Feingold: Bush's Crimes Worse Than Clinton's

Sen. Russ Feingold said Sunday that Congress needs to censure President Bush as a possible first step towards impeachment for authorizing the wiretapping of terrorists based in America, adding that Bush's alleged lawbreaking was "much more serious, clearly, than anything Bill Clinton ever did."

"This conduct is right in the strike zone of the concept of high crimes and misdemeanors," Feingold told ABC's "This Week." "What the president did, by consciously and intentionally violating the Constitution and the laws of this country with this illegal wiretapping, has to be answered."

Feingold announced that he will introduce on Monday a resolution of censure in the Senate "to condemn his unlawful authorization of wiretaps of Americans."

Asked about the prospect of impeaching Bush, the Wisconsin Democrat said: "That's an option that we could look at if somebody thought that was a really good idea."

"We have to consider, is it best for the country to start to start impeachment proceedings? Is it best for the country to consider removing the president from office?"

Sen. Feingold added, however, "I think we are required to do our job, to live up to our oath of office, and say, wait a minute - there has to be, at least as a first step, some accountability."

"We, as a Congress, have to stand up to a president who acts as if the Bill of Rights and the Constitution was repealed on Sept. 11. We didn't enact martial law on Sept. 11."

Feingold said his censure resolution would give Senate Democrats the opportunity to rebuke Bush without resorting to impeachment. "We have to be the party that stands up for the rule of law," he urged.

Feingold insisted that Bush's lawbreaking far exceeded anything perpetrated by his predecssor, arguing: "This conduct here is so much more serious, clearly, than anything Bill Clinton ever did that it can't even be compared. This is an open and shut case for the censure of the president.

"Bill Clinton got into a bad situation and he didn't handle it very well," he explained. "But this a conscious and repeated attempt where the president continues to say that what he did was proper. And [he] has repeatedly misled the American people."

BILL CLINTON

 (1) Used State Police for personal purposes.

 (2) Directed State Police to fabricate incriminating evidence
 against a political opponent: Terry Reed.

 (3) Conspired with David Hale and Jim McDougal to defraud the
 Small Business Administration.

 (4) Was complicit in the shipment of drugs through Arkansas.

 (5) Allowed laudering of drug money through ADFA.

 (6) Appointed and protected Arkansas Medical Examiner Fahmy Malak
 who repeatedly obstructed justice by declaring murders as
 "suicides" or "accidents."

 (7) Has never accounted for his actions during 40 days behind the
 Iron Curtain during the Vietnam War.

 (8) Tipped off Governor Tucker about upcoming criminal referral.

 (9) Violated Arkansas campaign finance laws.

(10) Violated his oath ofoffice to uphold the Constitution by
 signing into law an ex post facto law, a retroactive tax
 increase.

(11) Fired RTC chiefAlbert Casey to allow his friend Roger
 Altman to monitor and block Whitewater investigations.

(12) Fired FBI director William Sessions to prevent an
autonomous FBI from investigating the Foster suicide and from
resisting cooperation in the Filegate operation.

(13) Fired all U.S. Attorneys to appoint Paula Casey to prevent
Judge David Hale from testifying against Clinton.

(14) Offered State Troopers federal jobs in return for their
silence about Clinton's crimes.

(15) Blocked Justice Department indictments after Inspector
General Sherman Funk found "criminal violations of the Privacy
Act provable beyond reasonable doubt" when former Bush employee
files were searched and leaked to the press.

(16) Appointed friend and now-convicted felon Webster Hubbell to
number 3 position in Justice Department in order to be able to
block Whitewater criminal referrals.

(17) Blocked the criminal trial of Representative Ford, a
Tennessee Democrat.

(18) Appointed a campaign activist to head the Commodity Futures
Trading Commission, without the mandated "advice and consent" of
the Senate, to derail a probe of his and Hillary's financial
dealings.

Bill Clinton is under investigation by Independent Counsel Kenneth Starr.

HILLARY CLINTON

(1) Took a $100,000 bribe, camouflaged as futures trades,
from Tyson Foods Inc.

(2) Speculated in Health Care industry futures while overseeing
legislative reform of same.

(3) Failed to correct false testimony by co-defendant Ira
Magaziner in Health Care trial.

(4) Obstructed justice by ordering the shredding of Vince
Foster's documents in the Rose Law Firm.

(5) Ordered members of the Health Care Task Force to shred
documents that were the target of a court probe.

(6) Ordered the removal of documents from Vince Foster's office.

(7) Told aides to lie about their removal of documents from
Foster's office

(8) Obstructed justice by keeping her billing records, a document
sought under subpoena, in the White House residence.

(9) Lied to investigators about her knowledge about billing
records.

(10) Lied to investigators about her involvement in the Castle
Grande land flip con.

(11) Ordered the use of the FBI to discredit Travel Office
employees.

(12) Lied to investigators about her involvement in the firing of
Travel Office Employees.

IRA MAGAZINER, Hillary Clinton Senior Advisor

(1) Violated federal law when he held Health Care Task Force
Meetings in secret and refused to release documents

(2) Lied in court about the composition of the Health Care
Task Force.

U.S. Attorney Eric Holder found insufficient evidence for indictment of Ira Magaziner.

BERNARD NUSSBAUM, Former White House Counsel

(1) Obstructed justice in the Foster suicide investigation by
blocking access, removing documents, lying about his removal of
documents, and by retrieving Foster's pager from Park Police.

(2) Attempted to quash a Whitewater investigation at the RTC
through White House liaisons.

Nussbaum has resigned and is under investigation for lying to Congress.

GEORGE STEPHANOPOULOS, Senior Advisor

(1) Took a $600,000 loan below market interest and with
insufficient collateral from Nations Bank, a bank having business
before the Clinton Administration.

(2) Lied to Congress during Whitewater hearings.

(3) Attempted to have Whitewater investigator Jay Stephens at the
RTC fired.

MIKE ESPY, Former Agriculture Secretary

(1) Took bribes from Tyson Foods Inc., which was under regulatory
control of his Agriculture Department.

Espy has resigned and is under investigation by a Special Counsel

ROGER ALTMAN, Deputy Secretary of the Treasury

(1) Lied to Congress during Whitewater hearings. (2) Lied to Congress about having lied to Congress. (3) Instructed Ellen Kulka and Jack Ryan at the RTC to block the Whitewater investigation by L. Jean Lewis. Roger Altman was forced to resign.

RON BROWN, Former Commerce Secretary

(1) Has taken bribes from almost everybody. Says it is part of
the way Washington works. The allegations are too numerous
and complicated to be detailed here.

Ron Brown was still under investigation by an Independent Counsel when he died in a plane crash in 1996. The investigation continues.

LES ASPIN, Former Secretary of Defense

(1) Through criminal negligence was responsible for the death
of Army Rangers in Somalia. Has never been held accountable
in public hearings.

Les Aspin has resigned and is deceased.

WILLIAM KENNEDY, DAVID WATKINS, PATSY THOMASSON:

(1) Fabricated charges against White House Travel Office
personnel to have the business taken over by Clinton friends.

(2) Coerced FBI and IRS agents into complicity with this
scheme.

Kennedy and Watkins have resigned.

CATHERINE CORNELIUS, Travel Office employee

(1) Removed documents from White House Travel Office.
Because those documents later became the subject ofa trial
against Office Director Billy Dale, that could amount to
obstruction ofjustice.

PATSY THOMASSON, Director of White House Administration

(1) Lied to Congress about the composition of the Health Care Task Force and the size of its budget. (2) Obstructed justice when she removed documents from the office of Vince Foster.

MARGARET WILLIAMS, Chief of Staff to the First Lady

(1) Obstructed justice when she removed documents from the office
of Vince Foster.

(2) Lied to Congress about removing those documents.

Maggy Williams is under investigation by Independent Counsel.

JOSHUA STEINER, Treasury Department Employee.

 (1) Lied to Congress about conversations with White House
 personnel about the RTC. (He also lied to his diary, but that is
 not a crime.)

 Joshua Steiner has resigned.

LLOYD CUTLER, Former White House Counsel

 (1) Lied to Congress about the contents of redacted documents.

 (2) Attempted to withhold vital information from Congress, a
 felony.

 (3) Obtained a confidential Treasury report and showed it to
 witnesses before they testified before Congress in the Whitewater
 in 1970. Has never been indicted for this crime which was similar to what the
 Watergate Plumbers spent time in jail for.

BRUCE LINDSEY, Senior Advisor

 (1) As treasurer for the Clinton gubernatorial campaign in
 1990, he signed withdrawals from Peny County Bank, the president
 of which has pled guilty to conspiring to conceal these
 withdrawals from the IRS and FEC.

Bruce Lindsey is an unindicted co-conspirator in the trial of the owners of Perry County Bank.

MARIAN BENETT, USIA Inspector General

 (1) Covered up credit-card fraud by USIA Inspector General staff.

FEDERICO PENA, Secretary of Transportation

 (1) State and federal contracts were awarded to companies in
 which he had a financial interest.

 The Justice Department found insufficient evidence to appoint
 a Special Counsel.

HENRY CISNEROS, Secretary of HUD

 (1) Lied to the FBI about payments to former lover.
 Under investigation by Special Counsel.

JANET RENO, Attorney General

 (1) Fabricated charges of child molestation against the Branch
 Davidians in Waco, Texas.

 (2) Ordered the use of military equipment against citizens of
 the United States

 (3) Ordered the use of chemical agents against citizens of the
 United States.

ROBERT REICH, Secretary of Labor

 (1) Lied to Congress when he wrote that there were no memos
 circulating in the Labor Department instructing staffto gather
 political material against the Contract with America. Such memos
 were later published. Under investigation by Congress.

DONNA SHALALA, Secretary of Health and Human Services

 (1) As Chancellor of the University of Wisconsin at Madison
 instituted speech codes which were found to be unconstitutional
 in federal court. Instituted thought police star chamber proceed
 -ings to drive politically incorrect people off campus.

CAROL BROWNER, EPA Administrator

(1) Used the EPA to campaign against Republicans running on
the Contract with America, an illegal use of the executive
branch for political campaigning.

Carol Browner is under investigation by Congress.

ROBERTA ACHTENBERG, Former Assitant Secretary of HUD

(1) Violated the First Amendment when she ordered HUD
lawyers to silence citizens who spoke out against planned
housing projects.

(2) Exceeded her authority when she had HUD staff threaten
Allentown County to withdraw an "Use of English language
encouraged" ordinance.

Roberta Achtenberg resigned to run for Mayor of San Francisco, a
race which she lost.

DEVAL PATRICK, Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights

(1) Used extortion to force banks to give preferential
treatment to minorities.

Congress is investigating the possibility of impeachment based on
abuse of power.

BRUCE BABBIT, Secretary of the Interior

(1) Paid a penalty for violating campaign finance laws during his
1988 presidential campaign.

HAZEL O'LEARY, Energy Secretary

(1) Abused taxpayer money for extravagant travels around the
world.

 Hazel O'Leary is under investigation by Congress.

WILLIAM PERRY, Secretary of Defense

 (1) Intervened in a Chinese trade deal on behalf of a business
 partner.

CRAIG LIVINGSTONE, Chief of White House Security

 (1) Was seen carrying a box from Foster's office the morning
 after Vince Foster died.

 (2) Ordered confidential FBI background files on Hillary
 Clinton's political enemies, a violation of the privacy act.

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