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.
Post #114 Nope! Al Gore won on this one. Remember when she threw a lamp at Clinton?
I think it was because she didn't get her office in the West Wing. ;-)
Post#144 Did she really? Don't remember hearing about this.
Yep! she did.
Inaugural week, 1993: Barbra Streisand led the Celebrity Salute to the new president. Barney the purple
dinosaur was the star of the parade. The crowds were so dense that people tried to hoist their kids on
the Portosans to get a better view. Bill Clinton, contrary to his supporters' worst fears, did not talk too
long after he took the oath of office. The insiders exchanged rumors about who was getting what
job and everyone else talked about who was going to what party. The gossip du jour, however,
was the story of Hillary Clinton and the lamp. The First Lady, it was whispered, had
thrown a lamp at her husband during a fight in the White House Sometimes the argument was said to
have started because the president-elect ogled one of the celebrities at the pre-inaugural show.
Sometimes it was about whether or not Hillary Clinton's offices would be located in the critical White
House West Wing.
Exactly!! In America, when laws are knowingly broken, people go to jail.
FReegards...MUD
You don't even have to know you broke a law to go to jail; i.e., if you knowingly own a switchblade in Colorado, you have already broken the law: you cannot own a switchblade in Colorado. Ignorance of that law does not prevent the consequences of breaking that law.
His views are xenophobic, protectionist, and much closer to those of the protest groups of Seattle and Davos than to anyone in the Republican Party. PJB, although socially a conservative, is way out in left field when it comes to economics, with nut jobs like Choate and Lyndon LaRouche for company.
Clinton and the BastardRATS who service his every whim are fully aware of the Laws they broke...and they can't be sleeping too well these days.
As far as I'm concerned, Justice is a foregone conclusion...MUD
Of course it is. It's clear as a bell. This is designed to give the Bush-Bots faith that their idol really is going to do something,and re-affirm their faith. What MIGHT happen here is a few low-level staffers MIGHT end up getting charged with something like "destruction of gooberment equipment",and end up with probation. No way in HELL does this lead directly to either Bubba-1 or Buh-Bette!
On the other hand,selling pardons leads DIRECTLY towards the both of them,and no way in hell is Bubba Bush going to try to cross THAT stream. He is terrified of them.
Same MO as with Starr finding nothing but Lewinsky.
Isn't that sickening, considering how much they covered for the klintoons? I just pray, please God, let these dirty traitor bastards feel your wrath sooner rather than later!!!
The only way I can think of would be feet first.
.......and just what is it going to take to get this slimebag Walker out of this office?????????
Ain't he though? Can you imagine if he were V.P. right now? Puke!
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