Bush ‘looking forward,’
not at Pardongate

By Les Kinsolving

Editor’s note: Each week, WorldNetDaily White House correspondent Les Kinsolving asks the tough questions no one else will ask. And each week, WorldNetDaily brings you the transcripts of those dialogues with the president and his spokesman. If you’d like to suggest a question for the White House, submit it to WorldNetDaily’s exclusive interactive forum MR. PRESIDENT!

At today’s White House news briefing, WND asked presidential press secretary Ari Fleischer about the failure of the U.S. attorney in charge of investigating President Bill Clinton’s last-minute pardons to issue a report.

WND: The Gallup Poll has just reported that on the question who do you regard as the greatest United States president, Bill Clinton is tied with President Bush for third at 11 percent, receiving more votes than three of the four presidents on Mount Rushmore and more votes than President Reagan. And my question: Does the president, as the nation’s chief law enforcer, still believe it was wise and just to tolerate the U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York not even giving a report on the 3-year-old criminal investigation of President Clinton’s pardongate?

FLEISCHER: Lester, that is one of the most bizarre bank shots I have ever heard. (Laughter.)

WND: Has there been any report? He was charged; it’s a criminal investigation, pardongate.

FLEISCHER: The president is looking forwards, not backwards, and I would highly recommend that to you, as well.

WND: He’s just going to just drop it? It’s just been dropped, right?

FLEISCHER: If you’re asking judicial questions, you know the appropriate people to ask.

WND then asked Fleischer a question based on one posed by a reader on the Mr. President! forum:

WND: WorldNetDaily has reported the State Department’s approval of a request from our U.N. Ambassador John Negroponte for $600,000 to remodel and expand the kitchen in his Waldorf-Astoria hotel residence in New York. And since foreign policy is run by the president, who is commendably, strongly opposed to government waste, my question is, could you tell us what the president thinks of this $600,000 kitchen remodeling, and why Negroponte has a private residence in the Waldorf? Rather than suggesting that the president doesn’t care by your just bucking this question to Foggy Bottom.

FLEISCHER: Lester, I have no idea about the facts of what you just cited, whether that’s true or not true, what circumstances may or may not got into this, so I’m not going to comment on something that I haven’t heard about.

Submit a question to the MR. PRESIDENT! forum.

Les Kinsolving

Les Kinsolving hosts a daily talk show for WCBM in Baltimore. His radio commentaries are syndicated nationally. His show can be heard on the Internet 9-11 p.m. Eastern each weekday. Before going into broadcasting, Kinsolving was a newspaper reporter and columnist – twice nominated for the Pulitzer Prize for his commentary. Kinsolving's maverick reporting style is chronicled in a book written by his daughter, Kathleen Kinsolving, titled, "Gadfly." Read more of Les Kinsolving's articles here.


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