High Crimes and Misdemeanors: The Case Against Bill Clinton (17 page)
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Authors: Ann Coulter
BOOK: High Crimes and Misdemeanors: The Case Against Bill Clinton
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The White House must have assumed that anyone could be found guilty of a crime if only investigated. Unfortunately for the Clintons, that assumption proved false. Investigations into the Clintons, after all, usually uncovered wrongdoing. On closer inspection, almost every wild accusation against the Clintons would turn out to be true—from the first lady’s work on Castle Grande—a fraudulent land deal in Arkansas—to the sale of a burial plot at Arlington Cemetery. But Dale was clean as a whistle. Civil Society: 1; the Clintons: 0.
Clinton did have the authority to fire Dale, who served at the president’s pleasure. It just happened that seven presidents before Clinton had not seen fit to fire Dale, and it also just happened that a generous campaign contributor wanted Dale’s job. Firing a veteran public servant to make room for a big Hollywood producer is the sort of rank cronyism and hypocrisy that one might have vainly hoped the Clintons had left behind when they came to the White House to usher in “the most ethical administration in the history of the Republic.”
The framers believed that one of the virtues of having just one president rather than a body of presidents was that a single man would be less inclined to engage in such cheap cronyism. As Hamilton explained in Federalist No. 76, the president “will have fewer personal attachments to gratify than a body of men who may each be supposed to have an equal number; and will be so much the less liable to be misled by the sentiments of friendship and of affection. There is nothing so apt to agitate the passions of mankind as personal considerations, whether they relate to ourselves or to others….”
1
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Still, Clinton could have just come clean and explained that, while he appreciated Dale’s vote (and Dale
had
voted for Clinton), what he really needed was money, so Dale had to be fired to accommodate a campaign contributor. While Clinton might not have been “putting people first,” as his campaign booklet had promised, that’s not an impeachable offense.
had
voted for Clinton), what he really needed was money, so Dale had to be fired to accommodate a campaign contributor. While Clinton might not have been “putting people first,” as his campaign booklet had promised, that’s not an impeachable offense.
But that’s not what Clinton did. Rather, his administration ginned up every oppressive mechanism the federal government had to offer in order to wage a full-fledged assault on an inconvenient man, Billy Dale. The Clinton administration used government agencies to investigate, audit, and prosecute Dale, in a desperate,
post hoc
attempt to portray cronyism as some sort of good government maneuver. That is the very definition of abuse of power. It doesn’t get any clearer than this. If what the Clinton administration did to Dale is not impeachable, the Clintons have pulled ahead and, in the end, routed Civil Society.
THE FOBSpost hoc
attempt to portray cronyism as some sort of good government maneuver. That is the very definition of abuse of power. It doesn’t get any clearer than this. If what the Clinton administration did to Dale is not impeachable, the Clintons have pulled ahead and, in the end, routed Civil Society.
Harry Thomason, the Hollywood
television executive famous for producing such shows as
Evening Shade
and
Designing Women
, was a major Clinton fund-raiser.
2
He is an old friend of Bill and Hillary Clinton, having first met the future president when Thomason was an Arkansas high school football coach in the 1970s. (One of the most priceless descriptions of the Thomasons’ kindness to the Clintons was this: “It was the Thomasons who served as their ambassadors to Hollywood in 1991 when the Clintons were thought of as hicks.”
3
)
television executive famous for producing such shows as
Evening Shade
and
Designing Women
, was a major Clinton fund-raiser.
2
He is an old friend of Bill and Hillary Clinton, having first met the future president when Thomason was an Arkansas high school football coach in the 1970s. (One of the most priceless descriptions of the Thomasons’ kindness to the Clintons was this: “It was the Thomasons who served as their ambassadors to Hollywood in 1991 when the Clintons were thought of as hicks.”
3
)
Thomason had helped “produce” various campaign events, culminating in his orchestrating the January 20, 1993, presidential inauguration. Following the inauguration, Thomason was given a White House pass and a White House office. Ironically, Thomason’s job was to create events to burnish the president’s image. He was to report to the president.
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Thomason was part-owner of an air-charter consultant firm, TRM, Inc., that had teamed up with the Clinton campaign’s travel agency, World Wide Travel, to help arrange press travel during the campaign. Little Rock-based World Wide Travel was a hotbed of FOBs—including the very “generous” Riady family (about whom we will learn more later), longtime Clinton supporter Jackson T. Stephens, and the Rose Law Firm, where Mrs. Clinton was a partner.
5
World Wide Travel officials themselves had, of course, contributed to Clinton’s campaign.
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5
World Wide Travel officials themselves had, of course, contributed to Clinton’s campaign.
6
While roaming about the White House, Thomason spread rumors about the Travel Office. He was the first one to plant in the heads of Mrs. Clinton and President Clinton the idea of removing the long-serving White House employees.
7
Thomason told Hillary Clinton that the Travel Office staffers were disloyal and should be replaced.
FUTURE EX-CODIRECTOR OF THE WHITE HOUSE TRAVEL OFFICE7
Thomason told Hillary Clinton that the Travel Office staffers were disloyal and should be replaced.
Another FOB with an interest
in World Wide Travel usurping the functions of the White House Travel Office was Clinton’s third cousin, twenty-five-year-old Catherine Cornelius. Her contributions to Clinton were murkier. During the campaign she had worked with World Wide Travel, coordinating travel arrangements for the press. Cornelius assumed that travel arrangements, among other things, would continue in the White House as they had in Little Rock.
in World Wide Travel usurping the functions of the White House Travel Office was Clinton’s third cousin, twenty-five-year-old Catherine Cornelius. Her contributions to Clinton were murkier. During the campaign she had worked with World Wide Travel, coordinating travel arrangements for the press. Cornelius assumed that travel arrangements, among other things, would continue in the White House as they had in Little Rock.
Before Clinton had even taken office, Cornelius had written up a plan for World Wide’s takeover of the White House Travel Office—with herself at the helm.
Clinton put Cousin Cornelius on the White House staff as a secretary to David Watkins, assistant to the president for management and administration. During her mere two months in Watkins’s office, Cornelius kept up her campaign to oust the Travel Office staff. Just three days after Clinton’s inauguration, Cornelius sent out a memo describing herself and another White House aide, Clarissa Cerda, as the future codirectors of the White House Travel Office. On February 15, 1993, Cornelius and Cerda coauthored an eight-page memo describing their planned reorganization of the Travel Office and, again, calling themselves “codirectors.” They denounced the Travel Office staff as “complacent” and “overly pro-press.”
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In April, Cornelius was reassigned to the coveted White House Travel Office. However, she was not yet codirector—only a spy on a reconnaissance mission for Watkins.
9
More than a month later, the day the Travel Office staff was fired, Watkins noted in a memo to Mrs. Clinton that Cornelius “had been observing the Travel Office for 45 days” and that she believed the office was engaging in “criminal activity.” Coincidentally, right about the time Cornelius began “observing” the Travel Office, papers started disappearing.
10
Among the vanishing papers was an expense log that would ultimately be crucial to Billy Dale’s defense. The log never turned up.
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More than a month later, the day the Travel Office staff was fired, Watkins noted in a memo to Mrs. Clinton that Cornelius “had been observing the Travel Office for 45 days” and that she believed the office was engaging in “criminal activity.” Coincidentally, right about the time Cornelius began “observing” the Travel Office, papers started disappearing.
10
Among the vanishing papers was an expense log that would ultimately be crucial to Billy Dale’s defense. The log never turned up.
11
It must be said that, though the Travel Office staff was neither disloyal nor corrupt, some of the accounting methods Dale employed were sloppy and unorthodox, which created an opening for unsubstantiated charges of criminality. But the breadth of the accusations Thomason and Cornelius leveled at the office suggests that even they did not really believe the criminality charges.
One of Cornelius’s indictments of the Travel Office was that the employees used “sexist” language,
12
which created a hostile environment—something that could not be tolerated in Bill Clinton’s White House. Thomason claimed they were disloyal—a view, he told Watkins, that was shared by the first lady.
13
THE PRESIDENT AND FIRST LADY’S FORGOTTEN ROLES12
which created a hostile environment—something that could not be tolerated in Bill Clinton’s White House. Thomason claimed they were disloyal—a view, he told Watkins, that was shared by the first lady.
13
While Cornelius was snooping around
the Travel Office, Hollywood producer Thomason was taking his case directly to the president and first lady. Not long after the inauguration, Thomason met directly with President Clinton to outline his plan for the White House to award a half-million-dollar consulting contract to TRM.
14
The president forwarded Thomason’s memo, promoting the venture to top White House aides. This was not an idle gesture: Clinton also attached a label marked “action” on the memo and added a personal handwritten notation—“These guys are sharp. Should discuss with [Leon] Panetta [head of the Office of Management and Budget] and [Philip] Lader [deputy White House chief of staff].”
15
the Travel Office, Hollywood producer Thomason was taking his case directly to the president and first lady. Not long after the inauguration, Thomason met directly with President Clinton to outline his plan for the White House to award a half-million-dollar consulting contract to TRM.
14
The president forwarded Thomason’s memo, promoting the venture to top White House aides. This was not an idle gesture: Clinton also attached a label marked “action” on the memo and added a personal handwritten notation—“These guys are sharp. Should discuss with [Leon] Panetta [head of the Office of Management and Budget] and [Philip] Lader [deputy White House chief of staff].”
15
According to Watkins’s notes from April 16, 1993, Thomason told him that Travel Office employees were probably receiving 5 percent kickbacks from airline bookings.
On May 12, 1993, Thomason again met with the president in the morning and Hillary later in the day. Thomason then went to Watkins and told him that he had spoken with the first lady about the Travel Office situation and that she was “ready to fire them all that day.”
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On May 13, 1993, Thomason had a meeting with the first lady at the White House. The next day, she directed Watkins to fire the Travel Office staff. According to Watkins’s notes, Mrs. Clinton explained, “We need those people out—we need our people in—we need the slots.” She told Watkins that “Harry” had a plan for the Travel Office.
A few days later, Mrs. Clinton was pressing the planned takeover on Thomas F. “Mack” McLarty, then-White House chief of staff. According to McLarty’s notes of the May 16 dinner meeting, after briefing the first lady on the Travel Office employees, he felt “pressure” from her to take quick action: “May 16: HRC Pressure.”
The next day—May 17, 1993—McLarty talked to Watkins about Mrs. Clinton’s concerns. Watkins later wrote that he felt he had to fire the Travel Office employees or there “would be hell to pay.” A May 17 memo on the firing was faxed to President Clinton in California and “cc’d” to “Hillary Rodham Clinton.” That day, aboard Air Force One, presidential aide Bruce Lindsey briefed Clinton on the impending firings.
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Indeed, this is just some of the mountains of evidence—in the form of sworn statements, White House admissions, and contemporaneous notes—that put President and Mrs. Clinton’s fingerprints all over the decision to replace the Travel Office staff with “our people,” as Hillary delicately put it.
Mrs. Clinton has consistently denied playing any role in the Travel Office firings, despite reams of documents and testimony turned up by congressional investigators that contradict this assertion. In a deposition given to the House Government Reform and Oversight Committee on March 21, 1996, Hillary Clinton said, “I had no decision-making role with regard to the removal of Travel Office employees.”
The president, too, claimed to be out of the loop on the Travel Office firings. On May 25, 1993, President Clinton said, “I had nothing to do with any decision, except to save the taxpayers and the press money. That’s all I know.”
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“PUTTING PEOPLE FIRST”—THE PUTSCH18
Watkins fired the seven
Travel Office employees on May 19, 1993. Cornelius and World Wide Travel moved in immediately. Watkins gave Dale and his staff ninety minutes to pack up and move out. He informed them their White House passes would be no good after 5 PM that day. As Dale tearily packed his belongings from more than three decades of White House service, Catherine Cornelius moved in, asking Dale questions about the operation she had just acquired. The Travel Office employees were driven just off White House grounds in the back of a van and deposited on the Ellipse.
19
Travel Office employees on May 19, 1993. Cornelius and World Wide Travel moved in immediately. Watkins gave Dale and his staff ninety minutes to pack up and move out. He informed them their White House passes would be no good after 5 PM that day. As Dale tearily packed his belongings from more than three decades of White House service, Catherine Cornelius moved in, asking Dale questions about the operation she had just acquired. The Travel Office employees were driven just off White House grounds in the back of a van and deposited on the Ellipse.
19
In a “soul-cleansing” memo written some months later, but that would not be produced for another three years, Watkins explained that the Travel Office firings were Mrs. Clinton’s doing: Vince Foster and Harry Thomason, Watkins wrote, “regularly informed me of [the first lady’s] attention to the Travel Office situation—as well as her insistence that the situation be resolved immediately by replacing the Travel Office staff…. We both knew that there would be hell to pay if… we failed to take swift and decisive action in conformity with the first lady’s wishes.”
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The White House cover-up has remained the same. In all, five separate federal agencies would attempt to get to the bottom of the Travel Office firings. Representatives from all five agencies later testified that they had encountered steady roadblocks in their investigation, with the White House withholding documents, facts, or witnesses. Michael Shaheen of the Department of Justice labeled the White House’s lack of “cooperation and candor” as “unprecedented.”
21
And as William Clinger’s House Government Reform and Oversight Committee noted in its report on the Travel Office firings, “Never before has a President and his staff done so much to cover up improper actions and hinder the public’s right to learn the truth.”
22
THE SCRIPT REQUIRED CRIMINALS21
And as William Clinger’s House Government Reform and Oversight Committee noted in its report on the Travel Office firings, “Never before has a President and his staff done so much to cover up improper actions and hinder the public’s right to learn the truth.”
22
Amazingly, Hillary and White House
image-polisher Thomason had originally envisioned the Travel Office firings as a great public relations coup: the populist first couple putting an end to government corruption, removing deadwood at the White House, and saving the taxpayers money.
image-polisher Thomason had originally envisioned the Travel Office firings as a great public relations coup: the populist first couple putting an end to government corruption, removing deadwood at the White House, and saving the taxpayers money.
But this public-relations ploy backfired. The press quickly figured out what was really going on, and was not thrilled with the bald-faced political patronage that cost seven career employees their jobs. The dismissive remark of Thomason’s wife, Hollywood producer Linda Bloodworth-Thomason, that taking over the White House Travel Office was “the equivalent of taking over a lemonade stand,” didn’t help matters.
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Still, so far, nothing much new here. The jobs of long-serving White House employees were for sale in the Clinton White House, just like, as we will see, the Lincoln bedroom and foreign policy.
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