FEATURE
Burton Makes a Desperate Plea to Maintain His Chairmanship
Burton sweats it out
on the House floor 
Wednesday, May 13, 1998 --- New York (APJP) -- The nation laughed out loud yesterday when disgraced Congressman Dan Burton (R-IN) took the House floor in a desperate move to maintain the Chairmanship of the House Government Reform and Oversight Committee, which he has transformed into his personal Star Chamber, gaining unprecedented exclusive rights of subpoena, witness scheduling and other powers normally reserved for all the members of the Committee.
Burton pretends that this unlimited power was granted him because he is one of few "leaders" that can uncover the "truth" about the Clintons. But the real story is that his own Republican brethren, so ashamed of the way he conducts his personal and professional life, decided secretly to grant him full and sole authority, so as to protect themselves from anything untoward Burton might do.
Although Burton claims he has the total support of his GOP colleagues, nothing could be further from the truth. Several Republican members are and have been working behind the scenes to have him ousted as Chairman of this very sensitive Committee which has, under his captaincy, time and again made fools of the Republican majority.
Witness the session during which Burton, himself under investigation for extorting campaign money from the Pakistani embassy through its lobbyist, had the gall to call Attorney General Janet Reno and FBI Director Louis Freeh to a circus meeting -- one which Rep. Connie Morella (R-MD) refused to attend.
Burton, now frightened that even his so-called allies are turning on him, took the unusual step of taking the House floor yesterday to defend himself.
What a mistake!
He looked even more foolish, especially in the wake of firing of his chief deputy David Bossie -- a right-wing operative who helped Burton doctor the Webster Hubbell tapes and transcripts to make it appear that Hubbell was "fingering" the First Lady when in fact he was defending her and her non-involvement in Rose Law Firm shenanigans.
Bossie himself has taken to the airwaves doing interviews with whoever will have him, telling the world the alterations was a mistake. Bossie, who has made his living for many years "investigating" the Clintons for one nut group after another, is trying to resurrect his own dead career.
On the floor, Burton told the House, "My conduct as chairman has been criticized by many of my Democratic colleagues. These criticisms have been echoed in the press. So I'm taking this point of personal privilege to lay out to the American people the facts about this investigation."
Few Americans were listening, and even fewer cared. Americans have all but written off Burton and anyone close to him as revival McCarthyites who will stop at nothing to pin something, anything on Bill and Hillary Clinton -- including tampering with evidence, calling only hostile witnesses and out-and-out lying to the Congress as Burton did yesterday.
Burton, after more than a year of trying, has failed to uncover one shred of evidence or even innuendo that points to the Clintons' involvement in any illegal activity. Now, in sheer desperation, Burton has decided to give four suspect persons congressional immunity so he can try to get them to testify against the President. Burton pretends this is a "search for the truth" and that the Justice Department almost wants him to grant immunity.
But the truth is that the Justice Department does not think the four witnesses are guilty of anything or they would have indicted them long ago!
In short, the entire matter is a sham -- a sham that fellow Oversight Committee member Henry Waxman (D-CA) will no longer participate in.Burton was blocked from giving these witnesses immunity by the minority Democrats on the Committee and will try once more today before losing in his laughable attempt to embarrass the White House once more. He will fail, and then the Speaker must decide whether to remove Burton -- which he will -- or transfer the "investigation" to a more respected Republican member chairman of a new Committee -- leaving Burton as the only Chairman in the decades to lose the nexus of his own Committee.
Waxman accused Burton of waging a partisan vendetta against President Bill Clinton and plans to raise a motion to have Burton removed as chairman today.
Burton, nearly hysterical with fear, slammed back in his floor speech, accusing the Democrats of "sleazy tactics… The fact is that this committee has been subjected to a level of stonewalling and obstruction that has never been seen by a congressional investigation in the history of this country. This investigation has been stonewalled by the White House. This investigation has been stonewalled by the Democratic National Committee."
Senator Joseph McCarthy --
is Burton plagiarizing
"Tail Gunner Joe"? 
History will show that almost these exact words were spoken time and again by Senator Joe McCarthy as his Committee unraveled toward the end of his "Red Hunt" in the fifties.
"This committee has seen over 90 witnesses -- 90 -- either take the Fifth Amendment or flee the country to avoid testifying -- more than 90. The fact that all of these people have invoked their Fifth Amendment right to avoid self-incrimination is a pretty strong indication that a lot of crimes have been committed," Burton said.
Of course, this is just another lie.
The number is nowhere near 90, and only a few non-citizens have fled the country with at least two returning to face charges of THEIR corruption, not the President's.
And this is the crux of the matter, one that even Democrats have failed to frame. It is a sad fact that many men and women across this land do engage in illegal fundraising practices strictly on their own and without any direction from either party or elected officials and staff with Democrat of Republican allegiance.
Why? Because they seek to influence elected officials. Some will stop at nothing to deliver what appear to be legitimate monies to elected officials when, in fact, they are illegal contributions.
Both parties have been subject to these practices and both parties have returned millions in illegal campaign funds once their tainted sources are identified.
Burton know this, but ignores it -- seeking only to draw a thread between the White House and idiots like Charlie Trie, John Huang and others who sought power for themselves by using "close ties" to the President -- closeness gained through the worst kind of fraud -- fraud perpetrated on the White House, not by the White House.
As a matter of fact, only Burton, Speaker Gingrich and former RNC Chairman Haley Barbour -- all Republicans -- have been accused of actually being the architects of fraud and campaign illegalities. Gingrich all but plead guilty to the same. Both Burton and Barbour are still being investigated.
The worst thing Burton could say about the White House was a group of inane accusations, having no basis in fact, that "prove" the President and Democrats were "distracting" attention from "crimes" during the 1996 presidential campaign.
Here are the pathetic remarks he made attempting to vindicate and excuse his own heinous criminal conduct: "The White House's game plan has been to stall and obstruct legitimate investigations for as long as possible, and then criticize the length of the investigation, and all the while attacking the investigators."
The White House has never "stalled" or "obstructed justice." It has, however, exercised its constitutionally guaranteed rights to defend itself against what a vast majority of Americans perceive as a witch hunt so severe that Christ himself could not survive it without legal protections offered under US law.
Burton went on to make a bigger fool of himself saying that the White House had engaged in "cloak and dagger" tactics which he said was releasing "derogatory information" about him. It makes one chuckle inasmuch as their is already so much negative press on Burton that the White House would never need to release such an attack. Burton claimed that the White House sent an anonymous letter to an Indiana reporter in an unmarked envelope and that another anonymous person sent a reporter to a Senate phone booth to retrieve an envelope with stuff on Burton.
The truth is that Burton himself is the master of cloak and dagger tactics. When strapped for campaign funds during his 1996 race, Burton extorted a lobbyist for Pakistan -- a US citizen who has so testified -- for at least $5,000 in campaign cash. When the money was not forthcoming , Burton who sits on a Committee having wide impact on Pakistan, threatened to blackball the lobbyist unless he "came through" with the donation. It is Burton, after all, that should be in warming his seat in Club Fed and this publication cannot fathom where the Justice Department has been on this one.
Burton also employed a known right-wing dirty trickster, David Bossie -- a primary conduit of rumor and false information to the "Get Clinton" industry -- as the Oversight Committee's chief investigator. Bossie's unethical behavior prompted a number of committee staffers, including staunch and honorable GOP loyalists, to resign en masse last summer.
Yesterday, House members, including many Republicans, could be seen on the floor laughing at Burton. Some walked out so as not to be filmed listening to his ranting.
On Tuesday, Burton sent the President a letter, just another of many designed to irritate Mr. Clinton. The letter suggested the following and we provide our answers to his insane requests:
Lastly, Burton reminded Clinton that
Sociopath Burton, and several others of his ilk, although still a tiny minority of Republicans, find themselves frustrated by the facts. Those facts show that while campaign abuses did occur on both sides of the aisle, neither candidate Dole nor President Clinton were in any way involved.
What we are witnessing today is a near-psychotic man -- willing to throw away his own employees like so much trash in order to save himself and continue his vile crusade to assassinate the President's character -- despite the facts and millions of pages of evidence that most assuredly refutes every wild and vicious allegations he has made.
If there is a "scum bag" in this process, it is none other than Dan Burton -- a disgrace to the Congress and a bitter disgrace to this nation.
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