Monday, May 3, 2010 - Court of Appeals would appoint a new prosecutor... |
| Court of Appeals would appoint a new prosecutor and start all over againGeorge got angry, saying Bernie was paranoid and it would never happenBernie knew that Chief Justice Rehnquist would name the panel and it would be dominated by conservative RepublicansHe laughed nervously at Georges outburst and said maybe the chances of a second prosecutor were only fifty-fifty
After further discussion I asked to speak with just Hillary and David KendallI told them I thought we had to go along with the consensus of the nonlegal staff for a special prosecutorAfter all, I had nothing to hide, and all the clamor was diverting the attention of Congress and the country from our larger agendaThe next day the White House asked Janet Reno to appoint a special prosecutorThough I had said I could live with it, I almost didnt live through it
It was the worst presidential decision I ever made, wrong on the facts, wrong on the law, wrong on the politics, wrong for the presidency and the ConstitutionPerhaps I did it because I was completely exhausted and grieving over Mother; it took all the concentration I could muster just to do the job I had left her funeral to doWhat I should have done is release the records, resist the prosecutor, give an extensive briefing to all the Democrats who wanted it, and cartier pasha ask for their supportOf course, it might not have made any differenceAt the time I wasnt that worried about it, because I knew I hadnt broken any laws, and I still believed that the press wanted the truth
Within a week Janet Reno appointed Robert Fiske, a Republican former prosecutor from New York, who would have completed his investigation in a timely way had he been left to do his jobOf course, Fiske was not allowed to finish, but Im getting ahead of myselfFor now, agreeing to the special prosecutor was like taking aspirin for a cold; it brought temporary relief
On the way home from Russia, after a brief stop in Belarus, I flew to Geneva, for my first meeting with President Assad of SyriaHe was a ruthless but brilliant man who had once wiped out a whole village as a lesson to his opponents, and whose support of terrorist groups in the Middle East had isolated Syria from the United StatesAssad rarely left Syria, and when he did it was almost always to come to Geneva to meet with foreign leadersOn our visit, I was impressed by his intelligence and his almost total recall of detailed events going back more than twenty yearsAssad was famous for long meetingshe could go on for six or seven hours without taking a breakI, on the other hand, was tired and needed to drink coffee, tea, or cartier ladies santos series replica watches water to stay awakeFortunately, the meeting ran only a few hoursOur discussion produced the two things I wanted: Assads first explicit statement that he was willing to make peace and establish normal relations with Israel, and his commitment to withdraw all Syrian forces from Lebanon and respect its independence once a comprehensive Middle East peace was reachedI knew the success of the meeting resulted from more than personal chemistryAssad had received a lot of economic support from the former Soviet Union; that was gone now, so he needed to reach out to the WestTo do that, he had to stop supporting terrorism in the region, which would be easy to do if he made an agreement with Israel that succeeded in giving back to Syria the Golan Heights, lost in the 1967 war
I returned to Washington to a whole series of those all-too-typical days when everything happens at onceOn the seventeenth, Los Angeles was struck with the most costly earthquake in Uhistory, which caused billions of dollars of damage to homes, hospitals, schools, and businessesI flew out on the nineteenth with James Lee Witt, director of the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), to view the damage, including a large stretch of interstate highway that had completely split openOn the twentieth, virtually the entire rolex sport watch cabinet and I met with Mayor Dick Riordan and other state and local leaders in an airplane hangar in Burbank to plan emergency effortsThanks to a remarkable partnership, the recovery occurred quickly: the main freeway was rebuilt in three months; FEMA gave financial help to more than 600,000 families and businesses; and thousands of homes and businesses were rebuilt with Small Business Administration loansThe entire effort involved more than $16 billion in direct aidI was distressed for Californians; theyd borne the brunt of the recession and the defense downsizing, suffered severe fires, and now the earthquakeOne of the local officials joked to me that he was just waiting for a plague of locustsHis sense of humor reminded me of Mother Teresas famous observation that she knew God would never give her a heavier burden than she could carry, but sometimes she wished He didnt have so much confidence in herI returned to Washington to do an interview with Larry King on the first anniversary of the start of my presidency, telling him that I liked my job, even on the bad daysAfter all, I hadnt signed up to have a good time, but to change the country
A few days later, President Assads eldest son, whom he had groomed to succeed him, was killed in a car accidentWhen I called to express my imitation gucci wallets condolences, Assad was obviously heartbroken, a reminder that the worst thing that can happen in life is losing a child
That week I named the deputy secretary of defense, Bill Perry, to succeed Les Aspin, who had resigned as secretary not long after the day of Black Hawk DownWe had conducted an exhaustive search, and all the while the best candidate had been right under our nosesPerry had led several defense-related organizations, been a professor of mathematics and engineering, and done a superb job at the Pentagon, promoting Stealth technology, procurement reform, and realistic budgetingHe was a soft-spoken, modest man whose demeanor disguised a surprising toughnessHe would turn out to be one of my best appointments, probably the finest secretary of defense since General George Marshall
On the twenty-fifth, I gave my State of the Union addressIts the only time in a year when a President gets the chance to speak to the American people, unfiltered, for a whole hour, and I wanted to make the most of itAfter a tribute to the late House Speaker Tip ONeill, who had died the day before Mother, I summarized the long list of congressional achievements in 1993, saying that the economy was producing jobs; that millions of Americans had saved money by refinancing their homes at lower rates; that only mulberry style bags 1 |
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