Just got this email...I love it LOL
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DATE: MARCH 1, 2001
FROM: JERRY FALWELL
A LEADER THIS TAINTED SHOULD RESIGN: I have always attempted to be
politically consistent. If a Republican administration were ever as
corrupt and dishonorable as the Clinton administration, I truly
believe I would be just as vocally critical against it as I have
been against the recently-departed White House command.
In 1998, when it became evident that House Speaker-designate Bob
Livingston had participated in extramarital relationships while
serving in the Congress, I immediately announced that he was unfit
to serve as speaker. Days before the House impeachment vote in
December 1998, Mr. Livingston - aware that Hustler Publisher Larry
Flynt had funded the investigation of his sexual dalliances -
announced that he was stepping down from his House post, encouraging
President Clinton to do the same. It was the right thing to do. It
was the honorable thing to do. President Clinton - unfamiliar with
honor - remained in office.
No matter how much I may appreciate the policies of a political
leader, if they betray their trust with their constituency and the
American public, it is imperative that I do not compromise my
position as a religious leader by attempting to strike a political
balance and justify their actions. If such compromises are struck,
the expectations our nation has for its political leaders are
weakened and our citizens begin to forgive deeper and deeper levels
of transgressions.
We have been eyewitnesses to such a scenario. The majority of
supporters of Bill and Hillary Clinton have, for eight years,
continued to turn a blind eye to escalating examples of the first
couple's political profiteering. As long as their wallets remained
thick, many of our fellow Americans were content to enable the
Clintons' habitual misconduct.
I believe the present "Pardongate" scandal can be directly traced to
the enabling of the Clintons. Since he believed that a large
percentage of Americans would sustain their support of his
administration - seemingly no matter what sins he embraced - Mr.
Clinton felt empowered to grant last-minute pardons to the most
shocking array of criminals this side of a Quentin Tarantino film.
In addition to the high-profile pardon of fugitive-billionaire Marc
Rich, pardons were furnished to cocaine distributors (Carlos Vignali
and William Kennedy III), money launderers (Harvey Weinig),
embezzlers (Arnold Paul Prosperi), kidnappers (Harvey Weinig),
frauders (John Bustamante), defrauders of government programs (four
men from a Hasidic Jewish community), tax evaders (Dorothy Rivers,
who stole federal money intended for programs to help homeless
families to buy herself furs and a Mercedes-Benz for her son) and
child molesters (former Democrat Rep. Mel Reynolds).
The list of pardoned individuals prompted DeRoy Murdock to state,
"Bill Clinton's soft spot for hardened criminals is a national
disgrace."
But Pardongate is not just the president's problem. New York Sen.
Hillary Rodham Clinton has also found herself squarely in the middle
of this disgraceful pardons-for-cash scandal. Her brother profited
$400,000 following the pardons, before claiming he gave some of it
back. While Mrs. Clinton has denied influencing the decision of her
husband in pardoning her brother's pals so her brother could profit,
she has incessantly been at the center of the fund-raising scandals
at the White House.
With that in mind, Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton recently
asked how likely it is that Mrs. Clinton was completely out of the
pardons-for-cash loop? "Not very," was his uncomplicated reply.
Even some of the Clintons' most ardent supporters have a similar
notion and are now calling for Mrs. Clinton's scalp. On Wednesday,
the New York Observer editorialized, "With the nation and indeed the
world watching, we [New Yorkers] entrusted her with the U.S. Senate
seat once held by Robert F. Kennedy and Daniel Patrick Moynihan. It
is clear now that we have made a terrible mistake, for Hillary
Rodham Clinton is unfit for elective office. Had she any shame, she
would resign. If federal officeholders were subject to popular
recall, she'd be thrown out of office by springtime, the season of
renewal."
The notably liberal newspaper warned that the Clintons have "fooled
the public before. They believe they can do so again. ... And so it
will be up to New York, finally, to foil the calculations of this
coarse and manipulative couple."
Those are powerful words - words the Clintons are not used to having
hurled in their direction.
In addition, Bob Herbert, whom Fox News Channel identified as the
most liberal columnist at the New York Times, has implicated Mrs.
Clinton in the scandal. Mr. Herbert wrote that the Democratic Party
fabricated "the equivalent of a pact with the devil" in supporting
Mr. Clinton and "in the process it lost its bearings and maybe even
its soul."
"The Clintons can spin this however they want," he said. "But the
simple truth is that the way in which some of the pardons were
granted seems to fit neatly with the standard definition of a bribe,
which is the promise of money or gifts - something of value - to
influence the action or behavior of an official. ... The Clintons
may or may not be led away in handcuffs someday. But whatever
happens with the criminal investigations, it's time for the
Democratic Party to wise up. Ostracism would be a good first step.
Bill Clinton should be cut completely loose."
Furthermore, a surprising number of New York voters say they don't
believe Hillary Rodham Clinton was unaware of the involvement of her
brother and her campaign treasurer - in presidential pardons, a new
poll said, with a majority thinking she acted unethically or
illegally (Marist Institute for Public Opinion). Of course,
politicians frequently recover from poor public opinion polls, but
it is readily apparent that Mrs. Clinton's image has been seriously
- and quite probably permanently - tarnished.
Mrs. Clinton should indeed - for once - do what is in the best
interest of her constituency and step down. However, I imagine
that, like her husband, she will continue to tout her purity of
heart and maintain her innocence while the residue from the pardon-
for-cash venality continues to reek to the high heavens.
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