Posted by
Gabrielle Cusumano on Saturday, February 24, 2007 4:57:02 PM
"Clinton has managed more Houdini-like exploits (and catch-me-if-you-can, truth-defying declarations) than the slickest of pols." Time Magazine August 31, 1998
Lies, Tight Spots(and other near death experiences)
By Tamala M. Edwards and Romesh Ratnesar
(TIME, August 31) -- Clinton has managed more Houdini-like exploits (and catch-me-if-you-can, truth-defying declarations) than the slickest of pols. A sampling:
Arkansas Arrogance
Tight Spot
Presidential ambitions go up in smoke in 1980 after he loses re-election as Governor to an underdog.
Escape Hatch
Apologizes for raising taxes; wife softens her image; in '82, he becomes first defeated Governor in the state to regain his seat.
Luv Ya, Little Rock
Lie
In 1990, while running for Governor, he is asked, "Will you guarantee to us that, if re-elected, there is absolutely, positively no way that you'll run for any other political office and that you'll serve out your term in full?" Clinton responds, "You bet...That's the job I want. That's the job I'll do for the next four years."
Reality Check
In 1991, Clinton announces his candidacy for President.
The Longest Speech
Tight Spot
Billed as the man to watch at the 1988 Democratic Convention, he delivers a turgid address that has Johnny Carson turning him into national joke.
Escape Hatch
Pals Harry and Linda Bloodworth-Thomason use their clout to get him on Carson's show. Clinton plays the sax and makes fun of himself. More people watch the show than the speech.
The Draft Dodge
Lie
Early in the 1992 presidential campaign, he says that "it was simply a fluke that I wasn't called" to serve in the Vietnam War. "I was just lucky, I guess," he shrugs. Clinton also says he "never received any unusual or favorable treatment" that helped him avoid the draft.
Reality Check
Clinton receives an induction notice while at Oxford in 1969 and asks the draft board to postpone it until the end of the term, after which he enrolls in an ROTC program in Arkansas. A well-connected uncle also successfully lobbies the board on Clinton's behalf.
The Flowers Affair
Tight Spot
As the primaries began in 1992, the Star tabloid prints the accusations of Gennifer Flowers, a sometime Little Rock lounge singer, that for 12 years Clinton's interest in her went beyond music appreciation.
Escape Hatch
"I'm not some little woman standing by my man like Tammy Wynette," says Hillary on 60 Minutes, as Clinton denies the affair but admits causing "pain in my marriage." Clinton cruises to the nomination.
"I Didn't Inhale"
Lie
Beginning in 1987, he repeatedly responds to inquiries about past drug use by saying he has "never broken the laws of my state" or "country."
Reality Check
Pressed during the 1992 Democratic primaries about whether he had broken any state, national or international laws, Clinton confesses, "I've never broken a state law, but when I was in England I experimented with marijuana a time or two, and I didn't like it. I didn't inhale and never tried it again."
The Newt Scare
Tight Spot
Clinton advocates a national health-care system, and the country sends him to intensive care. Result: the 1994 seizure of the House by the G.O.P.--the first time the party has done so in 40 years. Newt Gingrich is dubbed the most powerful man in America.
Escape Hatch
Gingrich miscalculates, shutting down the government when budget talks fizzle. The G.O.P. gets blamed for everything from putting people out of work to closing Yosemite. Clinton then steals prized G.O.P. jewels--a balanced budget and welfare reform. He wins re-election handily in 1996.
White Lie No. 1
Fib
In 1996 Clinton says he has "vivid and painful" childhood memories of black-church burnings in Arkansas.
Reality Check
The director of the Arkansas History Commission says, "I've never known of a black church being burned in Arkansas."
White Lie No. 2
Fib
Asked in 1993 about his taste for fast food, the President replies, "I don't eat much junk food."
Reality Check
Quickly amends remark to say, "I don't necessarily consider McDonald's junk food. I eat at McDonald's and Burger King and these other fast-food places. A lot of them have very nutritious food...chicken sandwiches...salads ..."
White Lie No. 3
Fib
Claims he shot a 79 on a Martha's Vineyard golf course.
Reality Check
He rarely shoots below 90. Reporters saw him hit three tee shots on one hole into the trees. |
| In TIME This Week |
Cover Date: August 31, 1998
• "I Misled People"
• Leading By Leaving
• Blowing His Stack
• Justice Should Come Before Closure
• The View From Congress
• Lies, Tight Spots
• How We Really Feel About Fidelity
• Is This What We Expect?
• Can We Get On to Something Serious?
• Finally, the Telltale Lie
• That's Where He Lost Me
• The Notebook: Clinton Loses Touch
• President Gantry Addresses The Flock
| http://www.cnn.com/ALLPOLITICS/1998/08/20/time/escape.artist.html
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Clinton's three lies, according to Starr
By Brooks Jackson/CNN
(Editor's Note: This story contains explicit language.)
WASHINGTON (September 21) -- Independent Counsel Ken Starr says President Bill Clinton's videotaped testimony contains three lies -- three instances of perjury to the federal grand jury.
Lie number one, according to Starr: Oral sex is not sex.
"Is oral sex performed on you within that definition as you understood it?" Clinton was asked during his August 17 testimony, viewed by the public for the first time Monday.
"As I understood it, it was not, no," the president answered.
Lawyers in the Paula Jones sexual harrassment case defined "sexual relations" as engaging in or causing "contact with the genitalia, anus, groin, breast, inner thigh or buttocks of any person..."
But the president said,"If the deponent is the person who has oral sex performed on him, then the contact is with -- not with anything on that list -- but with the lips of another person."
Starr didn't buy that explanation.
"That testimony is not credible. At the Jones deposition, the president could not have believed he was telling the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth," the independent counsel wrote to Congress.
The president's lawyers said in rebuttal that oral sex "plainly" falls outside the Jones definition.
Lie number two, alleged by Starr
Lie number two, according to Starr: It was a one-way relationship.
The president seemed to deny kissing Lewinsky's breasts or touching her breast or groin.
"So you didn't do any of those three things with Monica Lewinsky?" Clinton was asked.
"You are free to infer that my testimony is that I did not have sexual relations, as I understood this term to be defined," Clinton answered.
"Including, touching her breast, kissing her breast, or touching her genitalia?" prosecutors asked again.
"That's correct," Clinton said.
But Lewinsky testified that the president touched her sexually nine times.
"Out of all of the times you had intimate contact, were there times when the president would touch you either on the breasts or in the genital area directly to the skin or was it always though clothing?" prosecutors asked Lewinsky during her sworn grand jury testimony.
"Directly to the skin. Both," Lewinsky answered.
Starr believes the president lied again.
"On all nine of those occasions, the president fondled and kissed her bare breasts. He touched her genitals ... bringing her to orgasm on two occasions," Starr wrote.
The independent counsel claims Lewinsky's version is backed up by testimony from friends and family members who say she told them about the encounters at the time and by a letter Lewinsky drafted to the president referring to sexual touching.
"Either Monica Lewinsky lied to the grand jury, or President Clinton lied ... under any rational view of the evidence, the president lied," Starr concluded.
The president's lawyers question whether evidence backs up Lewinsky, and say no one can be convicted of perjury just because their testimony conflicts with that of one other witness.
Lie number three
Lie number three, Starr says, is implicit, not explicit: The question of when the affair began.
"When I was alone with Ms. Lewinsky on certain occasions in early 1996 and once in early 1997, I engaged in conduct that was wrong," Clinton admitted in a prepared statement he read during his grand jury testimony.
But Lewinsky testified she first administered oral sex November 15, 1995 and again, two days later. Both encounters happened during the government shutdown, according to Lewinsky.
She said the president tugged at her intern credentials saying that could be "a problem." She said only by their third encounter, on the last day of 1995, was she a full member of the White House staff.
Starr claims the president lied about the dates to cover up the fact that the affair began when Lewinsky was a 22-year-old intern.
Clinton's lawyers call that allegation "frivolous" and said the discrepancy in dates is "an utterly immaterial statement."
Overall Clinton's legal team says there is no evidence that the president knowingly gave false testimony; the questions were ambiguous, and even misleading answers can't be perjury if literally true.
When Clinton testified, he knew Lewinsky was talking to Starr's prosecutors, and he knew his DNA could match a stain on her dress.
Faced with those facts, the president could have invoked the Fifth Amendment, refusing to incriminate himself before the grand jury.
Instead, according to Starr, he continued to lie.  |
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MORE STORIES:
Monday, September 21, 1998
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http://www.cnn.com/ALLPOLITICS/stories/1998/09/21/lies.jackson/
Resolution impeaching William Jefferson Clinton, President of the United States, for high crimes and misdemeanors.
Resolved, that William Jefferson Clinton, President of the United States, is impeached for high crimes and misdemeanors, and that the following articles of impeachment be exhibited to the United States Senate:
Articles of impeachment exhibited by the House of Representatives of the United States of America in the name of itself and of the people of the United States of America, against William Jefferson Clinton, President of the United States of America, in maintenance and support of its impeachment against him for high crimes and misdemeanors.
Article I
In his conduct while President of the United States, William Jefferson Clinton, in violation of his constitutional oath faithfully to execute the office of President of the United States and, to the best of his ability, preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution of the United States, and in violation of his constitutional duty to take care that the laws be faithfully executed, has willfully corrupted and manipulated the judicial process of the United States for his personal gain and exoneration, impeding the administra tion of justice, in that:
On August 17, 1998, William Jefferson Clinton swore to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth before a Federal grand jury of the United States. Contrary to that oath, William Jefferson Clinton willfully provided perjurious, false and misleading testimony to the grand jury concerning one or more of the following:
(1) the nature and details of his relationship with a subordinate Government employee;
(2) prior perjurious, false and misleading testimony he gave in a Federal civil rights action brought against him;
(3) prior false and misleading statements he allowed his attorney to make to a Federal judge in that civil rights action; and
(4) his corrupt efforts to influence the testimony of witnesses and to impede the discovery of evidence in that civil rights action.
In doing this, William Jefferson Clinton has undermined the integrity of his office, has brought disrepute on the Presidency, has betrayed his trust as President, and has acted in a manner subversive of the rule of law and justice, to the manifest injury of the people of the United States.
Wherefore, William Jefferson Clinton, by such conduct, warrants impeachment and trial, and removal from office and disqualification to hold and enjoy any office of honor, trust or profit under the United States.
Roll call vote: Article I passed the committee on a straight party-line 21-16 vote.
| Voting Aye
Henry Hyde (R-Ill.)
James Sensenbrenner (R-Wisc.)
Bill McCollum (R-Fla.)
George Gekas (R-Pa.)
Howard Coble (R-N.C.)
Lamar Smith (R-Texas)
Elton Gallegly (R-Calif.)
Charles Canady (R-Fla.)
Bob Inglis (R-S.C.)
Bob Goodlatte (R-Va.)
Steve Buyer (R-Ind.)
Ed Bryant (R-Tenn.)
Steve Chabot (R-Ohio)
Bob Barr (R-Ga.)
William Jenkins (R-Tenn.)
Asa Hutchinson (R-Ark.)
Edward Pease (R-Ind.)
Christopher Cannon (R-Utah)
James Rogan (R-Calif.)
Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.)
Mary Bono (R-Calif.)
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Voting Nay
John Conyers (D-Mich.)
Barney Frank (D-Mass.)
Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.)
Howard Berman (D-Calif.)
Rick Boucher (D-Va.)
Jerrold Nadler (D-N.Y.)
Bobby Scott (D-Va.)
Mel Watt (D-N.C.)
Zoe Lofgren (D-Calif.)
Sheila Jackson Lee (D-Tex.)
Maxine Waters (D-Calif.)
Martin Meehan (D-Mass.)
William Delahunt (D-Mass.)
Robert Wexler (D-Fla.)
Steven Rothman (D-N.J.)
Thomas Barrett (D-Wis.)
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http://www.cnn.com/ALLPOLITICS/resources/1998/lewinsky/articles.of.impeachment/ |
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Former Clinton Aide: Bill Told Outrageous Lies to Win Reelection and Lost the Nuclear Codes!
News Pundit.net ^ | 3/15/2003 | Douglas Oliver
This is shocking news this morning as revealed by a "Washington Whispers" report by U. S. News reporter Paul Bedard. The news comes from former military aide Lt. Col. Robert Patterson, who carried the nuclear "football" for President Clinton from May 1996 to May 1998. It is in Patterson's new book: Dereliction of Duty: The Eyewitness Account of How Bill Clinton Compromised America's National Security.
The book crosses a line that no other military aide ever crossed before in condemning his former commander in chief. Click Here for a Full Excerpt.
I quote briefly from the book:
Another shortcoming was dishonesty - not just about golf and extramarital affairs but also about our national security. Such dishonesty said much about the president's priorities. On August 26, 1996, just three months into my tenure, I was accompanying the president in Toledo, Ohio, on one of his many reelection campaign events. I listened to his speech from one of the "hold" rooms offstage. Television images and sound were piped into the room by the White House Communications Agency. I heard President Clinton say, "For the first time since the dawn of the nuclear age, on this beautiful night, there is not a single nuclear missile pointed at a child in the United States of America."
I looked down at the black satchel at my side. "What?" I mumbled out loud. I turned to the military White House doctor along on the trip and asked him, "Did he just say what I think he said?" The doctor shrugged and nodded. It was patently untrue, and anyone with a remote knowledge of military and foreign affairs knew it was untrue.
* * * That autumn, I heard him deliver the line in speeches again and again and again. President Clinton made this claim more than 130 times during the 1996 reelection campaign alone.3 It left me slack-jawed that one of his major campaign themes could be such an obvious, whopping lie. * * *
Of course Clinton's political lying and vote pandering was no secret to anybody who followed news reports regularly. I did not believe the "no-missiles-threaten-us-today" lies when I heard them at the time. But he had a flair for winning the votes of working married couples. Bill Clinton could take any issue, and tie it to the concerns of working families with children. Take any issue, and add in the magic words, " for the children." Lying was just second nature to him. His lies were so smooth, so carefully crafted, and so "larger-than-life."
Amazing, because tying the "for the children" focus was so terribly crude, and so outrageously bold, that it worked time and time again to win votes.
In my humble opinion, Bill Clinton should have been impeached for losing the nuclear codes, and on that basis alone. It was a spectacular violation of our National Security Laws and a cavalier betrayal of the public trust. Clinton's political team working in the White House basement were able to turn the Constitutional process of impeachment for "high crimes and misdemeanors" on its head. They changed the political landscape of America forever with their issue avoidance argument: "It's just about sex."
It is time for people to demand that Bill Clinton just slink away from public view and hide under a rock somewhere.
(Excerpt) Read more at newspundit.net ...
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Atlantic Unbound | January 9, 2007
Interviews
Presidential Lies
Carl M. Cannon, the author of "Untruth and Consequences," talks about the lies our presidents tell us—and the ones they tell themselves.
You covered Clinton’s presidency. Putting aside Monica Lewinsky for the moment, was President Clinton straightforward with the public?
Interestingly enough, it wasn’t easy to cover Bill Clinton. For a lot of reasons. For one, covering his speeches isn’t as simple as covering another president’s speeches because his quotes aren’t that good. He’s articulate, but he’s not eloquent and he reminds you of the difference between the two. I’d come back from an event and think, “Boy! That event was great! Clinton was great, the audience was great…” But then I’d look back to my notebook and realize, “Well, there’s not much there, not much usable.”
But the second thing had to do with his bragging. He was always bragging. Sure, these guys have to brag in order to get elected, but Clinton went way beyond. He was always the biggest, the best, the first—even if he wasn’t. And that’s the clincher: a lot of the stuff he said wasn’t right. So I’d end up thinking—I gotta write this speech and it’s hard enough to convey how electric the atmosphere was, what he was really getting across, why people like him, why even when he gives kind of a nerdy, wonkish answer he’s actually making news because he’s the man with the plan. So you want to write about all that. But on the other hand, all these whoppers have just poured out of his mouth on the record…
Would you typically realize right away that these things were lies or would you only realize it later when going over the transcripts? Did it force you to fact-check the transcripts?
That’s the test. Arguably, every one of his speeches should have been fact-checked. I never heard him speak in public without saying two or three things that were abject bull----. But reporting that isn’t your only job. You’re also covering the president. And Clinton was always making news—making policy, making things happen. Suddenly his policies started to work. That was the real news.
Would I realize the lies were lies right away? Well, when Clinton told The Des Moines Register he was the first president to know anything about farming, I remember listening along and then suddenly thinking, Wait a minute. What could Clinton possibly know about farming? And then quite quickly I remembered that George Washington practically invented the mule, and that there are still Thomas Jefferson varietals of wine around, and how Hoover—whose home state Clinton was in at the time!—saved millions of people from starvation because he knew so much about agriculture distribution. It was a stunning, audacious claim. So I wrote it up.
Was Clinton embarrassed by being called out on this stuff?
I had some run-ins with his staff. There was one story in particular that he loved to tell about cop-killer bullets. Of course, there was no such thing as a cop-killer bullet in 1996. But he would give these speeches proclaiming, “I’m against cop-killer bullets. We gotta stop the manufacture of cop-killer bullets.” What he was apparently referring to were those Teflon-coated bullets used in handguns that could penetrate a bulletproof vest. And he’d come out with these lines like “I never saw a deer in a Kevlar vest.” And I would think, What the hell is he talking about? What are cop-killer bullets?
Finally, Clinton went a little too far for me and I couldn’t stay quiet any longer. He held an event in Chicago with a woman whose husband had been a cop killed on duty. And he made an example out of the guy saying, “We gotta get these cop-killer bullets off the street. This woman’s husband died.” Well, in actuality, the police officer was shot and he did die, but when I finally got the coroner on the phone and asked him about the cop-killer bullet, the coroner seemed stumped. He said, “What do you mean?” I said, “Well, wasn’t he shot in the chest?” and the guy said “Well, yeah…” and I said, “Was he wearing a Kevlar vest?” and he said, “Yeah…” and so I asked, “Well? What about this cop-killer bullet?” and the guy said, “No bullet penetrated that vest.” I said, “Oh, well, what happened?” and he explained that he suspected the bullet had either entered through the sleeve or—and he requested I not quote him—it was a hot day and he had unzipped the vest.
So, I wrote this story up in the Baltimore Sun debunking the cop-killer bullet myth, all the while thinking it wasn’t such a big deal. I mean, Clinton’s heart had been in the right place after all. But the story somehow took off and the administration started taking some heat for Clinton’s exaggerations. I remember press secretary Mike McCurry coming up to me on the train to the Chicago convention—and he just starts yelling at me, “All right, enough already about the cop-killer bullet! I’ve told him [Clinton] five times that the story isn’t right, but he doesn’t care that he’s wrong!”
This was a lot like Reagan, who, when corrected by his staff, would just look at them like they were daft. Reagan stuck to telling his stories his way. Of course, now having said all that, those years seemed like a more innocent time.
http://www.theatlantic.com/doc/200701u/cannon-interview