Bill Clinton: “Well, yes, I think any of us who were involved in it have to take some responsibility. I certainly do. But let me say…”

“Well, yes, I think any of us who were involved in it have to take some responsibility. I certainly do. But let me say that I did everything I could to make it clear that I wanted the law followed to the last letter. I wanted every ``t'' crossed, every ``i'' dotted. In our campaign, Lyn Utrecht and others rigorously checked every check that came in. But I feel very badly that there were some funds received which should not have been received. Some of them were illegal. Some of them were not illegal, but on better judgment would dictate that they not be received. I also believe it's a disservice to the more--to the 99 percent of the people plus and the more than 98 percent of the contributions that the Democratic Party received that were perfectly legal and perfectly appropriate. So, yes, I think that. And that's why I am pleased that the Democratic Party has contracted with a law firm and an accounting firm to review all this, to analyze what was done, get to the bottom of it, and make sure that it never happens again. But I'll say again, the real answer, in spite of all of that, it is very difficult to raise that kind of money in that kind of way without some problem occurring. You remember back during the campaign, there was an official of the Dole campaign who actually had to plead guilty to a money-laundering operation. And I'm sure Senator Dole felt somewhat responsible for that, although I do not believe in any way he knew about it or condoned it. What you see here is too much money being raised, raising too many questions, and taking too much time away from all the people involved. The answer to this--there will never be a perfect answer until we reform the campaign finance system. So, yes, we should--the Democratic Party should investigate, evaluate what's done, make sure its house is clean, and should live within the rules. But even living within the rules, you're going to have--the amount of money it takes to communicate with the American people today, unless you make campaign finance reform--restrict spending limits, give people access to free media time in return for restricted limits--unless you do that there will always be questions raised, even when their contributions are perfectly legal. The answer is to reform this system. We can do it now. If one good thing could come out of this whole issue, it would be shining the bright light on the larger issues of how campaigns are financed today and how we're the only country in the world that really does it like this--or at least in the Western world, I believe, and we ought to stop it and have some campaign finance reform. Terrorist Attack in Dhahran, Saudi Arabia”