Political Quotes

“the buck on Filegate does not stop with White House political hack Craig Livingstone, who is now being paid not to work. As William Safire has pointed out, the problem extends to a White House counsel's office bent on stonewalling. But the obstruction goes even higher. On May 9 President Clinton directed his counsel to invoke Executive privilege and thereby conceal certain documents, including the White House request for FBI files on Billy Dale, months after he was fired. Now, get that, Mr. Speaker. By his own admission, the President knew about the smoking gun document at least as early as May 9, when he invoked Executive privilege for the first time since Watergate, yet he did absolutely nothing at that point to surrender the improperly requested FBI files. They remained in the custody of the White House for weeks after that time. Of course, Mr. Speaker, there was no justification whatsoever for the assertion of Executive privilege with regard to the FBI file request. And although that document eventually was turned over to the Committee on Government Reform and Oversight, the President continues to assert the privilege with regard to some 2,000 additional documents. Mr. Speaker, the buck does not stop with Mr. Livingstone, not by a long shot.”