that falsely said she was
never alone with Clinton.
"What has been missing is a living witness."
Bob Woodward
"The pattern of obstruction of justice, false
statements, and misuse of executive authority in the Lewinsky investigation
did not occur in a vacuum.... After a through investigation, we have
found no explanation how the billing records got where they were or why
they were not discovered and produced earlier. It remains a mystery
to this day." K. Starr
"Pity the man in the grip of his lawyers.
Our hapless, intern-diddling, lame-excuse mongering, oops-I-made-a-boo-boo,
come-to-Jesus President is such a man." H. Hertzberg
The Clintons' legal bills are estimated to exceed
$6 million. So far none has come out of their own resources.
Although it is highly unusual for a defendant
in a civil action which has been dismissed to pay the plaintiff anything,
Clinton agreed to pay Paula Jones $850,000 evidently to stop her from filing
an appeal. $475,000 of this amount was paid by an insurance company,
the remaining $375,000 came from Hillary Clinton's assets held in a blind
trust.
"It takes a remarkable person to further tarnish
the reputations of both politicians and lawyers." HobieDog
"The day people stop doing silly stuff is
the day all of us lawyers go out of business. I think it's stupid
to fool around with an intern when you're being sued. But these things
happen. And they happen to smart people like Bill Clinton.
And if we impeach people for being silly and doing inappropriate things,
we'll wipe Congress out." Rep. Lindsey Graham
"To sit for seven hours and not
talk is an unnatural act for a U.S. Senator."
Sen. Max Cleland
"I would like to inform members of the Senate
and the parties in this case of my need to stand on occasion to stretch
my back." Chief Justice Rehnquist
"At the three hour mark, news workers in the press gallery speculated
that at least two of the senators seated so glumly below might have slipped
into either some deeper level of rumination upon the case than their colleagues
had achieved, or perchance, into brief, involuntary and ultimately self-alarming
cat-naps at their desk." F. Clines NYTimes 1/15/99
"The impeachment process is a crucial fork
in America's experiment in democracy. Do we any longer expect one
another to tell the truth and to live by our word, or has this concept
become corny and outdated? And this is to say nothing of when one
is under oath-- a matter that strikes at the heart of our justice system,
democracy, and the rule of law." Roger Baglin
"A decisive factor is conduct that fatally
compromises the President in his ability to do his job." J. Woods,
leader of the Judicial Committees' Task Force on constitutional issues
in 1974. Both H. Clinton and W. Weld served on this task force.
"History will track you down and condemn you
for your cravenness." Princeton historian, Sean Wilentz, trying to
intimidate House members to not vote for impeachment
"Impeachment is provided not as punishment
but as protection against unfit leadership. Thus the question is,
can Bill Clinton be trusted with the power of the Presidency? Mr.
Clinton's demonstrated lack of judgment and self-discipline and his history
of lying, denying personal responsibility, defaming his opponents and placing
his own interests above those of his family, friends, associates and country
dictate that he be held accountable for his impeachable behavior and be
removed from office." Doris Kabureck
"He mooned Congress." Congressional
Republican Aide
on Clinton's response to the 81 questions.
White House officials are giggling that if the
Republicans vote for impeachment, it will be political suicide... "Paula
Jonestown" as one Clinton aide sniggers.
"The Republicans don't have to worry about
any political fallout because the attention span of Americans is, 'Which
movie is coming out next month?'" Former Sen. A. Simpson
"If studies of jury behavior are reliable,
then the lurid details of the Starr report -- the stain, the cigar, the
phone sex-- may paralyze the Presidency quite aside from the legal charges
against him. Congress may find it difficult to resist the urge to
condemn him as a bad person, even if there is no evidence that he has committed
high crimes and misdemeanors." Jeffrey Rosen
"It could end up having a positive impact
because after we come out of the trial there's going to be a desire on
both ends of Pennsylvania Avenue to show constructive action. The
issue that's sitting there is Social Security." Rep. J. Gregg
"If both sides think they're better off by doing nothing and blaming
the other, we'll get nowhere." Rep. J. Kolbe
"The question for a lot of Congressional Democrats
is why we should do anything to help build a record of accomplishment for
the Republican Congress." Senior House Democratic aide. NYT
1/11/99
"If men were angles, no government would be
necessary." James Madison
"It is tremendous folly to put trashy people in
positions of trust and conspicuousness." G. Will
"The new morality is you can live a lie as
long as you don't deny it under oath before a grand jury." Daniel
Schorr
Four teachers who had gathered in the English
and social services department offices said they were horrified to learn
that their students were better versed in the report's findings than they
were. Hackensack High School
Political candidates have become stars, primaries
casting calls, campaigns auditions, the President the Entertainer-in-chief,
and the electorate, the audience. Life the Movie by Neal Gabler
"The classic tragic hero is an extraordinary
man brought down by some tragic flaw or weakness, and his downfall, in
turn, weakens the fabric of his society. Underlying all tragic flaws is
the concept of hubris, or pride, which probably corresponds in the modern
setting to President Clinton's strong sense of denial and invulnerability."
Joseph Meledin, Letters, Newsweek 9/14/98
"I think that life and posterity will punish
Mr. Clinton more severely than Congress." Maureen Dowd
"American democracy has always been idealistic.
We cherish it not because we believe it to be the most efficient form of
government, but because we believe democracy, and the liberty it protects,
to be morally right. Perhaps we Americans are naive to expect our
leaders to behave properly and to tell the truth. Clinton, like Nixon,
has again disabused us of these notions. I hope however, that in
losing our naiveté we do not also abandon our ideals." M.
Meckler
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Copyright original material and format only, Hobiedog,
1999
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