SID BLUMENTHAL, DIRTY TRICKSTER
Sid Btumenthat, Dirty Trickster Sidney Blumenthal didn't wait until he got to the White House to serve as an operative for President Clinton. And no, The Scrapbook isn't talking about those puff...
...Say we were to publish them because they contained "information of substantial public interest"— which any such documents surely would...
...But Sid also had an underground role, The Scrapbook has learned...
...And McDermott then promptly played the recording for Times reporter Adam Clymer...
...As for those interest groups that have criticized China's human-rights abuses, Grams wondered whether they were really just motivated by greed: "I am disappointed that certain grassroots groups have chosen to capitalize on concerns about China just to further their own fund-raising goals...
...Call it the "Clymer exemption" to the federal wiretapping ban...
...But what if one of the apparent malefactors is a senior congressional Democrat...
...What would happen then...
...indeed, Grams announced that Beijing "will listen more to the Chinese people than they will listen to the threats from outside its borders...
...Well, then the wiretapping is a positive public service, and the law should not apply...
...And, second: If you have to vote on something serious, vote against it—even if the nay vote is tantamount to a vote against the Constitution...
...The consul did add that the other country's anthem shouldn't be played either...
...national soccer team met Mexico at the Los Angeles Coliseum last month, the crowd was largely pro-Mexican...
...Clymer wrote an account of the conversation designed to make it appear that House speaker Newt Gingrich had violated an agreement with the Ethics Committee...
...to criticize China for human-rights violations...
...Do you think the New York Times editorial page would criticize the president and his lawyer for daring to "trample on free speech and Congressional prerogatives...
...This wasn't surprising, given L.A.'s immigrant population and the popularity of soccer among Mexicans...
...Eavesdropping at the New York Times It is a federal crime to eavesdrop on, tape record, or disclose the contents of other people's cellular telephone conversations...
...The same law that makes these activities illegal also allows the victim of such eavesdropping to sue the snoop and his confederates for punitive damages...
...But then he suggested how to prevent a recurrence: Stop playing the Star-Spangled Banner during sporting events in the United States involving a team from another country...
...They listen to their people and imprison the uppity ones...
...Unlike the kind that Davis and her comrades always supported...
...It merely urged the Clinton administration to urge the U.N...
...And say Clinton or Kendall were then to sue John Boehner, a result the law would clearly sanction and encourage...
...Hmmmm...
...Neither do we...
...When the U.S...
...But when a question came up about Bob Dole's position or plans, Sid was particularly helpful...
...According to the New York Times, anyway...
...Not only did he work closely with behind-the-scenes operatives in fashioning Clinton's message—all the while remaining on the New Yorker payroll...
...The Re-education of Toni Morrison Angela Davis—the Communist who is never called a Communist, despite running several times for vice president on the Communist party ticket—has published a book on the blues and "black feminism...
...So it's McDermott's prerogative as a congressman to break the law, but it's vindictive for Boehner to complain...
...The Do-Nothing Congress Republicans on Capitol Hill are pinching themselves with delight over the high poll numbers they have achieved simply by doing nothing...
...Shame on them...
...Last week, Kentucky Republican Mitch McConnell tried to abolish federal racial quotas in highway construction that are plainly unconstitutional...
...But not before Grams gave a repellent speech at a meeting of the Foreign Relations Committee...
...He would put on his journalist's hat, call the Dole campaign, learn what he could, and then report back to the Clinton camp...
...And no matter how such information might be obtained, the Times argues, American citizens, "including members of Congress," must be able to facilitate its publication "without fear of legal reprisal...
...And what if the party that made the conversations public is the New York Times...
...The lead blur-bist is Toni Morrison, winner of the Nobel prize, who says the book is "a serious re-education...
...And no, The Scrapbook isn't talking about those puff pieces Sid wrote about Clinton (and about Hillary, too) in the New Yorker...
...O Say Can You Si...
...Anything that humiliates Newt Gingrich apparently constitutes "information of substantial public interest...
...Say someone were to break into the law offices of Clinton lawyer David Kendall and steal memoranda describing Kendall's conversations with the president about Monica Lewinsky...
...But at least Morrison's re-education was voluntary, and presumably not administered in a prison camp...
...Those were just Sid's public work on the Clintons' behalf...
...At issue is that late 1996 phone call among House Republican leaders that two Florida Democrats, John and Alice Martin, heard over their police scanner and tape recorded...
...The Times editorial page, amazingly, calls Boehner's suit a "vindictive political move . . . that threatens to trample on free speech and Congressional prerogatives...
...Let's name names...
...Yes...
...His amendment to kill so-called set-asides in federal contracts was defeated in the Senate...
...Jim McDermott, ranking Democrat on the House Ethics Committee...
...The Martins, you'll recall, delivered the resulting recording to Rep...
...And not even a very tough resolution...
...Say those documents were to wind up at The Weekly Standard by way of John Boehner...
...The Mexican consul general in L.A., Jose Angel Pescador Osuna, issued a special consular bulletin expressing disapproval of those who acted "inappropriately" during the national anthem...
...Gracias for the advice...
...Oops, poor choice of words...
...First: Don't schedule votes on anything serious...
...That, of course, wasn't journalism...
...Those Republicans are as follows: Kit Bond of Missouri, Ben Nighthorse Campbell of Colorado, John Chafee of Rhode Island, Susan Collins of Maine, Alfonse D'Amato of New York, Pete Domenici of New Mexico, Jim Jeffords of Vermont, Dirk Kempthorne of Idaho, John McCain of Arizona, Frank Murkowski of Alaska, Bill Roth of Delaware, Olympia Snowe of Maine, Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania, Ted Stevens of Alaska, and John Warner of Virginia...
...It was a dirty trick...
...It goes almost without saying that every Democrat but one, Ernest Hollings, also opposed the Constitution...
...It wasn't even quiet advice-giving...
...After his speech, his 17 colleagues were moved to vote unanimously against him, and for the resolution...
...And what if the embarrassed victims are senior congressional Republicans...
...Despite the efforts of Feinstein and Grams, the Senate passed the resolution last week 95-5...
...House GoP conference chairman John Boehner, who was in Florida and whose cell phone was the Martins' immediate target, has now sued McDermott, as the law allows...
...Their strategy has two parts...
...But Grams managed mainly to insult his colleagues on the Foreign Relations Committee...
...Many of you agree with me privately," he informed other senators, and then challenged them "to prove to me that these efforts to demagogue improvements are productive...
...The problem, said Grams, is that the Chinese government doesn't take kindly to public pressure...
...They whistled, booed, shouted, and blew horns during the playing of the Star-Spangled Banner and later pelted American players with water, plastic bottles, garbage, beer cups...
...What was surprising was the behavior of the crowd...
...That set-aside program will survive because 15 Republicans—fifteen—were worried over how it might look if they were finally to bring federal law into compliance with the Fourteenth Amendment...
...Rod Grams, Appeaser The last time we caught up with GOP senator Rod Grams, he was helping Dianne Feinstein block a Senate resolution on human rights in China...
...Say this for Grams: He has no talent for demagoguery himself...
Vol. 3 • March 1998 • No. 27
