http://www.nypostonline.com/commentary/14646.htm
<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR>
BILL'S NEXT BIG BLUNDER
By DICK MORRIS
WITH friends like Bill, Hillary doesn't need
enemies. First he decided to release the FALN
terrorists. Now he's made another dumb mistake
that will cost his wife's candidacy dearly:
appointing James Lyons, who misled the public
about the true facts of the Whitewater affair in the
1992 election, as a federal circuit court judge.
By inviting the Senate to question Lyons under
oath in confirmation hearings, Clinton will give his
critics a field day and his wife a stomach ache. Bill
Clinton should not want anyone questioning Lyons
in public and under oath.
It was this same James Lyons who first hired
private detective Jack Palladino in the '92
campaign (for $28,000) to assist with the
Whitewater whitewash. Later, Palladino received
almost $100,000 more from the campaign.
It has been widely reported that Palladino's work
in 1992 involved threatening and intimidating
women not to go public with their stories about
Clinton. Since Palladino was paid with public
money (federal campaign matching funds) it would
seem to be appropriate to ask him what he did to
shut the women up. The elusive Palladino has
been hard to pin down. This is the ideal
opportunity. Now that Clinton has served Lyons
up to Congress on a silver platter, the GOP can
question the would-be jurist about what Palladino
did, as his employee, for the $28,000 he paid him.
If there is a trail of cover-up, blackmail and
intimidation by paid White House operatives - the
bunch I've been calling the "White House secret
police" - it should become clearer after Lyons
testifies.
In fact, Congress should prohibit the use of
federal campaign matching funds for detectives or
other invasions of personal privacy. All candidates
for federal office - Gore, Bush, Bradley, and
especially Hillary - should pledge not to hire
operatives to snoop on innocent people.
Lyons testimony about the secret police will just
be the hors d'oeuvre. He has even more to tell
Congress about Hillary's involvement in
Whitewater.
During the '92 campaign, the Clintons hired Lyons
to write a report exonerating them. As columnist
Paul Gigot reported last week in the Wall Street
Journal, "the Lyons report was financial Swiss
cheese." While its conclusion that the Clintons had
lost money on the Whitewater deal gave them a
fig leaf to wear through the election, the report,
according to Gigot, "overstated the Clintons'
investment in Whitewater by more than $22,000,
thus making it appear as if the Clintons were as
much at risk as Jim McDougal." Lyons also
claimed that the Clintons were passive investors
"when," Gigot points out, "Hillary in particular
played a more active role."
In 1992, Lyons refused to release parts of the
report which contained the real facts of the
Whitewater deal, even though federal taxpayer
matching funds paid for it. Now, when he wants
to be confirmed, he will come under new pressure
to let the public know what he and Clinton did not
want them to know in 1992 and what role Hillary
played in the cover-up. Did she help Lyons cook
the books to show the Clintons' innocence?
If Republicans enjoy asking Lyons about the
secret police and Whitewater, they'll have even
more fun asking him about his role in the Travel
Office firings scandal. It seems Lyons stayed
overnight at the White House on July 2, 1993, as
the scandal was brewing. As reported in The
American Spectator, the affair "had preoccupied
the first lady for weeks, not to mention the late
Vince Foster, who was thinking about hiring his
close friend Lyons to be his own attorney in the
Travelgate scandal." Lyons was apparently
scheduled to fly to Washington to meet with
Foster the day after his suicide.
Republicans will want to know if Lyons was
involved in the removal of documents from
Foster's office. since the ubiquitous Lyons visited
White House aide Bruce Lindsey on July 22, two
days after the suicide.
The GOP senators may also explore what Lyons
meant when he called Webb Hubbell on Oct. 25,
1993, and left a message saying "be in town
tomorrow, get together on wed or thurs to
discuss/review WDC [Whitewater Development
Corporation] docs."
In all, the confirmation hearing on James Lyons
promises to be just the sort of event neither Hillary
Clinton nor Al Gore need coming up in the spring.
By trying to pay back the paymaster of the secret
police, Clinton has opened himself and his wife up
to the kind of intense scrutiny they least want.
Clinton must have been dreaming if he thought he
could get Lyons confirmed with the baggage he is
carrying. With Bush 20 points ahead, the GOP is
not exactly eager to confirm Clinton appointees to
the federal bench when leaving the post vacant
could let Republicans fill these choice jobs in
2001.
Normally, it is hard for Clinton to get even
confirmation hearings for his nominees. But you
can bet the Republicans will gladly interrogate
Lyons, right before they reject him, in the middle
of the 2000 election season.
First the FALN, then the McAuliffe mortgage,
now the Lyons nomination. What is Bill Clinton
using for brains these days?[/quote]
------------------
"Quis custodiet ipsos custodes" RKBA!
<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR>
BILL'S NEXT BIG BLUNDER
By DICK MORRIS
WITH friends like Bill, Hillary doesn't need
enemies. First he decided to release the FALN
terrorists. Now he's made another dumb mistake
that will cost his wife's candidacy dearly:
appointing James Lyons, who misled the public
about the true facts of the Whitewater affair in the
1992 election, as a federal circuit court judge.
By inviting the Senate to question Lyons under
oath in confirmation hearings, Clinton will give his
critics a field day and his wife a stomach ache. Bill
Clinton should not want anyone questioning Lyons
in public and under oath.
It was this same James Lyons who first hired
private detective Jack Palladino in the '92
campaign (for $28,000) to assist with the
Whitewater whitewash. Later, Palladino received
almost $100,000 more from the campaign.
It has been widely reported that Palladino's work
in 1992 involved threatening and intimidating
women not to go public with their stories about
Clinton. Since Palladino was paid with public
money (federal campaign matching funds) it would
seem to be appropriate to ask him what he did to
shut the women up. The elusive Palladino has
been hard to pin down. This is the ideal
opportunity. Now that Clinton has served Lyons
up to Congress on a silver platter, the GOP can
question the would-be jurist about what Palladino
did, as his employee, for the $28,000 he paid him.
If there is a trail of cover-up, blackmail and
intimidation by paid White House operatives - the
bunch I've been calling the "White House secret
police" - it should become clearer after Lyons
testifies.
In fact, Congress should prohibit the use of
federal campaign matching funds for detectives or
other invasions of personal privacy. All candidates
for federal office - Gore, Bush, Bradley, and
especially Hillary - should pledge not to hire
operatives to snoop on innocent people.
Lyons testimony about the secret police will just
be the hors d'oeuvre. He has even more to tell
Congress about Hillary's involvement in
Whitewater.
During the '92 campaign, the Clintons hired Lyons
to write a report exonerating them. As columnist
Paul Gigot reported last week in the Wall Street
Journal, "the Lyons report was financial Swiss
cheese." While its conclusion that the Clintons had
lost money on the Whitewater deal gave them a
fig leaf to wear through the election, the report,
according to Gigot, "overstated the Clintons'
investment in Whitewater by more than $22,000,
thus making it appear as if the Clintons were as
much at risk as Jim McDougal." Lyons also
claimed that the Clintons were passive investors
"when," Gigot points out, "Hillary in particular
played a more active role."
In 1992, Lyons refused to release parts of the
report which contained the real facts of the
Whitewater deal, even though federal taxpayer
matching funds paid for it. Now, when he wants
to be confirmed, he will come under new pressure
to let the public know what he and Clinton did not
want them to know in 1992 and what role Hillary
played in the cover-up. Did she help Lyons cook
the books to show the Clintons' innocence?
If Republicans enjoy asking Lyons about the
secret police and Whitewater, they'll have even
more fun asking him about his role in the Travel
Office firings scandal. It seems Lyons stayed
overnight at the White House on July 2, 1993, as
the scandal was brewing. As reported in The
American Spectator, the affair "had preoccupied
the first lady for weeks, not to mention the late
Vince Foster, who was thinking about hiring his
close friend Lyons to be his own attorney in the
Travelgate scandal." Lyons was apparently
scheduled to fly to Washington to meet with
Foster the day after his suicide.
Republicans will want to know if Lyons was
involved in the removal of documents from
Foster's office. since the ubiquitous Lyons visited
White House aide Bruce Lindsey on July 22, two
days after the suicide.
The GOP senators may also explore what Lyons
meant when he called Webb Hubbell on Oct. 25,
1993, and left a message saying "be in town
tomorrow, get together on wed or thurs to
discuss/review WDC [Whitewater Development
Corporation] docs."
In all, the confirmation hearing on James Lyons
promises to be just the sort of event neither Hillary
Clinton nor Al Gore need coming up in the spring.
By trying to pay back the paymaster of the secret
police, Clinton has opened himself and his wife up
to the kind of intense scrutiny they least want.
Clinton must have been dreaming if he thought he
could get Lyons confirmed with the baggage he is
carrying. With Bush 20 points ahead, the GOP is
not exactly eager to confirm Clinton appointees to
the federal bench when leaving the post vacant
could let Republicans fill these choice jobs in
2001.
Normally, it is hard for Clinton to get even
confirmation hearings for his nominees. But you
can bet the Republicans will gladly interrogate
Lyons, right before they reject him, in the middle
of the 2000 election season.
First the FALN, then the McAuliffe mortgage,
now the Lyons nomination. What is Bill Clinton
using for brains these days?[/quote]
------------------
"Quis custodiet ipsos custodes" RKBA!