Part 20 (1/2)
4. New Yorker, February 26, 1996 and March 4, 1996.
5. Michael Lerner, The Politics of Meaning, p. 317.
6. Maclean's, July 8, 1996.
7. Was.h.i.+ngton Post, July 23,1996.
8. Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, November 27, 1997.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS.
This book is the product of work performed on a series of teams on which I have been fortunate to have played a role. When I first arrived on Capitol Hill in 1995 as Deputy General Counsel and Solicitor to the House of Representatives, one of the first issues I confronted was the Clinton administration's resistance to the House Banking Committee's efforts to review President Clinton's activities concerning the Madison Guaranty Bank investigation. This was my first encounter with the full frontal a.s.sault mounted by the White House whenever evidence pointed towards Hillary Rodham Clinton. That customary reaction was repeated for the next three years whether in response to queries about Ron Brown, Whitewater, Vince Foster, Travelgate, FBI files, or the Senate China investigation. Any door which seemed to lead in the direction of Hillary was immediately slammed, barricaded, and wired with explosives.
My interest in Hillary's political background and her potential as a candidate for future office evolved out of the House and Senate investigations in which I partic.i.p.ated over the next several years.
From the moment I read former White House administration chief David Watkins's ”soul searching” memo about the consequences of not performing up to the first lady's expectations, I felt that Hillary Rodham Clinton's influence on the Clinton administration was much greater than the public was being led to believe--much greater than the president himself. David Watkins said it best: ”I was convinced that failure to take immediate action in this case would have been directly contrary to the wishes of the first lady, something that would not have been tolerated in light of the Secret Service incident earlier in the year.”
Haley Barbour opened the door for the new majority in the House in 1994, which gave me the opportunity to work for the House of Representatives. I am now practicing law with Haley in Was.h.i.+ngton, D.C. Thank you for continuing to open new doors.
Without the perseverance and dedication to the good government of House Government Reform Committee Chairman William F. Clinger, much that we know about this administration would never have been made public. He more than anyone was responsible for investigating the White House's firing and character a.s.sa.s.sination of seven career government employees in the White House Travel Office. Had he not been willing to pursue the Travel Office investigation, the fact that hundreds of secret FBI files on former Republican government employees were sent over to the Clinton White House's opposition research operatives might have never surfaced.
The dedication of our small team of House investigators is unparalleled. Phil La.r.s.en and Lisa Kaufman handed over critical evidence on the Commerce Department and Ron Brown investigations which required Attorney General Reno (even
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS.
under her own impossible standards) to appoint an Independent Counsel to investigate potential criminal wrongdoing there; an investigation that ended with Brown's death.