Gingrich Attacks Clinton On Lewinsky Matter, Foreign Policy
Speaker accuses Clinton of degrading the presidency
WASHINGTON (AllPolitics, May 18) -- Further escalating his recent war of words against President Bill Clinton, House Speaker Newt Gingrich accused Clinton of degrading the presidency, through his handling of the Monica Lewinsky investigation, to "a level of disrespect and decadence that should appall every American."
The American presidency is viewed world wide as a "rough equivalent of the Jerry Springer show," Gingrich wrote in a commentary for the conservative weekly publication, Human Events.
Meanwhile, the speaker criticized the president on the foreign policy front as well during a speech Monday in Roswell, Georgia.
Gingrich blamed India's recent nuclear tests on the Clinton Administration's allowing U.S. missile technology to be provided to the Chinese, India's unfriendly neighbor.
"It seems to me as the Indians watch the Clinton administration sell missile technology to the Chinese, it should not shock us that the Indians want to protect themselves," Gingrich told about 100 members of a Lions Club breakfast in his district north of Atlanta. "It's a very narrow and very one-sided policy and it's going to come back to bite us in a big way."
In the May 22 edition of Human Events, Gingrich attacked Clinton and the Democrats for both the "outrageous demonization" of Independent Counsel Ken Starr and the House Democrats for refusing to vote for immunity for four potential witnesses in the campaign finance investigation.
The administration's legal fight to shield the testimony of Secret Service agents in the Lewinsky case was "the last straw," Gingrich said.
The speaker once again pledged to say during every public appearance that Americans have the right to know the truth about the Lewinsky matter and that the president is not above the law.
"This is not about politics. I don't know -- and I don't care -- how this 'strategy' polls. This has nothing to do with vendettas or witch-hunts or partisan advantage," Gingrich wrote. "This is very simply about the rule of law, and the survival of the American system of justice. This is what the Constitution demands, and what Richard Nixon had to resign over."
The "tabloid headlines" are causing Americans to lose further trust in the government and the rule of law, Gingrich said.
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