Larry Klayman for speaker of the House

At least there’s one guy in Washington, D.C., with some guts — unfortunately, he’s not an elected official.

I refer to Larry Klayman, chairman of Judicial Watch, the legal gadfly who has 20-something lawsuits pending against the Clinton administration.

Klayman is not only a man of action, he’s a man who doesn’t mince words. Earlier this week, he wrote to Henry Hyde, chairman of the House Judiciary Committee and let him know what he thought of Hyde’s latest waffling on the impeachment process.

In a “request for written clarification about scope of impeachment inquiry,” Klayman reminded Hyde of his remarks during a debate on the constitutional standards of impeachment.

“God, I’d like to forget all of this,” Hyde said. “I mean, who needs it? … We paid attention to the polls and the elections.”

And, compared to the new leadership getting ready to take control of the House, Hyde is one of the pitbulls of the Republican caucus. No wonder Klayman’s a little concerned.

“On Sept. 28, 1998, Judicial Watch, Inc., a public interest watchdog dedicated to rooting out and prosecuting corruption in government, delivered to your committee a 145-page interim report, detailing its findings, in over four years of cases and investigations, about illegal activities of the Clinton administration that can be traced to the president of the United States and his agents,” Klayman wrote to Hyde. “Specifically, the report — which is supported by about 4000 pages (8 volumes) of evidence and documents — concerns Clinton scandals which have commonly come to be known as ‘Chinagate,’ ‘Filegate,’ ‘IRS-gate’ and ‘Trustgate’ — which is the illegal solicitation and receipt of monies from domestic and foreign interests, primarily influence peddlers, into the president’s legal defense funds. Copies of the interim report were provided for all members of your committee, Republican and Democrat. On Oct. 6, 1998, on the motion of Rep. Bob Barr of Georgia, the Judicial Watch Interim Report was accepted into the record of the House Judiciary
Committee. Since then, no reference has been made to it by you. In fact, in statement after statement, both before and after the elections, you have boasted repeatedly about how you plan to scale back the hearings, with apologetic statements, such as the one in the first paragraph of this letter, that you and your committee regrettably have to uphold the ‘rule of law.’ Indeed, your latest plan is to limit the inquiry to only the Lewinsky scandal, and then only call Judge Starr as a witness, effectively throwing him ‘to the lions.’ The New York Post reported yesterday that
Democrats on your committee intend to use the opportunity to accuse Judge Starr of threatening
women. As chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, the American people expect more from
you.”

Klayman demands to know what Hyde’s position is with regard to the well-documented scandals known as Chinagate, Filegate, IRS-gate, Trustgate. And the American people must demand some answers, too.

Hyde’s not the only member of Congress woosing out on their responsibilities. Sen. Arlen Specter, R-PA, yesterday wrote in The New York Times that Congress should drop the impeachment probe — unless “other evidence emerges beyond the Starr report.”

Other evidence? How much more do these guys want? It has been handed to them on a silver platter by Judicial Watch. And even that is just the tip of the iceberg. Other evidence has been systematically suppressed by the Justice Department, the independent counsel’s office and Congress.

It’s beginning to look like lots of these guys have something to hide — and the Clinton Secret Police operation is working.

Specter, for instance, is involved in the Teamsters. He reportedly worked to secure public funding for the 1996 Teamsters presidential “election” in exchange for promises of Teamsters cash for his campaign machine. That “election,” Klayman points out, was not only overturned, but has resulted in criminal indictments and remains under active criminal investigation.

“Specter likely understands that any impeachment and subsequent Senate trial of President Clinton could ultimately touch on Clinton’s Teamsters connection and other fund-raising offenses that can be tied to Specter himself,” said Klayman. “Specter’s interest in derailing impeachment seems designed to prevent the light of day from shining on his own ethics problems.”

Specter, Hyde, Livingston … It’s looking pretty grim, folks. Only an enormous amount of pressure — calls, letters, faxes, emails — will be able to turn this process around. Tell ’em Larry sent you. Clearly the Congress is not up to this challenge. Are you, America?