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Jewish World Review/Nov. 17, 1998/ 28 Mar-Cheshvan, 5759
Linda Chavez
To Ken S. --- if you'll only listen
NOT SINCE THE FIRST CHRISTIAN faced the lions in the Roman Coliseum has one man entered so
dangerous an arena as Kenneth Starr does when he appears before the House Judiciary Committee
Thursday. So here's my advice, Judge Starr, based on my own experience having served on the
Judiciary Committee staff during the Nixon impeachment inquiry and having testified before the
committee numerous times.
The most important thing to remember is that these hearings are not a trial before an impartial
judge or jury expected to render a fair verdict based on the evidence. A congressional committee is
about the last place on earth you should expect an unbiased airing of facts. You won't change any
minds on the committee itself, so don't even bother trying.
Your audience is the American public -- and this is your one chance to persuade them that you are
not the Puritanical- zealot-out-to-destroy-a-popular-president that they imagine you to be. You
have only a single opportunity to make a decent impression with a public that has never heard you
speak -- and you'd better do so in the first five minutes, or they'll tune you out.
Your most important task, however, is to convince the American public that Bill Clinton has abused
his office, something they don't yet believe. Richard Nixon's impeachment hearings provide a good
guide. The public didn't care much about the Watergate burglary itself, but they did care about the
elaborate cover-up that involved both the president and his staff. More importantly, they cared
about Nixon's enemies list and the way in which he used federal agencies to hound and destroy
people who disagreed with his policies.
Of course, proving that Richard Nixon was a vindictive, mean hombre -- even to a public that had
just re-elected him in a landslide -- was child's play compared to your task. You've got to show
that the 'I feel your pain' Empathizer in Chief is really an abusive politician who forces others
to lie for him and has corrupted his secretary Betty Currie, the White House staff and the Secret
Service, among others.
Although your initial referral to the Judiciary Committee didn't mention it, you really must say
something about the whole 'Travelgate' affair. There is no clearer case of this president's abuse
of power than his treatment of Billy Dale, the former career employee who headed the White House
travel office until Hillary Rodham Clinton decided the job should go to a Clinton crony.
The president had every right to replace Dale -- and any other member of the White House staff --
but he did not have a right to sic the FBI, the IRS and the Justice Department on him and his
entire family. Even if you can't produce a 'smoking gun' to show that the president himself made
the call to audit Dale's taxes and to prosecute him for embezzlement -- a charge from which a
District of Columbia jury exonerated Dale -- Bill Clinton did nothing to stop Dale's harrowing
persecution. Not since the Nixon years has any administration been as systematic as the Clinton
henchmen have been in their efforts to seek and destroy Clinton's political enemies.
The last thing to remember is that you can't count on any help from the Republicans during these
hearings. Even before the election results turned GOP resolve on impeachment to mush, Republicans
have never figured out how to use public hearings to their advantage. The Democrats are always
better prepared and more disciplined than the Republicans. And the Democrats on Judiciary are the
best attack dogs in the party's kennel.
The ranking minority member, John Conyers, D-Mich., will kill you with kindness, appearing to all
the world the fairest of interlocutors while he filibusters your every chance to speak. Barney
Frank, D-Mass., the smartest and meanest member of the committee, will use his rapier wit to
eviscerate you if he can. And Maxine Waters, D-Calif., will figure some way to make you out a
racist.
Your only protection is to control your temper and remember that the committee members aren't the
ones you must convince. It's the rest of us watching who really count. If you convince us, the
members of the committee will follow our
Second, don't mention sex. Americans don't want to hear about Bill Clinton's weird peccadilloes.
And they already know he lies, so you don't need to spend a lot of time proving the point. But you
should explain why lying under oath is different from other lying, how it undermines our judicial
system, which is the bedrock of every civil society.
Ken S.
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4/21/98: Legislating equality
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4/7/98: Mexican mayhem?
3/31/98: Of death and details
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3/18/98: Intellectual-ghettoes in the name of diversity
3/11/98: Be careful what you wish for ...
3/4/98: The Press' Learning-disability
2/25/98: 50 States Are Enough!
2/18/98: Casey at the Mat
2/11/98: The legal profession's Final Solution
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1/28/98: Clinton, Lewinsky, and Politics Vs. Principle
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12/31/97: Jerry Seinfeld, All-American
12/24/97: Affirmative alternatives: New initiatives for equal opportunity are out there
12/17/97: Opening a window of opportunity (a way out of bilingual education for California's Hispanic kids)