Posted on 12/05/2001 4:40:41 PM PST by Jewels1091
LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (AP) - With a golden shovel full of dirt, Bill Clinton broke ground Wednesday on a presidential library that promises to document both his triumphs and scandals.
"The impeachment? Absolutely," Clinton said. "What I did wrong is a matter of record, but what I want is the whole record out."
Clinton was impeached by the House in December 1998 on two articles of perjury and obstruction of justice in connection with his affair with White House intern Monica Lewinsky. But in February 1999, the Senate voted to acquit Clinton.
"I think they were right and I believe the fact that we stood up to this right-wing movement will be something that will rebound to my credit in history," Clinton said. "I don't think it will be a black mark."
The library is scheduled to open in 2004. Until then, a temporary exhibit opening Thursday at the Cox Building downtown will show off some artifacts given to Clinton during his eight years in office. Among the photographs, letters, sculptures and gifts is a glass-encased gold-and-silver horse presented by the Amir of Bahrain.
There are two references to Clinton's impeachment trial. On a wall, next to a photograph of the House of Representatives approving an article of impeachment, is a New York Times headline: "Clinton Acquitted Decisively: No Majority For Either Charge."
At times, the achievements of the Clinton presidency were overshadowed by conflicts and controversies: Whitewater, FBI files, travel office firings, Lewinsky, Paula Jones and last-minute pardons.
"I was guided by simple political philosophy ... everybody deserves a chance," Clinton said before a crowd of about 2,000.
Though his impeachment will always be part of his legacy, supporters say the library will offer an overall perspective of the Clinton administration that sometimes disappears amid memories of lawyers and depositions.
"Our job is not to rewrite history," Clinton Foundation President Skip Rutherford has said. "Our job is to preserve it."
Some 100 million documents, 75,000 gifts and artifacts and more than 2 million photographs are being stored in preparation for the building of the 27-acre Clinton Presidential Park on the south bank of the Arkansas River.
The $200 million project includes a library, museum, the University of Arkansas Clinton School of Public Service, and a policy center that will focus on economic empowerment and racial and religious reconciliation.
"It's kind of hard to know his place in history," Arkansas Attorney General Mark Pryor said after the ceremony. "We'll let the historians figure that out."
"I was guided by simple political philosophy ... everybody drop their pants!" Clinton said before a crowd of about 2,000.
He first uttered those words to the hookers provided by his campaign aides.
BUAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA you hafta tell the truth for it to come out you dolt lmao
BBBBZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZzz Wrong !
PRESIDENT CLINTON has presented his survival of impeachment as a personal triumph in which the American people stood at his side in a patriotic fight against enemies of the Constitution.
President Clinton: believes historians of the future will salute his defence of the Constitution Evoking an almost heroic view of his ordeal at the hands of the Republican-controlled Congress, Bill Clinton said historians of the future would salute his defence of the Constitution. His words seemed part of an effort to shape his own political legacy. This process includes reaching out to a population which has always warmed to his personal touch, not least by his first question and answer session on an internet site.
Mr Clinton was impeached by the House of Representatives in December for lying to a grand jury when he denied having a sexual relationship with Monica Lewinsky. But Republicans in the Senate could not raise the two-thirds majority to remove him.
In an interview with ABC television, Mr Clinton said: "I think that history will view this much differently. They will say I made a bad personal mistake, I paid a serious price for it, but that I was right to stand and fight for my country and my constitution and its principles, and that the American people were very good to stand with me." He put the Lewinsky scandal in the context of other investigations into his conduct, like the Whitewater development deal in Arkansas.
He said: "I made a personal mistake and they spent $50 million trying to ferret it out because they had nothing else to do, because all the other charges were totally false, bogus, made up, and people were persecuted because they wouldn't commit perjury against me. I think that over the long run, the fact that we accomplished as much as we did in the face of the most severe, bitter partisan onslaught . . . will, in a way, make many of the things we achieve seem all the more impressive."
When he appeared on the Web via George Washington University, Mr Clinton likened his internet debut to the "fireside chats" that Franklin Roosevelt held with the American people on the radio, or John F Kennedy's first televised press conferences. Asked by "Mark of England" if he wished he could serve a third term, something prohibited in the constitution, he said: "I love this job and I would continue to do it if I could."
With an online audience of 50,000, he told another questioner that he thought his legacy would be "a time of transformation, hope, of genuine opportunity, a time when we deepened the bonds of freedom".
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