Posted on 02/09/2002 6:59:22 AM PST by Tumbleweed_Connection
In an astonishing reversal of President Bush's nonchalant attitude towards an array of corruption charges against Bill and Hillary Clinton, the president and his aides are now said to be "quietly pushing" a probe into allegations that Clinton staffers trashed the White House in Jan. 2001.
What's more, they've asked that the newly revved up investigation focus on the East Wing, where former first lady Hillary Clinton had her offices.
The shift could mean the GAO probe will also examine evidence that Mrs. Clinton absconded with furniture and other White House artifacts to decorate her private mansions in New York and Washington.
"White House folks suggested we cast as wide a net as possible," GAO director Bernard Ungar told the New York Daily News Saturday, adding that the Bushies wanted to redirect the probe's previous focus from the Eisenhower office building to Mrs. Clinton official digs.
The request for action on the Clinton vandalism charges prompted complaints from GAO chief David Walker, who told the News, "they want us to do more work than is even reasonable."
The Clinton probe could prove distracting to Walker's focus in recent weeks: prying loose White House records on meetings between Vice President Dick Cheney and Enron officials.
Immediately after reports of White House vandalism, Bush seemed to take no interest in the episode and urged the media to look that other way.
"There might have been a prank or two, maybe somebody put a cartoon on the wall, but that's OK." he told reporters. "It's time now to move forward."
But after Democratic Congressman Anthony Weiner complained last June that Clinton workers had been unfairly smeared and demanded the Bushies apologize, White House press spokesman Ari Fleischer said the destruction was more extensive then the president had let on.
A list of damages he released included:
75 phones that had been "tampered with," including 10 where the lines had been cut.
Twenty percent of the desks in the Eisenhower Office complex had been overturned.
Obscene graffiti was discovered by Bush staffers in six offices.
A 20-inch-wide presidential seal had been ripped off a wall.
One hundred computer keyboards had been rendered inoperable by the Clinton vandals.
Pornography was left behind in White House photocopiers.
Trash was spilled throughout the White House counsel's office, along with other assorted random damage.
One estimate put the cost of the destruction as high as $250,000.
Bush administration spokeswoman Claire Buchan said the White House counsel's office had photographs of the vandalism, but did not explain why they were not offered to the GAO when the agency first requested proof in April.
In releasing the list of damages, Fleischer explained, "We tried to be gracious, but the last administration would not take graciousness." Claims that Bush staffers had lied about the destruction had forced him to respond, he said.
After Fleischer's comments, the GAO's Ungar began backtracking on his April report that there was no unusual damage to the White House after Clinton staffers departed.
"Ungar said the GAO found accounts of damage that included telephones disconnected from wall jacks, phones with extension numbers defaced and tables and desks that were overturned," reported Newsday, in a follow up story on Fleischer's list.
It's not clear whether the White House's newly aggressive attitude will translate into action in the office of the U.S. Attorney for New York's Southern District, which has been accused of footdragging in its probe into the Clinton Pardongate scandal.
"...(the Bush's...)..." How do you equate Bush with Clinton's decision to export Elian let alone save him?
That's the correct answer.
And it's a win-win strategy.
Either the democrats knuckle under and comply with this warning to cool their scandal-jets or we see some interesting details of their past crimes.
The only improvement to this strategy that I would dial in would be a double-cross (in the event that they do comply with this warning) at a later date.
Why the "GAO probe?"
If there's evidence call the cops.
[Maybe the same park "police" who covered up her involvement in Vince Foster's murder will to come to her aid again?]
And drag the treasonous, lying, thieving, mass-murdering, co-serial-rapist gangster bitch off to jail!
This is odd coming from Newsmax/Limbacher. Did either ever use the term "Clintonites" or "Clintoids" or "Clinton Butt Kissers" in any stories about Clinton staffers? Just curious.
A long trip is started with the first step. Follow Dubya's example and be patient.
No, 'revenge is a dish best served cold'. This dish has cooled for a year, so it will be at it's very best.
A quarter of a million dollars makes the expense considerable, and certainly on the high side of the misdemeanor/felony divide.
The Clinton probe could prove distracting to Walker's focus in recent weeks: prying loose White House records on meetings between Vice President Dick Cheney and Enron officials.
Don't recall Walker complaining about his workload prior to the Cheney / Enron probe. The fact that "Immediately prior to his appointment as Comptroller General, Mr. Walker was a partner and global managing director of Arthur Andersen LLP's human capital services practice and a member of the board of Arthur Andersen Financial Advisors" couldn't have any connection, could it?
Family values to Elian's mother meant getting her son to a place where he could flourish and reach his potiential. It is called FREEDOM.
Elian's father was NOT married to Elian's mother when Elian was concieved (after their DIVORCE.) Elian's father had no INTEREST for months in coming to retrive his son, in fact he called the relatives in Miami to watch out for Elian. And they answered that call.
This little boy was TRASHED and SMASHED and USED by a very evil man and a very cowardly father.
Everything that happened to Elian was controlled by a group of VERY EVIL people led by one greg craig of the Williams and Connerly law firm in DC who stood to gain much by being held in FAVOR by Castro. Just ask their clients ADM, RJReynolds (tobacco-the Bagley family that entertained-actually paraded-Elian for their jet setter buddies in their Georgetown mansions ala greg craig) and others.
Juan was HELD like a captive while here-first in MD and later at a guarded facility in DC. I know-I was there, protesting it with all of my heart.
Too boot-the taking of Elian at gunpoint was one of the sickest sites, and saddest events our government has ever undertaken. Pathetic. And thoroughly clintonesque, to the point where the Gonzalez family was ON THE PHONE with one of Reno's spokespeople WHEN the raid went down....yes, ON THE PHONE, being told by Reno's evil monkey's about when the meeting place would be for them all, giving the gonzalez family hope. (Juan, his wife, his newest child and Elian and Marisleysis and her father would all be together to work things out-oh sure!!! Only to be met at the door by armed thugs who even hurt photographers in the quest to grab a little child. Who CARES about the trauma this meant for that little family and the HORROR it was for Elian. And was Elain's father there to comfort him? Was he in the car? Or on the plane back to DC?? Er, no. Of course not. Elian had to be, er, settled as it were.) How is THAT for evil??????
I could go on...but you cannot. Because you see Juan as a good father. And everything points to this man being a pawn and as well as a huge coward.
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