| The big question was whether I would mention the controversyI began with what was not in disputeThe country was in good shape, with fourteen million new jobs, rising incomes, the highest rate of home ownership ever, the fewest people on the welfare rolls in twenty-seven years, and the smallest federal government in thirty-five yearsThe 1993 economic plan had cut the deficit, projected to be $357 billion in 1998, by 90 percent, and the previous years balanced budget plan would get rid of it entirely
Then I outlined my plan for the futureFirst, I proposed that before spending the coming surpluses on new programs or tax cuts, we should save Social Security for the baby boomers retirementIn education, I recommended funding to hire 100,000 new teachers and to cut class size to eighteen in the first three grades; a plan to help communities modernize or build five thousand schools; and assistance to help schools end the practice of social promotion, by providing funds for extra learning in after-school or summer-school programsI reiterated my support for a Patients Bill of Rights, opening Medicare to Americans between the ages of fifty-five and sixty-five, expanding the Family and Medical Leave Act, and called for a large enough expansion in federal child-care assistance to provide support for one million more children
On the security front, I asked for congressional support in combating an unholy axis of new threats from terrorists, international criminals, and drug traffickers; Senate approval of the expansion of NATO; and continued funding for our mission in Bosnia and our efforts to confront the hazards of chemical and biological weapons and the outlaw states, terrorists, and organized criminals seeking to acquire them
The last section of my speech dealt with appeals to bring America together and look to the future: tripling the number of empowerment zones in poor communities; launching a new clean water initiative for our rivers, lakes, and coastal waters; providing $6 billion in tax cuts and research funds for the development of fuel-efficient cars, clean-energy homes, and renewable energy; financing the next generation Internet to transmit information up to a thousand times faster; and funding the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, which, because of congressional hostility, didnt have the resources to handle sixty thousand backlogged cases alleging discrimination in the workplaceI also proposed the largest increase in history for the National Institutes of Health, the rolex sport watch National Cancer Institute, and the National Science Foundation so that ours will be the generation that finally wins the war against cancer and begins a revolution in our fight against all deadly diseases
I closed the speech thanking Hillary for leading our millennium campaign to preserve Americas treasures, including the tattered old Star Spangled Banner, which inspired Francis Scott Key to write our national anthem during the War of 1812
There wasnt a word in the address about the scandal, and the biggest new idea had been to save Social Security firstI was afraid Congress would get into a bidding war for the coming surpluses and squander them on tax cuts and spending before we had dealt with the baby boomers retirementMost Democrats agreed with me, and most Republicans didnt, though over the coming years we would hold a series of bipartisan forums around the country in which, despite everything else that was going on, we searched for common ground, arguing about how to provide for retirement security rather than whether to do so
Two days after the speech, Judge Wright ordered that all evidence related to Monica Lewinsky be excluded from the Jones case because it was not essential to the core issues, making Starrs inquiry into my deposition even more questionable, since perjury requires a false statement about a material matterOn the last day of the month, ten days after the firestorm began, the Chicago Tribune published a poll showing that my job approval rating had risen to 72 percentI was determined to show the American people that I was on the job and getting results for them
On February 5 and 6, Tony and Cherie Blair came to the United States for a two-day state visitThey were a sight for sore eyes for both Hillary and meThey made us laugh, and Tony gave me strong support in public, emphasizing our common approach to economic and social problems and to foreign policyWe took them to Camp David for a dinner with Al and Tipper Gore, and held a state dinner at the White House with entertainment by Elton John and Stevie WonderAfter the event Hillary told me that Newt Gingrich, who had been seated at her table with Tony Blair, had said the charges against me were ludicrous, and meaningless even if true, and werent going anywhere
At our press conference, after Tony said that I was not just his colleague but his friend, Mike Frisby, a reporter for the Wall Street Journal, finally asked the question I had been waiting forHe wanted to know whether, given the pain and all the shop for chanel bags issues about my personal life, at what point do you consider that its just not worth it, and do you consider resigning the office? Never, I answeredI said I had tried to take the personal venom out of politics, but the harder I tried, the harder others have pulled in the other directionStill, I would never walk away from the people of this country and the trust theyve placed in me, so Im just going to keep showing up for work
In mid-month, as Tony Blair and I continued to build support around the world for launching air strikes on Iraq in response to the expulsion of the UN inspectors, Kofi Annan secured a last-minute agreement from Saddam Hussein to resume the inspectionsIt seemed that Saddam never moved except when forced to do so
Besides plugging my new initiatives, I spent time working for the McCain-Feingold campaign finance reform bill, which the Senate Republicans killed at the end of the month; swearing in a new surgeon general, DrDavid Satcher, the director of the Centers for Disease Control; touring tornado damage in central Florida; announcing the first grants to help communities strengthen their efforts to prevent violence against women; and raising funds to help Democrats in the coming election
In late January and in February, several White House staffers were called before the grand juryI felt terrible that they had been caught up in all this, especially Betty Currie, who had tried to befriend Monica Lewinsky and was now being punished for itI also felt bad that Vernon Jordan had been caught up in the maelstromWe had been close friends for so long, and time and again I had seen him help people who needed itNow he was being targeted because of meI knew he hadnt done anything wrong and hoped someday he would be able to forgive me for the mess I had gotten him into
Starr also subpoenaed Sidney Blumenthal, a journalist and old friend of Hillarys and mine who had come to work in the White House in July 1997According to the Washington Post, Starr was exploring whether Sids criticism of him amounted to an obstruction of justiceIt was a chilling indication of how thin-skinned Starr was, and how willing to use the power of his office against anyone who criticized himStarr also subpoenaed two private investigators who had been hired by the National Enquirer to run down a rumor that he had been having an affair with a woman in Little RockThe rumor was false, apparently a case of mistaken identity, but again, it reflected a double standardHe was using FBI agents and private chanel lookalike bags cheap investigators to look into my lifeWhen a tabloid looked at his, he went after them
Starrs tactics were beginning to draw the attention of the pressNewsweek published a two-page chart, Conspiracy or Coincidence, which traced the connections of more than twenty conservative activists and organizations that had promoted and financed the scandals Starr was investigatingThe Washington Post ran a story in which a number of former federal prosecutors expressed discomfort not just with Starrs new focus on my private conduct, but with the arsenal of weapons he has deployed to try to make his case against the president
Starr was particularly criticized for forcing Monica Lewinskys mother to testify against her willFederal guidelines, which Starr was supposed to follow, said that family members should ordinarily not be forced to testify unless they were part of the criminal activity being investigated, or there were overriding prosecutorial concernsBy early February, according to an NBC News poll, only 26 percent of the American people thought Starr was conducting an impartial inquiry
The saga continued into MarchMy deposition in the Jones case was leaked, obviously by someone on the Jones sideAlthough the judge had repeatedly warned the Rutherford Institute lawyers not to leak it, no one was ever sanctionedOn the eighth, Jim McDougal died in a federal prison in Texas, a sad and ironic end to his long downward slideAccording to Susan McDougal, Jim had changed his story to suit Starr and Hick Ewing because he desperately wanted to avoid dying in jail
In mid-month, 60 Minutes ran an interview with a woman named Kathleen Willey, who claimed I had made an unwanted advance toward her while she was working in the White HouseWe had evidence that cast doubt on her story, including the affidavit of her friend Julie Hiatt Steele, who said Willey had asked her to lie by saying she had told Steele about the alleged episode shortly after it happened, when in fact she hadnt
Willeys husband had killed himself, leaving her responsible for more than $200,000 of outstanding debtWithin a week, news stories reported that after I called her to offer my condolences on her husbands death, she had told people I was coming to his funeral; this was after the alleged incidentEventually we released about a dozen letters Willey had written to me, again after the alleged encounter, saying things like she was my number one fan and that she wanted to help me in any way that I canAfter a report that she had sought chanel shopping bag $300,000 to tell her story to a tabloid or in a book, the story faded away
I mention Willeys sad tale here because of what Starr did with itFirst, in a highly unusual move, he gave her transactional immunitycomplete protection against any kind of criminal prosecutionprovided she told him the truthWhen she was caught being untruthful about some embarrassing details involving another man, Starr just gave her immunity againBy contrast, when Julie Hiatt Steele, a registered Republican, refused to change her story and lie for Starr, he indicted herEven though she wasnt convicted, it ruined her financiallyStarrs office even sought to challenge the legality of her adoption of a baby from RomaniaPatricks Day, I met with the leaders of all of the political parties in Northern Ireland that were participating in the political process, and had extended visits with Gerry Adams and David TrimbleTony Blair and Bertie Ahern wanted to reach an agreementMy role was basically to keep reassuring and pushing all the parties into the framework George Mitchell was constructingThere were hard compromises still ahead, but I thought we were getting there
A few days later, Hillary and I flew to Africa, far away from the clamor at homeAfrica was a continent that America had too often ignored, and one that I believed would play a large role for good or ill in the twenty-first centuryI was really glad Hillary was going with me; she had loved the trip she and Chelsea had made to Africa the previous year, and we needed the time away together
The visit began in Ghana, where President Jerry Rawlings and his wife, Nana Konadu Agyemang, got us off to a rousing start with a ceremony in Independence Square; it was filled with more than half a million peopleWe were flanked on the stage by tribal kings draped in bright-colored native kente cloth and entertained by African rhythms played by several Ghanaians on by far the largest drum I had ever seen
I liked Rawlings and respected the fact that after seizing power in a military coup, he was elected and reelected president, and was committed to relinquishing his office in 2000Besides, we had an indirect family connection: when Chelsea was born, the doctor was assisted by a wonderful Ghanaian midwife who had come to Arkansas to continue her educationHillary and I came to like Hagar Sam very much and were pleased to learn she had also helped to deliver the four Rawlings children
On the twenty-fourth, we were in Uganda to meet with President Yoweri Museveni and his wife, replica louis vuitton wallets J |
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