Bill Clinton: “Well, it's certainly the definition of a special interest group, but not all special interests are always in conflict…”

“Well, it's certainly the definition of a special interest group, but not all special interests are always in conflict with the general interest. If that were true, our country would not have survived for over 200 years. But I want to look at them and see, because you say that anything that benefits 100 or fewer taxpayers must, by definition, be a special interest, but it could be a sector of the economy where there are fewer than 100 businesses now, where there is a national interest in keeping a certain activity going--alternative--something that's good for the environment, for example. I don't know. I don't want to comment because I have not seen these. But I would think that there are cases--for example, there may be a case where an injustice was done to a taxpayer or a small class of taxpayers, and we're trying to fix that. There may be a--that's the one case I can think of. The other case is where there would be fewer than 100 firms in a given economic area where we'd want to do something. Yes, Ann [Ann Compton, ABC News]. Press Secretary Mike McCurry. Tea time. [Laughter]”