Bill Clinton: “I disagree. It's not been debilitating; it's been invigorating. And I wouldn't be so surprised. There are two…”

“I disagree. It's not been debilitating; it's been invigorating. And I wouldn't be so surprised. There are two significant things that--I would say big issues--that have become clear in the last few days. One is you can see who's in control in this Congress, who's in control of the people that compelled this unusual revolt on the environmental issues. You see the story on the NRA today: No gun control measures will be voted out of committee or on the floor of the House. I'm sure glad we got the Brady bill and the assault weapons ban first, and I still think we ought to have a ban on the cop-killer bullets. You see--we're investigating--this Congress is investigating the AARP and letting the NRA run one of its own investigations. So you see who's in control. That's the first thing you see. The second thing you see is more hopeful. There were, after all, 50 Republicans who broke ranks in the House and said that they would put the environment ahead of party. Senator Dole yesterday said that--in Vermont at the Governors' conference--that he wanted to pass a welfare reform bill free of the extremist provisions which the members of his caucus, some of them, had demanded that he put on a welfare reform bill. And so we may be moving toward finding common ground in welfare reform. So you see two things. You see who's in control, and it's not good. You see some people feeling uncomfortable about it, and we may be able to make some progress. And so I don't think we know what the outcome will be. Waco Hearings”