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Nach Whitewater, Flowers und Lewinsky nun das Finale.



February 23, 2001
THE DEMOCRATS
This Time, Clintons Find Their Support Buckling From Weight of New Woes
By RICHARD L. BERKE

Even the most devoted and vociferous backers of Bill and Hillary Clinton are now refusing to defend their messy exit from the White House and some are openly criticizing their conduct. Many of them said yesterday that the disclosure that Mrs. Clinton`s brother Hugh Rodham received nearly $400,000 for helping secure a presidential pardon and a commutation of sentence was the last straw.

Democrats say they fear that the Clintons` persistent troubles not only leave the party with a gaping leadership vacuum, but also with unwanted attention on a former president who is trying to salvage his damaged reputation and a new senator from New York who is trying to find her footing.

James Carville, who for years was perhaps Mr. Clinton`s most energetic defender, refused to rise to his defense in an interview yesterday. And, after saying "it`s not my nature to jump on a guy when he`s down like this," Mr. Carville came close to doing just that.

"He should have been more suspecting of peoples` motives in these things," he said. "I can`t say these are illegitimate questions being brought up, because they are legitimate."

Speaking of Mrs. Clinton, he said the publicity around the Clintons` controversial departure from the White House "certainly made it difficult for her to get started on the right foot."

Behind the scenes, Al Gore has joined the chorus as well. People close to the former vice president, who has exchanged tense words with Mr. Clinton about how the presidential campaign was waged, said that Mr. Gore was unnerved by Mr. Clinton`s conduct in his final days in office.

"He`s not angry — he`s more shocked," said one person who spoke to Mr. Gore recently. "He is disappointed. He does still care about the president in some ways. But it`s certainly not anger. The harm of Clinton`s actions to him has been done."

The anger at Mr. Clinton is particularly striking, given that barely two months ago Democrats around the country had all but turned on Mr. Gore and expressed high hopes that both Clintons would lead their party back to the control of Congress and the White House. Some even talked about Mrs. Clinton`s prospects as a presidential candidate in 2004.

Several other of Mr. Clinton`s most stalwart defenders expressed concern and bewilderment over his actions. Even Terry McAuliffe, the Democratic Party chairman, who calls Mr. Clinton his best friend, has found it difficult to defend him.

After the payments to Mr. Rodham were disclosed on Wednesday, Mr. McAuliffe condemned Mr. Rodham`s actions as "absolutely wrong." Mr. Rodham returned the payments on Wednesday.

And yesterday, in an interview, Mr. McAuliffe seemed to want to change the subject when asked about the pardons, which included that of Marc Rich, the fugitive financier.

"I`ve publicly said the Rich pardon was a mistake," Mr. McAuliffe said. "If I were president I wouldn`t have done it. All these incidents are unfortunate, frustrating and distracting, but ultimately they will run their course."

Asked why even Mr. Clinton`s friends were so critical, Mr. McAuliffe said, "I`m not focusing on the negative."

At a news conference yesterday, Mrs. Clinton, struggling to overcome what she acknowledged was an calamitous Senate debut, did not defend her husband and, in fact, put the burden on him by telling reporters to direct their questions to him or his staff.

Indeed, some Democrats said they were particularly worried that Mrs. Clinton would be tarnished even if she was, as she asserted, ignorant of her brother`s efforts related to the pardon and commutation. For now, any talk about her presidential prospects has ground to a halt.

"If this hurts anyone, it hurts Hillary much more," said an official at the Democratic National Committee. "She`s been able to separate herself from Clinton. But this reminds people that she is with him — and it`s her brother that did it."

Mr. Carville said he feels sorry that Mrs. Clinton once again has to deal with messes created by the two most important men in her life. "It`s a horrible personal thing," he said. "You can pick your friends. But you can`t pick your relatives."

Some of Mrs. Clinton`s detractors in the party expressed quiet glee over her predicament, saying they never thought she deserved to be considered a formidable prospect for the White House in 2004.

One strategist who is close to both Clintons said, "A combination of events and circumstances has transpired that has effectively disabled Hillary Clinton from having an effective launch of her Senate career on the terms she had hoped for."

But the strategist was far from willing to pronounce Mrs. Clinton a doomed politician. "She was elected to the one office in the country with the longest term," he said, "and she has got an enormous amount of time to recover from her very wobbly start."

Indeed, some of the Clintons` friends cited their history of rebounding from seeming catastrophe, particularly the former president.

For all the concern among Democratic operatives, Mrs. Clinton has no reason to panic in terms of her public support, at least not yet. A Gallup poll conducted Feb. 19 to 21 and released yesterday found that Mrs. Clinton had a favorable rating of 49 percent nationwide and 44 percent unfavorable. That reflects a slight decline from her high ratings after her election but not a significant slide. The findings in recent statewide polls in New York are similar.

Polls also show that Mr. Clinton squandered his impressive poll ratings from his last days in office and has been slightly tarnished but not hugely damaged among the public.

Beyond that, many of Mr. Clinton`s past defenders are saying that the former president did not heed their advice, before he left the White House, to resist the limelight for several months.

"My advice to Clinton was, `You should go away from six to nine months, then you will be the most sought-after person,` " said one confidant of Mr. Clinton. "It`s a pity because he keeps blowing it."

Earlier this week, former President Jimmy Carter ended his reluctance about commenting on Mr. Clinton and said of the pardons, "In my opinion, it was disgraceful." Many Clinton backers who were interviewed criticized his decision to defend his pardon of Mr. Rich in an Op- Ed article in The New York Times.

Art Torres, the chairman of the California Democrat Party, said, "It`s bad form to do an Op-Ed piece. I just don`t think it`s appropriate."

In an interview in December, Mr. Torres said the party would look to the Clintons as important Democratic leaders. But yesterday, he was far less enthusiastic. "I don`t think a role is given to people," he said. "They have to earn it. At this point there`s a concern on some peoples` parts."

Just weeks ago some Democrats insisted that the latest Clinton controversy would be only of fleeting interest. Now, as one Clinton loyalist put it, the enduring question is, "Will it ever end?"











February 23, 2001
The Brothers: Siblings Who Often Emerge in an Unflattering Spotlight
By TODD S. PURDUM

To Hillary Clinton`s White House staff, they were known wryly as "the Brothers Rodham": Hughie and Tony, the first lady`s bearish younger siblings, the president`s occasional golfing partners, frequent visitors for family celebrations and holidays.

But all too often, the news they made was grim. "You never wanted to hear their name come up in any context other than playing golf," a former senior White House official said.

The unflattering headlines included Hugh`s failed campaign for the United States Senate from Florida in 1994, his awkward efforts to get involved in a class action lawsuit against tobacco companies, his and Tony`s effort to distribute hazelnuts in the Republic of Georgia, which collapsed in a diplomatic bungle two years ago and Tony`s failed marriage to Nicole Boxer, the daughter of Senator Barbara Boxer of California.

For half a dozen former Clinton aides interviewed yesterday, word that Hugh Rodham had taken some $400,000 in fees to lobby for a presidential pardon and commutation, may have been the latest straw, but it was not particularly surprising.

Nor was the news that Mr. Clinton`s own younger half-brother, Roger, had lobbied for pardons, in addition to the one Mr. Clinton granted him for his own 1980`s drug-trafficking conviction.

"They`re all colorful," said Mr. Clinton`s former adviser, Rahm Emanuel. "They`re all living large."

In fact, friends say, the Rodhams and Roger Clinton have all spent years struggling with the reality of their status as also-rans and ne`er- do-wells in families dominated by a single shining star. The three offbeat in-laws have been friendly since the Rodham boys` days as students at the University of Arkansas in the 1970`s; on the day Hillary Rodham Clinton was sworn into the Senate last month, they shared a quiet drink, one friend said yesterday.

"You`ve got to wonder whether or not at some point when they first met, Hillary and Bill had a long tête- à-tête about their siblings," another former Clinton aide said.

"Roger always refers to the president as `Big Brother,` " this aide continued. "The Rodhams are very close. They love their sister, she loves them. They`re these big, lovable, huggable guys. Now, let me put it this way: They don`t have the keenest political sense in the world."

When the Clintons took office, one aide said, the staff assumed the family`s "problem child" would be Roger, who had already served time in federal prison after being convicted of conspiracy to distribute cocaine in a sting operation authorized by Gov. Bill Clinton of Arkansas.

Just last weekend, Roger, who now lives in Torrance, Calif., near Los Angeles, was arrested on drunken driving charges in nearby Hermosa Beach after a police officer saw him driving erratically.

But in fact, this aide recalled, it proved to be the Rodham brothers who caused the most headaches, almost from the outset.

Hugh, a lawyer who turned 50 last year, and Tony, a political consultant who is 46, have bounced around from Chicago to Arkansas, from Florida to Washington, always in the shadow of their big sister — who was featured in an article in Life magazine by the time she graduated from college. Their father, Hugh, who died in 1993, was a tough taskmaster to all his children, and their mother, Dorothy, has made a practice of looking out for her sons.

"They`re like mama`s boys," another former Clinton aide said. "It`s a very odd family dynamic. They seem to feel, `We`ve been out there, we`ve been in this fishbowl, we`re not getting anything.` Mrs. Rodham is always telling Hillary, `You`re not doing enough for your brothers.` "

In a news conference in a Senate office building yesterday, Mrs. Clinton said she had known nothing of Hugh Rodham`s lobbying efforts, and added: "I love my brother; I`m just extremely disappointed in this terrible misjudgment that he made."

Tony Rodham, especially, was seen as belligerent and difficult by White House aides, while Hugh, a former public defender, was seen as genial but plodding. His 1994 Democratic Senate campaign in Florida was all but a disaster. He hired a political consultant whose résumé turned out to be fabricated, and who turned around and helped Mr. Rodham`s rival for the Democratic nomination file a complaint with the Federal Elections Commission. In it, Mr. Rodham was accused of a range of improprieties, including failing to report both a $17,000 contribution and the cost of a survey conducted by President Clinton`s personal pollster.

In 1996, the commission found no basis to proceed with any charges, but by then, Mr. Rodham had long since lost to the Republican incumbent, Connie Mack.

It was during that campaign, Clinton aides recalled, that Tony Rodham got into a vigorous disagreement with Mrs. Clinton`s staff over his efforts to have a friend ride on the first lady`s plane when she was making a swing through Florida on Hugh`s behalf. Because election laws require a rigorous accounting of the cost of such travel, one aide said, Mr. Rodham was told his friend could not board the government plane.

He became irate, one aide recalled, saying Mr. Rodham slammed the doors on the front compartment and demanded to speak to his sister. "And to the best of my recollection," the aide said, "it was one of the few times Hillary ever apologized. She said, `My family can be very demanding and I apologize for that.` "

Before this week, the biggest controversy surrounding the Rodham brothers came in 1999, when they organized a company to harvest and sell hazelnuts from the former Republic of Georgia, but came to be seen as too friendly with a political rival of the country`s president, Eduard A. Shevardnadze, a strong United States ally.

President Clinton`s national security adviser, Samuel R. Berger, pressed the Rodhams to abandon the effort. Even after that, the brothers were back in Georgia, saying they intended only to distribute the nuts. That led to yet another public rebuke from the White House spokesman at the time, Joe Lockhart.

Both Rodhams frequently visited the Clinton White House, aides recalled, and Tony and his wife, who were married there, even lived in the residence for a time. Aides said Mr. Clinton was always a soft touch for the brothers, who with their parents accompanied the Clintons on their belated 1975 honeymoon to Acapulco.

For his part, Roger Clinton, who has struggled to make a career as a musician, recalled in his 1995 memoir, "Growing Up Clinton," that he was initially contemptuous of Hillary Rodham`s unadorned hairstyle and thick glasses, then came to realize he was actually jealous of her for taking his "big brother" away.

"Clinton was Roger`s total father figure," in a home where Roger`s father was a violent alcoholic, one aide said. "And it`s a role Clinton takes very seriously. He feels an enormous amount of responsibility for Roger, and I know it pained him deeply to see Roger go through all he`s gone through.

"It`s funny," this aide continued. "The Clintons are such lightning rods. They ignite people on so many issues going on in so many households, whether it is the marital problems, or the role of women, or now the problems of families. They are a case study for all these issues."








February 23, 2001
THE LOBBYING
Clinton`s Brother Pursued Clemency Bids for Friends
By DAVID JOHNSTON AND DON VAN NATTA Jr.

WASHINGTON, Feb. 22 — The furor over President Bill Clinton`s pardons intensified today as Congressional investigators focused on Roger Clinton and his efforts to win pardons for friends and associates from his half brother.

In discussions with Bill Clinton, Roger Clinton sought clemency for about 10 people, although he had not been paid for his efforts, said Julia Payne, an aide to the former president. Ms. Payne added that all of the requests had been denied. Congressional officials said they were investigating Roger Clinton`s assertions that he had pressed for the pardons without pay.

As Congressional investigators broadened their inquiry in Washington, federal prosecutors in New York in the office of United States Attorney Mary Jo White expanded their criminal inquiry to determine whether efforts were made to buy pardons in some cases, the officials said.

While the investigations rapidly accelerated beyond the initial inquiry into Mr. Clinton`s pardon of the fugitive commodities trader Marc Rich, Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton told reporters today that she played no role in any of the dozens of pardons that her husband granted. She expressed chagrin that her brother Hugh Rodham accepted a large fee as a pardon lobbyist.

In another development, Clinton aides said today that Mrs. Clinton`s Senate campaign treasurer helped obtain last-minute pardons for two convicted felons from President Clinton. The treasurer, William Cunningham III, a New York lawyer, is the law partner of Harold Ickes, an adviser to the Clintons.

In an interview today, Mr. Ickes said a friendcame to him in January, and asked him to help obtain pardons for James Manning and Robert Fain, who had been convicted in 1982 on tax evasion charges. Mr. Ickes said he told the friend that he was not practicing law, and so referred him to Mr. Cunningham, a former assistant United States attorney. A lawyer knowledgeable about the case identified the friend as Harry Thomason, a television producer and Arkansas friend of the Clintons.

Mr. Cunningham, who is with the firm of Meyer, Suozzi, English & Klein in Mineola, N.Y., drew up the paperwork and on Jan. 16 sent it to the pardon office at the Department of Justice. Mr. Ickes`s partner at the Washington firm of Ickes & Enright, Janice Enright, sent the pardon applications to the White House, Mr. Ickes said.

Mr. Ickes said that he had had no discussions with President Clinton or Mrs. Clinton about the pardons and that he had received no money. He said Mr. Cunningham charged the men on an hourly basis, receiving a total of about $4,000.

Roger Clinton`s lobbying became known one day after Hugh Rodham, President Clinton`s brother-in-law, agreed to return a fee of $400,000 that he had beenpaid to help two men who received a presidential pardon and a grant of clemency on Jan. 20, Mr. Clinton`s last day in office.

Former White House aides said tonight that Roger Clinton had given the president a list of pardon candidates in 1998 and another list in December or January, when he made a personal appeal to his brother. None of those people received pardons.

The pardons, along with expensive gifts that the Clintons took with them as they left office, have clouded Mrs. Clinton`s effort to establish herself as the new Democratic senator from New York. Even so, she swept into a Senate office building and coolly responded to reporters` questions.

"I was just heartbroken and shocked by it," she said of the payment to her brother. "And, you know, immediately said it was a terrible misjudgment and the money had to be returned."

Mrs. Clinton suggested that had she known in advance of her brother`s lobbying effort, she would have tried to stop it.

Congressional investigators have asked Mr. Rodham to explain his role in the successful effort to obtain pardons for Carlos Vignali, a convicted drug dealer, and Almon Glenn Braswell, an herbal supplement marketer convicted of fraud and perjury. Prosecutors for Ms. White, the United States attorney in New York, are also investigating the pardons.

Mr. Rodham`s lawyer, Nancy Luque, has said her client did nothing wrong.

Today, Sheriff Lee Baca of Los Angeles County issued a statement saying Mr. Rodham telephoned him in January during the effort to obtain a pardon for Mr. Vignali. Sheriff Baca said Mr. Rodham told him that he would soon receive a call from an unidentified "staff assistant."

When the staff assistant called, the sheriff said, he was asked his opinion of Mr. Vignali`s father, Carlos Vignali Sr., and whether the pardon should be granted. He said he replied that he was not familiar with the facts of the case.

In a letter sent to Roger Clinton today, investigators on the House Government Reform Committee asked whether he had been paid by anyone seeking a pardon or commutation from his half brother.

Specifically, investigators asked whether Roger Clinton had played any role in the pardons and commutations granted to four people. They are Mr. Vignali, a California first- time offender convicted in 1994 of conspiring to sell 800 pounds of cocaine; Mr. Braswell, a Miami businessman who was convicted of mail fraud and perjury in 1983; Philip Young, a Louisiana man convicted in 1992 of illegal transport of fish and wildlife; and Mitchell Couey Wood, who was convicted of cocaine possession charges in 1986 in Arkansas.

Congressional investigators said they had information that Roger Clinton received $30,000 from Mr. Vignali and $15,000 from Mr. Young. But the investigators cautioned that they had received no hard evidence of the payments. Mr. Young`s lawyer, Gene O`Daniel, did not return phone calls to his office today.

A Clinton aide who spoke with Roger Clinton today said Mr. Clinton said that he did not know Philip Young, and that he had not received money in exchange for supporting applications for clemency. The pardon request for Mr. Young, the aide said, went to the Justice Department, then forwarded to the White House.

Mr. Wood and Roger Clinton were the subjects in a federal cocaine inquiry in Arkansas in the 1980`s. In an interview with The Wall Street Journal last month, Mr. Wood said he had applied for a pardon several years ago and had not "seen Roger in 15 years."

On Jan. 20, Roger Clinton, 44, himself received a pardon for a 1985 cocaine possession conviction for which he had served one year in prison. Last week, Roger Clinton was arrested and charged with drunken driving and disturbing the peace after an altercation in Los Angeles.

In developments related to the initial investigation, documents given today to the House Government Reform Committee confirmed that Denise Rich, Mr. Rich`s former wife, made three contributions totaling $450,000 to the Clinton presidential library. The records also show that Beth Dozoretz, the former Democratic National Committee fund-raiser and friend of Ms. Rich, promised to raise $1 million for the library.

But the library foundation declined to comply with requests for a number of other documents, including a a list of individuals who donated or pledged more than $5,000.

The documents turned over to investigators were heavily edited, eliminating the identities of all the donors except Ms. Rich and Ms. Dozoretz. The documents also included letters to Ms. Rich and Ms. Dozoretz, which asked them for still more contributions and fund-raising assistance to the library foundation. The letters are dated Jan. 16 and were mailed as Mr. Clinton was deliberating the pardons.

"As the Clinton administration draws to a close, it is time to reflect upon the tremendous accomplishments of his presidency and to thank you again for all that you have done over the past several years in support of the president," wrote Peter M. O`Keefe, the library`s director of development.

David E. Kendall, a foundation lawyer, said the request for documents violated the First Amendment rights of the contributors and represented an "intrusion" into the operation of a presidential library.

Representative Dan Burton, the Indiana Republican who chairs the government reform committee, said Mr. Kendall`s answer was "unacceptable." The committee made plans to subpoena Skip Rutherford, the president of the Clinton library.






February 22, 2001
Brother-in-Law of Clinton Got $400,000 in Pardon Bids
By CHRISTOPHER MARQUIS with MICHAEL MOSS

ASHINGTON, Feb. 21 — Former President Bill Clinton`s brother-in- law Hugh Rodham received nearly $400,000 in fees for lobbying for a presidential pardon and a prison commutation for two wealthy felons, Mr. Rodham`s lawyer and other officials said today.

Mr. Rodham, a brother of Hillary Rodham Clinton, was paid the money after the pardon of Almon Glenn Braswell, a businessman convicted of mail fraud and perjury in 1983, and the release from prison of Carlos Vignali, a cocaine trafficker.

President Clinton issued a statement today saying he and Mrs. Clinton were "deeply disturbed" by news reports about the payments and had demanded that Mr. Rodham return the money. Mr. Rodham`s lawyer said he did that today.

Mr. Clinton did not deny that there had been any lobbying by Mr. Rodham, a Miami lawyer and former candidate for the United States Senate, or say whether the lobbying had influenced his clemency decisions, but he said he did not know about the payments.

"Yesterday I became aware of press inquiries that Hugh Rodham received a contingency fee in connection with a pardon application for Glenn Braswell and a fee for work on Carlos Vignali`s commutation application," Mr. Clinton`s statement said. "Neither Hillary nor I had any knowledge of such payments. We are deeply disturbed by these reports and have insisted that Hugh return any monies received."

In a statement released tonight by her office, Senator Clinton said she was "disturbed to learn that my brother, Hugh Rodham, received fees in connection with two clemency applications. He did not speak with me about these applications."

Her aides said Mrs. Clinton learned about her brother`s work on the applications only on Monday, as a result of inquiries.

The National Enquirer is reporting in its next issue that Mr. Braswell`s company, G.B. Data Systems of Marina del Rey, Calif., wired $200,000 to the account of Mr. Rodham`s Florida law firm on Jan. 22, two days after Mr. Clinton issued the pardon.

Messages left at the law firm and at Mr. Rodham`s home this evening brought no response.

Fewer details were available on the money returned to Mr. Vignali. His case has also stirred controversy because his father, a wealthy California entrepreneur, has deep ties to political leaders in Los Angeles, some of whom wrote to the White House on his behalf.

The payments to Mr. Rodham are the latest in a string of embarrassments for the former president stemming from his decision to grant 140 pardons and 36 commutations last month in the final hours of his presidency.

The cases affecting at least two dozen felons bypassed the customary review by the Justice Department, which normally takes as long as a year to investigate pardon applications, and were handled directly from the White House.

Besides Mr. Braswell, whose pardon did not go through the customary Justice Department review, another pardon recipient was Marc Rich, the fugitive financier, whose former wife, Denise, donated more than a million dollars to Democratic causes. The Rich pardon is being investigated by federal prosecutors in New York and in Congress.

A statement issued by Mr. Rodham`s lawyer said he returned the money today in deference to the Clintons` request. The statement said Mr. Rodham did not notify the Clintons of his efforts on behalf of the two men, and he believed they did not learn of his activities until this week.

"Hugh Rodham has done absolutely nothing wrong," said the statement, issued by his lawyer, Nancy Luque. "He has returned these fees solely because his family asked that he do so. Their request, presumably made because of the appearance of impropriety, is one he cannot ignore. There was, however, no impropriety in these matters."

She confirmed that Mr. Rodham received about $400,000 for his work in the cases. In an interview she added: "Let there be no mistake. He did not speak to either Clinton at any time about either matter."

Mr. Clinton`s pardon of Mr. Braswell had already received special attention because of complaints by federal prosecutors that it interfered with a criminal investigation against the 57-year-old Miami businessman. Federal prosecutors in Los Angeles have been looking into accusations of money laundering and tax evasion by Mr. Braswell`s mail order business selling vitamins and health supplements.

Earlier this month, Mr. Clinton said he had intended the pardon only to cover Mr. Braswell`s 1983 conviction and had not known that he was the subject of a pending investigation. In the earlier case, Mr. Braswell was sentenced to three years in prison for false claims about a treatment for baldness.

A spokeswoman for G.B. Data Systems said the company declined to comment.

Federal prosecutors in Los Angeles are pushing ahead with their criminal investigation of Mr. Braswell, though they remain concerned that the pardon could hamper their inquiry into possible money laundering and tax evasion involving Mr. Braswell`s business.

Mr. Braswell`s access to the Clinton White House had been largely a mystery. Over the last two years, he had been a contributor to Republican causes until G.O.P. workers, including those running the campaign of George W. Bush, learned of his felony record and returned his donation of $175,000.

A Clinton spokesman said earlier this month that Mr. Braswell had been represented in his pardon bid by Kendall Coffey, who was on former Vice President Al Gore`s legal team in Florida after the election, but the spokesman believed that Mr. Coffey had never spoken with Mr. Clinton directly about the matter. Mr. Coffey has never commented on the matter.

The pardon fees are not the first time the conduct of Mr. Rodham has been criticized. In 1999, Hugh Rodham and his brother, Tony, set off a diplomatic controversy after they traveled to the Ajaria region of the Republic of Georgia to pursue a multimillion-dollar deal to export hazelnuts. The proposed hazelnut deal set off rivalries between political factions in the Georgian republic and White House officials, including former national security adviser Sandy Berger, pressed the Rodham brothers to drop the business venture.

At least some of Mr. Rodham`s contacts with the White House were through Bruce Lindsey, the former deputy White House counsel and Mr. Clinton`s closest confidant. A former White House aide said that Mr. Rodham called Mr. Lindsey to propose pardons of several other convicts that Mr. Clinton and his aides rejected.

The small circle of aides now advising Mr. Clinton were dismayed by the revelation of Mr. Rodham`s activities and concerned that Mr. Clinton not issue a blanket denial that Mr. Rodham had exerted influence on pardon decisions, one former aide said. Mr. Clinton and Mr. Rodham may have had private discussions that staffers were not privy to, they said.

Representative Dan Burton, the chairman of the House committee conducting an inquiry into the pardons, called the situation "deeply troubling" and said he would seek to get a full explanation of the payments from Mr. Rodham.

"We already know that Mr. Braswell`s pardon was not reviewed by the Department of Justice," Mr. Burton, an Indiana Republican who heads the Committee on Government Reform, said. "Yet again, this makes it look like there is one system of justice for those with money and influence, and one system of justice for everyone else."

Mr. Burton`s committee also sent a letter last night to Roger Clinton, the former president`s half brother, asking what role he might have played in any presidential pardons.

The criticism was bipartisan. Terry McAuliffe, chairman of the Democratic National Committee, called on Mr. Rodham to "fully account for his actions."

"What he did was absolutely wrong," Mr. McAuliffe said.

Mr. Vignali`s case was different. Mr. Vignali, a convicted Los Angeles cocaine dealer, was freed from prison on Jan. 20 after serving six years of a 15-year sentence. His request for clemency went through the Justice Department, and then was passed onto the White House with a recommendation that has not been disclosed.

Mr. Clinton commuted the sentence of Mr. Vignali, a 30-year-old first-time offender convicted in 1994 of conspiring to sell 800 pounds of cocaine. In a lengthy defense of his clemency decisions, the former president said he acted in part to spare little-known people who had been sentenced under mandatory drug sentencing laws. "I felt that they had served long enough given the particular circumstances of the individual cases," Mr. Clinton wrote in an opinion piece in The New York Times on Sunday.

The commutation of Mr. Vignali`s sentence nevertheless stirred an outcry from federal prosecutors in Minneapolis, where he was convicted. The prosecutors had vigorously opposed his release.

[LittleMonkey]

Lieber Clinton-Sumpf als Bush`s verbrannte Erde ...
Salute!

[LastPrivateerSailing]

Hillary entsetzt über Bruder

Der Wirbel um die Clintons reißt nicht ab, aber die Ex-First-Lady weist jede Verantwortung zurück. Die Senatorin Hillary Clinton hat am Donnerstagabend jegliche Rolle bei der Gewährung der Amnestien bestritten, die Präsident Bill Clinton an seinem letzten Amtstag ausgesprochen hatte. Sie sei „schockiert“ und „traurig“ über ihren Bruder Hugh Rodham, der Begnadigungen für zwei verurteilte Straftäter gegen ein Honorar von 400 000 Dollar vermittelt hatte. Das Geld gab er inzwischen an seine Auftraggeber zurück. Von den Aktivitäten ihres Bruders habe sie erst am vergangenen Montag erfahren. Es habe ihr das Herz gebrochen, sagte Clinton.

Auch ihr Wahlkampf-Finanzverwalter William Cunningham hat gegen Geld bei der Vermittlung von Begnadigungen geholfen. Sie habe davon nichts gewusst, sagte die Senatorin, sie sei aber überzeugt, dass der Rechtsanwalt Cunningham nichts Illegales getan habe.

Vor allem Bill Clinton ist in den vergangenen Tagen wegen mehrerer der am 20. Januar verfügten 140 Begnadigungen unter Beschuss geraten. Am heftigsten umstritten ist seine Amnestie für den Finanzier Marc Rich, der sich vor seinem Prozess wegen schweren Steuerbetrugs 1983 in die Schweiz abgesetzt hatte.

23.02.01, 12:12 Uhr

Quelle: focus.de

***


Sie sollte nicht entsetzt sein über den Bruder, sondern über ihren (Noch?-)Ehemann, der die Begnadigungen unterschrieben hat.

[LastPrivateerSailing]

"Der Ex-Präsident und sein Schwager beim Golfen"

[LastPrivateerSailing]

"Verbrannte Erde" ?

Clintons verbrannte Erde in Jugoslawien?

Clintons vorherige Bombardierungen des Irak?

[LittleMonkey]

Wart`s ab, bei den Bushs ist das Kriegeführen Familientradition. Das war ja vorerst nur die erste Amtshandlung.

[nobes]

Ja vebrannte Erde!!!!
Sie wird noch kommen!

[LastPrivateerSailing]

SZ vom 24.02.2001 Meinungsseite


Weltmacht in der Pflicht


Man mag US-Präsident George W. Bush für seine Luftschläge gegen den Irak schelten. Ihr militärischer Erfolg ist zweifelhaft und politisch haben sie Washington mehr geschadet als Bagdad. Mit einem aber hat der neue Mann im Weißen Haus Recht: Der Problemfall Irak muss wieder auf die Agenda der internationalen Politik. Denn die Wachsamkeit der Welt hat gefährlich nachgelassen gegenüber Saddam Hussein. Die UN-Waffenkontrolleure wurden aus dem Land geworfen, die Sanktionen im großen Stil unterlaufen. So bekam Saddam Geld und Gelegenheit, seine Armee wieder aufzubauen und an Massenvernichtungswaffen zu basteln.

Ihn gewähren zu lassen, wie es Russland, China und sogar Frankreich offenbar gerne täten, wäre verantwortungslos. Denn der Herrscher von Bagdad ist nicht der Mann, der sich nur zur Selbstverteidigung rüstet. Irgendwann wird er seine neuen Waffen auch einsetzen wollen, mit verheerenden Folgen für die ganze Region. Die Weltmacht USA hat geradezu die Pflicht, ihn vorher zu stoppen.

Mit ein paar Bombardements im Alleingang ist es dabei nicht getan, das weiß auch Washington. Daher bläst Bush nun zum diplomatischen Angriff. Er schickt seinen Außenminister Colin Powell in den Nahen Osten, um die zerbrochene Anti-Saddam-Front wieder aufzubauen. Und er prangert China an, weil es den Irak technisch unterstütze. Damit verfolgt der US-Präsident das richtige Ziel: einen neuen internationalen Schulterschluss gegen Bagdad. Nur wenn er gelingt, können gezielte Sanktionen wie ein Waffenembargo Erfolg haben; und nur dann lässt sich eines Tages die Rückkehr der UN-Kontrolleure in den Irak erzwingen.

[LastPrivateerSailing]

Fischer: Übereinstimmung mit USA in allen wichtigen Fragen

Antrittsbesuch des Außenministers geht heute zu Ende


Mit Gesprächen über handelspolitische Fragen setzt Außenminister Joschka Fischer seinen zweitägigen Antrittsbesuch in Washington fort. Zuvor hatte er die Luft-Angriffe auf den Irak gebilligt.


Am Vortag hatte Fischer mit dem neuen US-Außenminister Colin Powell Sicherheitsfragen diskutiert. Im Vordergrund standen der Nahe Osten, Irak, das geplante US-Raketenabwehr-Programm NMD und die Nato-Osterweiterung. Dabei stimmten die beiden Amtskollegen in allen Fragen weitgehend überein.

Powell stellte sich Befürchtungen entgegen, die Vereinigten Staaten könnten sich aus dem Nahost-Friedensprozess oder aus ihrem Engagement auf dem Balkan ausklinken. Fischer sagte, dass er die Gründe für den Einsatz von US-Kampfflugzeugen gegen Ziele im Irak billige.

Ein neues Wettrüsten müsse vermieden werden, sagte Fischer. Im Zusammenhang mit der Nato-Osterweiterung waren sich beide einig, dass EU-Streitkräfte innerhalb der Nato eine Stärkung des atlantischen Bündnisses bedeuteten. Allerdings müsse dazu der Aufbau und die Finanzierung paralleler Strukturen vermieden werden.

Weitere Gespräche hatte Fischer mit Vizepräsident Richard Cheney und der Sicherheitsberaterin Condoleezza Rice geführt. Fischer lud Powell zu einem Gegenbesuch in Berlin ein.

Quellen: sueddeutsche.de/dpa/Reuters/AP

[LittleMonkey]

Nicht zu vergessen: Clinton war vergleichsweise ein pazifistisch eingestellter Präsident ... Bush ist ein typisch amerikanischer Redneck mit beschränkter Intelligenz und dem Hang zum Drauflosballern.
Hoffen wir, daß Sculls and Bones durch ihn nicht die Weltherrschaft anstrebt ..., sonst haben wir wieder die Atombomben in Nachbars Garten.

[LastPrivateerSailing]

Tony Blair besucht George W. Bush

Britischer Regierungschef will Irak „mit allen Mitteln“ in Zaum halten


US-Präsident George W. Bush und der britische Premierminister Tony Blair sind auf dem Landsitz Camp David im Bundesstaat Maryland zusammengetroffen.

Blair ist der erste europäische Regierungschef, der dem neuen amerikanischen Präsidenten einen Besuch abstattet. Bushs Sicherheitsberaterin Condoleezza Rice sagte, der US- Präsident baue auf eine „solide Freundschaft“ mit Blair.

Wenige Stunden vor seinem Treffen mit Bush in dessen Wochenend-Domizil in Camp David sprach sich Blair dafür aus, den irakischen Staatschef Saddam Hussein „mit allen Mitteln“ im Zaum zu halten. Saddam versuche weiterhin, Massenvernichtungswaffen zu entwickeln und müsse dabei gestoppt werden, sagte Blair im US-Fernsehen.

Die Situation in der Golfregion sollen auch im Mittelpunkt der mehrstündigen Gespräche in Camp David stehen, nach Angaben aus dem Weißen Haus. Zudem werden, das Verhältnis zur Russland, die europäische Verteidigung und die US- Pläne für eine nationale Raketenabwehr (NMD) erörtert.

Quellen: sueddeutsche.de/dpa/Reuters/AP

***


Die Atombomben in Nachbars Garten haben wir, wenn man Saddam gewähren läßt. Es werden Saddams A-Bomben sein.

[LastPrivateerSailing]

Ihr wolltet mit eurem Bush-Getöne wohl nur von William Jefferson Clinton ablenken.


A Million-Dollar Pledge Raises More Questions for Clinton

House gets new documents showing that an advocate for Marc Rich’s pardon promised to raise the money for the Clinton library
By Michael Isikoff
NEWSWEEK WEB EXCLUSIVE

Feb. 22 — Beth Dozoretz, a major Democratic Party fund-raiser who urged President Clinton to pardon fugitive financier Marc Rich, last year pledged to raise $1 million for the Clinton presidential library, NEWSWEEK has learned
THE RECORDS detailing Dozoretz’s previously undisclosed promise were turned over to a House committee today along with records showing that Dozoretz’s friend, Denise Rich, the fugitive’s ex-wife, had contributed $450,000 to the library. The documents surfaced even as a federal grand jury in New York—which is conducting a criminal investigation into the Rich pardon overseen by U.S. attorney Mary Jo White—subpoenaed records from the Clinton library along with all government records relating to the Rich pardon.



The size and timing of Dozoretz’s pledge is almost certain to intensify the interest of investigators in any connection between Clinton’s last-minute pardons and the funds being raised for his library—a project the former president has portrayed as a vital monument to his legacy.
Tom Green, Dozoretz’s lawyer, said today: “There’s absolutely no connection between any money raised for the Clinton library and the Rich pardon.” Green acknowledged that his client had “a very few” conversations with the president “at which the pardon was mentioned.” Asked to define “a very few” Green replied: “I don’t think it was any more than three.”
Investigators acknowledge that a direct link between the contributions and the pardon may be hard to establish. The records show, for example, that the $450,000 contributed by Denise Rich, who also asked Clinton to pardon her ex-husband, was given in three installments: $250,000 on July 15, 1998; $100,000 on Aug. 7, 1999, and $100,000 on May 11, 2000.
Sources familiar with the documents were unable to pinpoint precisely when Dozoretz made her pledge to raise $1 million. But the documents turned over to the House Government Reform Committee include a thank-you note from library president Skip Rutherford that is dated May 23, 2000.
That was months before Rich’s lawyers began their full-court press to lobby Clinton for the pardon. The records turned over to date suggest that Rich’s lawyers did not begin talking about a pardon until November-and that their campaign stepped up considerably during the last weeks of December.
Dozoretz’s role in Rich’s pardon, however, was key. And even staunch Clinton loyalists acknowledge that Rich and Dozoretz—who were also major fund-raisers for the Democratic Party-had unusually easy access to the president to press their case. One Jan. 10, 200, e-mail sent by one of Rich’s lawyers describes a phone conversation he had with Denise Rich in Aspen, Colo. The e-mail relates a phone call between Dozoretz and Clinton in which the president purportedly told the fund-raiser “he was impressed” by Rich lawyer Jack Quinn’s petition for a pardon and that “he [Clinton] wants to do it and is doing all possible to turn around the WH [White House] counsels.” The e-mail continues: “DR [Denise Rich] thinks he sounded very positive but that we have to keep praying.”
Green, Dozoretz’s lawyer, said today that e-mail was actually a “garble of a couple of conversations” that Dozoretz had with the president about the Rich case.
Meanwhile, House Government Reform Committee chairman Rep. Dan Burton (R-Ind.) called the failure of the library foundation to turn over names of all donors “unacceptable.” He said the committee will subpoena Rutherford to testify at a hearing next week and will “explore the option” of holding him in contempt of Congress should he fail to turn over all the records.

© 2001 Newsweek, Inc.

[imperium_romanum]

Lächerliche Kleinigkeiten! Schau Dir mal unsere Polit-Versager - Kohl, Schröder, Koch, Fischer, Trittin, Kanther und wie sie alle heißen - an! Clinton hat wenigstens Leistung im Dienst für Land und Nation gebracht - Langjähriger Wirtschaftsaufschwung, nahezu Vollbeschäftigung, Wohlstand für breite Bevölkerungsschichten, Umwandlung des exorbitanten Staatsdefizits in einen Milliardenüberschuß!!! Dies würde man sich als Steuerzahler mit einiger Berechtigung auch von seinen europäischen Pendants wünschen! Was ist da schon eine Lewinsky und ein bischen Korruption? Privatsache! Fußnoten der Geschichte! Jedenfalls wenn ich mir die Finanzskandale quer durch die europäischen Parteien (CDU, SPD, RPR usw.) anschaue. Und dann noch ein staatsfeindlicher, auf Polizeibeamte einprügelnder Außenminister, der nur das eingesteht, was ohnehin schon erwiesen ist und den Rest als Jugendsünde bagatellisiert...

Für mich stellt sich mehr die Frage, warum Menschen wie Du grundlos so empört reagieren. Ich glaube, Niccoló Machiavelli hat es seinerzeit sehr treffend auf den Punkt gebracht: „Die Menschen sind so einfältig und hängen so sehr vom Eindruck des Augenblickes ab, daß einer, der sie täuschen will, stets jemanden findet, der sich täuschen läßt.“

Aber selbst Rom ist untergegangen! In diesem Sinne

Imperium