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Jewish World Review Aug. 4, 1999/ 22 Av 5759

David Limbaugh

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Econophone

What would you do?


http://www.jewishworldreview.com -- IMAGINE THAT YOU ARE a career government worker. You had worked in the Bush White House and grown to admire and respect the president, his family and the integrity of his presidency. Though you voted for Mr. Bush against Clinton you consider yourself to be aligned with neither the Republican nor Democratic parties.

When Clinton wins the election in 1992 you remain at your job in the White House and begin working with the new administration. You make friends in the administration, such as Vince Foster. You even like the president and vigorously support him against his attackers by writing op-eds for newspapers.

As time goes on you begin to see things you don't want to see; hear things you don't want to hear. You observe rampant unethical behavior at the highest levels in the First Residence. You witness the cavalier and illegal handling of FBI files and the firing by the First Family of loyal government workers in the travel office in furtherance of political favors and perks for their friends.

You become aware of the First-Philanderer's incredibly licentious behavior and understand that his many extramarital affairs are common knowledge to everyone working in the White House complex. You are utterly repulsed by the moral environment of this White House and the "tarnishing of the presidency" you had revered for so long, but you are torn as to what you should do about it. You feel you have a duty, as a citizen, to let people know about this outrageous behavior, sexual and otherwise, permeating the White House. But you have completed seventeen years of government employment and strongly desire to accumulate enough years in service to secure your retirement. Your decision to remain silent in the face of what you know about the misbehavior and the cover-ups sickens you with guilt.

You know that you are not the only one in your situation bothered by these things. In fact, your friend, FBI agent, Gary Aldrich, who you know to be a man of impeccable integrity, publishes a book detailing many of the sordid activities of which you are aware. You feel sorry for your friend, but choose to remain silent as you watch him crucified by the White House defamation machine for simply telling the truth. In fact, you know that he probably doesn't know as much as you do. You consider, but decide against, writing a book "to set the record straight from a west wing perspective which is far more telling than what Gary had to say."

Tripp
Your friend, young White House intern Monica Lewinsky, begins to tell you about her affair with the president. You counsel her for a year and a half, and begin to feel like a mother figure to her. You are very concerned about Monica because she is so distraught about the president's "mean-spirited and callous treatment of her."

Newsweek reporter Mike Isikoff approaches you in March of '97 after Kathleen Willey tells him that you could corroborate her story that the president sexually assaulted her. The last thing you want is to become involved in this mess; you haven't even talked to Willey for four years.

Monica approaches you on behalf of the First Boyfriend and urges you to agree to commit perjury in the Paula Jones civil lawsuit with respect to the Willey incident. You learn that Clinton had become aware of your knowledge of this through the Drudge Report. Adding to your anxiety about being called as a witness is the prospect of being deposed by Bob Bennett, the President's attorney who, on behalf of the First Libeler, had called you a liar in a national newspaper.

When you tell Monica you will not lie, especially not in court, she delivers a threat from the First Suborner that "you must lie. You must be a team player. You are a political appointee. This is how you save your job."

Monica tells you the stark reality confronting you: "I'm going to lie, he's going to lie, we are all going to lie. If you don't lie, (you'll face) perjury, jail or worse." You know that Kathleen Willey is an honest person and is telling the truth and that the minor variations between your story and hers are deliberate distortions by the White House.

You know that you have to protect yourself because you are being threatened by the First Obstructer through his anything-but-First paramour, that if you don't commit a felony on his behalf you'll be framed for one. You also feel betrayed by this young, mixed-up, morally rudderless girl who you had been trying to counsel for months. You know that Monica's biggest fear in life (to the point of making her suicidal) is that the First Unreciprocal Intimate Contactee would find out she had shared "their" story with other people. You try to convince her to tell the truth because if the truth becomes public she will no longer be suicidal.

So at the suggestion of another friend you begin to secretly tape record Monica's presidential threats and the rest of the details as an insurance policy against retaliation by the First-Thug. After becoming aware of Monica's DNA tattooed dress, courtesy of the First-Stainer, you suggest to her that she retain it as her own insurance policy.

After the Lewinsky story is nationally publicized you are watching TV when the First-Prevaricator appears and before your eyes, denies the existence of the affair with which you had become painfully familiar. As the weeks unfold your reputation is soiled by the most vicious damage team in the history of the western world.

Daily you are vilified in the press by the First-Ethicist and the most ethical administration in the history of the planet. Your actions and motives are grossly distorted. You are excoriated as evil personified. Your honorable actions in refusing to commit perjury for a felonious president are characterized as the betrayal of a friend. You are amazed at the injustice of being demonized while the real villains in this matter are victimized.

You know that if you hadn't taped Monica and convinced her to preserve the first-semen: a) the First Sociopath, with the help of his armies of first-enablers, would have prevailed in convincing the public that Monica was just one more lying whacko-bimbo trying to rocket to stardom at the expense of the First-Victim; b) Monica would have ended up with even worse treatment than you received -- if that's conceivable -- and you know that she wouldn't have had the emotional stability to endure it; c) the First-Survivor would never have been impeached and we would never know which of the congressmen in both Houses would act with statesmanship or out of partisanship; and d) the First-Spender would have had the last 13 months to devote solely to the task of creating new ways to further encroach upon our lives.

If you had it to do over again, what would you do?


JWR contributor David Limbaugh is an attorney practicing in Cape Girardeau, Missouri, and a political analyst and commentator. Send your comments to him by clicking here. Column used with kind permission of WorldNetDaily.

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