Kendall and Bumpers Burn the Starrs and Barrs
House Manager Case Melts Down as Ghosts of the Framers Breathe Down Their Throats

Thursday, January 21, 1999 -- New York -- Day three of Clinton's defense began with a presentation by David Kendall. His presentation was dry but lucid and specific.

He began by reminding the Senators that he has represented Clinton since 1993 in the tortuous Whitewater matter, which transformed one year ago to the Lewinsky affair.

Kendall set out to correct erroneous media reports, confusion over evidence, and "concerted partisan distortion." He would return to this point repeatedly in his presentation.

His six part presentation would deal with an overview of the evidence, then evidentiary subparts 1, 2, 5, 7 and 4 of Article 2 -- the obstruction article -- in that order.

He stated that "the rule of law" is more than rhetoric -- evidence, fairness, rules of regularity, presumption of innocence and proportionality all matter to the rule of law. One of the hallmarks is careful procedures and the wording of the laws -- and dealing with those issues is not, as the House managers say, hair-splitting, but part of the process by which whether a crime was committed is determined.

And Kendall emphasized that his team's primary disagreement with "the very able House mangers" is over evidence.

He called the obstruction article flawed constitutionally because the managers wrote it such that the Senators could vote for conviction based on a section of the seven enumerated subparts.

He took shots at the Managers for trying to tie both the Jones deposition and the notorious 81-question interrogatory to the obstruction article.

He also made a strong point regarding circumstantial evidence -- which, while admissible, is a matter of interpretation, often several interpretations, and can invite leaping to speculative conclusions.

The House managers said they had "painted a picture with circumstantial evidence" -- Kendall said it was more like a Rorschach test.

On subpart 1, Clinton gave Lewinsky lawful advice -- that she could file an affidavit -- and the House Managers' allegation that this was an element of obstruction is refuted repeatedly by the record of evidence, including Lewinsky's proffer of February 1 and other statements she made under oath. She told the FBI that the President never directed her to say anything.

The House Managers' argument begs the question: where is the evidence to support the assertion that the President knew that Lewinsky filed a false affidavit? Lewinsky's affidavit was true but limited. If she defined a sexual relationship the way most Americans do, she told the truth!

His rebuttal of McCollum's presentation regarding the drafts of the Lewinsky affidavit was particularly effective, calling it mere speculation that flies in the face of Lewinsky's testimony -- there is in fact no evidence that Clinton saw the affidavit drafts.

And Kendall even used Starr's "prize" evidence -- the Tripp tapes -- to support the fact that Lewinsky had never had sex with the President.

Another question -- if the president was so concerned about Lewinsky's name being on the Jones witness list, why would he wait until December 17 to deal with it? The unrebutted evidence is that on the 17th, Clinton wanted to tell Lewinsky that Betty Currie's brother died; in fact, Lewinsky attended the funeral.

As Kendall's presentation continued, he became a little less stiff and a bit more animated. He became particularly emphatic in dealing with Clinton allegedly "parsing words" on the matter of paying attention to his lawyer or what the meaning of the word "is" is. And he explained that there was good reason for Clinton to be thinking not about what his lawyer was saying but about the Jones questions -- the law suit, "legally meritless," was a "partisan vehicle" being used to take a personal and political toll on the President.

Kendall went after both the Jones lawyers and Linda Tripp for using illegal tapes to essentially trap the President -- and Jones attorney Fisher specifically telling Bob Bennett that the reason for the line of questioning concerning Lewinsky "would come to light soon" -- as indeed they did.

Following the break, Kendall turned to subpart 7, in which Clinton is said to have obstructed by telling his aides that he had not had a sexual relationship with Lewinsky -- another example of "double-billing," said Kendall, and another example of overreaching by the House Managers -- a subpart that "violates common sense."

Subpart 5 dealt with assisting Lewinsky in finding a job to corrupt her testimony -- and Kendall noted that "this word 'intensify' is a very slippery word" that evades its own logic -- the undisputed facts reveal that Jordan and others were helping long before the Jones subpoena. And the House Managers claim the job assistance was "in order to" buy off her testimony. Kendall cited both direct and circumstantial testimony that disputes this allegation. When you review all the evidence -- especially what happened in New York, something the House Managers didn't discuss -- there is no conflict in the testimony, no corrupt linkage, and in fact no urgency to Jordan's efforts. There is no "quo" in the quid pro quo; the House Managers' used a selective and erroneous chronology.

Kendall led them through a chronology which greatly expanded from what the House Managers discussed -- back to July 1997, when Lewinsky decided to move to New York. He went through a lengthy and detailed chronology of the efforts of many on behalf of Lewinsky to find her a job in New York. He categorically rejected the theory that Clinton used his friendship with Jordan to find Monica Lewinsky a job in New York, and directly refuted Bob Barr's assertion to this effect. Kendall spent the better part of a half hour recounting relevant chronology and testimony. The only person implying a "quid pro quo" was "that paragon of friendship, Linda Tripp."

The "critical event" which the Managers cite was Judge Wright's order of December 11 concerning discovery -- and Kendall tore a new hole for the entire team of House Managers, most notably Asa Hutchinson and David "The Schlepper" Schippers as he refuted the claim using the actual chronology.

And he demolished the notion that Clinton could have had the so-called "false" affidavit from Lewinsky, using the billing records of Frank Carter.

Toward the end of his presentation, he made reference to Steve Buyer's comments of "self-inflicted wounds" -- which do not rise to the level of reversing two national elections. he did not say that the House Managers themselves were dealing with self-inflicted wounds of omission -- but it surely could not have escaped the minds of the Senators.

Following a second pause in the presentations, former Senator Dale Bumpers took the podium -- and after a very funny introduction, including hilariously recounting a near-disastrous plane landing with Bill Clinton, gave what will be remembered as the speech of a career.

He told his former colleagues that he has seen his friend, Bill Clinton, conduct himself in a way that does his office proud. He spoke of his reverence for the Constitution, including the impeachment process. He spoke of the "awesome responsibility" his former colleagues have -- and the danger of destabilizing the Presidency should they misuse that responsibility. He spoke of C. Vann Woodward, a scholar and historian of integrity who joined with hundreds of others who opposed impeachment. He called misuse of impeachment dangerous to democracy and the American republic.

Bumpers then got to the point -- that the impeachment was a culmination of the most overwhelming investigation in history that has destroyed the lives of dozens of people. he cited one woman who had racked up legal fees approaching $300,000. He doubted that the Senators could withstand this sort of scrutiny. "Whitewater... Filegate... Travelgate... the President was not found guilty of any of them... The president committed a moral lapse... a breach of his marriage vows, a breach of his family trust. H.L. Mencken once said 'When you hear someone say, "This is not about money," it's about money!' "

He then fired at the House Managers "saying he lied about this and he lied about that" as if it weren't enough that the Clinton family were being torn apart over Clinton's mistakes.

Bumpers then ripped at the accusations that their friend Vince Foster was assassinated -- an angry broadside at Clinton-hating conspirawackos, surely including Richard Mellon Scaife and Chris "The Slug" Ruddy.

The punishment that impeachment might inflict on Clinton, Bumpers added, would pale in compare with the punishment he has exerted upon himself.

He recounted the President's popularity -- and effectiveness as a global peacemaker after he mentioned the comment of the Chilean President that "The world needs you more than ever." He added that a huge number of world leaders have acknowledged that Clinton's passion for peace surpasses that of any of his recent predecessors.

He then took aim again at the House Managers for falsely representing Monica Lewinsky's testimony on the matter of one of the gifts, a carved bear head. Is it perjury for somebody to say "No, I did not infer it was a signal from Clinton?", he said -- accusing the House Managers of misleading the Senate.

There is no proportionality here, he said -- the crime and punishment are out of proportion.

Bumpers then reviewed the early history of impeachment -- and its originally having been devised as a tool to prevent kinglike despotism. Maladministration and malpractice were too vague as impeachment grounds, he said. But there was also the fear that the President would serve at the whim of the senate -- so they settled on "treason, bribery, and high crimes and misdemeanors against the United States of America."

High crimes and misdemeanors, crimes against the state -- what are we doing here? Concealing a relationship does not even come close. You can censure him, hand him over for prosecution -- but you cannot convict him, or indulge yourself the right to ignore the history and intent of impeachment.

He then quoted Hyde: "Those men died for the rule of law." One semester into college, Bumpers was drafted, and he described the fear he felt as he waited to board a bus to leave for the marines. His parents cried -- a scene repeated across the country millions of times during World War II. The war ended as he was on his way to Japan -- and he returned to study and practice law. He did study Constitutional law, which he found arcane. He served as Governor of Arkansas, and while he said he didn't understand the Constitution as well as the Chief Justice, his love for the Constitution came from his years as a Senator, seeing Madison's magic work time and time again.

And Bumpers spoke of the sanctity of presidential elections -- the should not be undone lightly just because one side of the senatorial aisle has clout.

Ask Inouye, or Kerrey, or Chafee, or McCain what they were fighting for in World War II or Vietnam. You don't have to guess. Or ask Senator Dole what he fought for. Dole's solution is fair and expeditious, he added.

America is asking for an end to this nightmare, Bumpers said. He was not asking for them to vote against the polls -- but this has been going on for a year, and as Harry Truman told him, trust the will of the people.

He implored those who personally did not like the President to rise above the issue. In two years, he will be gone -- you will not, he said. If you acquit, you will get back to the business of state, the people's agenda. But if you convict, you cannot predict what will happen. Think of the Senator who recanted his vote against Andrew Johnson twenty years after the fact -- impeachment would have created more havoc, said the Senator, than Johnson could have caused.

It is your solemn duty, he said, and he prayed that they would.

The White House had built from strength to strength to strength over three days -- essentially torching the case against the President. The Starrs and Barrs surely felt burnt by the deft torching of the case by Kendall -- and the even greater heat of Bumpers' rhetoric.

-- David J. Gonzo