The
"most ethical administration" has produced an unending litany of scandals,
a pattern of corruption, and more lies than a political convention. Right
now, Bill Clinton and Janet Reno are in fat trouble. Since the president
is so anxious to counsel with Russia, he might do well to consider Dostoyevksy.
In Dostoyevsky's "The Brothers Karamazov," Fyodor Pavlovich Karamazov prostrates
himself to the famous Holy Elder Zosima, and cries: "Shame is what makes
me such a great a Buffoon. ... What can I do to inherit eternal life?"
Zosima tells him he already knows what he needs to do: "Renounce drunkenness,
intemperance of tongue, voluptuousness ... and above everything else, stop
telling lies. ... The main thing is that you stop telling lies to yourself."
It was good advice for Karamazov and it is still good advice for Bill Clinton
and Janet Reno. About six years ago, I was interviewing James Collier on
the radio about his book "Votescam." In the course of the interview he
made some scurrilous and outrageous charges against Janet Reno. He said
she was known to be an aggressive lesbian predator, and a drunk. At the
time I jumped on him and said "... Jim you can't say that! You'll get your
butt sued to hell and back." He indicated he wanted to have Reno sue him.
She didn't, and hasn't. Last week I interviewed Jack Thompson. He is a
Florida lawyer who had run against Janet Reno ten years ago for the office
of Dade County State Attorney. Thompson also would like for Janet Reno
to sue him. A few weeks ago the Wall Street Journal printed a letter from
him which noted that when Lanny Davis vetted the Reno nomination for Attorney
General in 1993, Thompson gave Davis "information, which could be corroborated
by multiple sources wholly independent of me, that Reno was unfit to practice
law, let alone serve as this country's top cop." Thompson went on to delineate
the old claims of Reno's aggressive lesbian lifestyle, use of calls girls,
drunk driving stops, and capped it off by claiming she was being blackmailed,
by both Florida organized crime, and by her boss, Bill Clinton. Now, this
is old news in the rumor mill venue, but the fact the respected mainstream's
Vast Right Wing Conspiracy co-conspirator, The Wall Street Journal, published
Thompson's letter is significant. Reno, according to Thompson, had had
multiple drunk driving incidents and engaged in some embarrassing sexual
escapades. Thompson says Carmen "Crystal" Kazim claims to have been a call
girl providing sexual services to Reno. Thompson also quotes John Gigliotti
(from Pat Robertson's security detail) who says Michael Eppinger, an alleged
organized crime figure in Miami supposedly has a video of Reno at a sex
orgy he (Eppinger) arranged. Eppinger also apparently has ties to the Clinton
Administration, having had VIP status at Clinton's Summit of the Americas.
The advice of the Elder to Karamazov continued "The one who lies to himself
and believes his own lies comes to a point where he can distinguish no
truth either within himself or around him, and thus enters into a state
of disrespect towards himself and others." Think about it ... both Clinton
and Reno have consistently and routinely lied to themselves, AND to the
American people. "Respecting no one, he loves no one, and to amuse and
divert himself in the absence of love, he gives himself up to his passions
and his vulgar delights and becomes a complete animal in his vices, and
all of it from lying to other people and himself. ..." Wow, Zosima couldn't
have been talking about Clinton and Reno. Dostoyevsky wrote those words
in 1880. He concluded his advice by saying, "The one who lies to himself
is often quick to take offense. After all, it is sometimes rather enjoyable
to feel insulted, is it not? For the person knows that no one has insulted
him, and that he himself has thought up the insult and has told lies as
an ornament, has exaggerated to create a certain impression, has seized
on a word and made a mountain out of a molehill -- is well aware of this,
and yet the very first to feign being insulted, feeling insulted to the
point of pleasure, to the point of great satisfaction, and for that very
reason ends up nurturing a true sense of animosity." Jack Thompson first
told the story of Reno's problems in 1987. He notes he did not do it lightly
then, and he does not do so lightly now. Furthermore he states he is prepared
to testify to everything he says, and more under oath. At least two Congressmen
have been provided not only a detailed litany of Thompson's charges, but
names, and phone numbers, of those prepared to corroborate his claims.
What they do or don't do with that information will be illustrative. Gary
Aldrich in Unlimited Access revealed that Reno did not have the traditional
background check prior to her nomination. THAT is Unprecedented. When a
certain Florida official was asked why Reno had never been gifted a judgeship,
the response was "... come on, Janet could never pass the background check."
Insight magazine recently noted that friends of Reno's are concerned about
her health. "One federal prosecutor ... said Reno has physically deteriorated
rapidly in the last few months." According to Insight, "In the last month
there's been mounting speculation within the department that Reno might
resign for health reasons by the end of the year. ..." IF (and it is a
big noxious "if") Reno were to go, there would be no attorney general to
appoint new independent counsels. A long, protracted (and no doubt contentious)
confirmation would proceed, and sands would continue to fall through the
hour glass. "Deny, delay, destroy" we have been told is the standing operating
procedure of the Clintonistas. Can even the masters of spin effectively
manage a multiple front war? Only time (Clinton's most intimate ally) can
tell. Meanwhile, the president is off to Russia, intent on ignoring the
unsolicited advice he grandly offered the then beleaguered President Richard
Nixon when (in the frothy wake of all the Watergate stuff) he also sought
colder climes.