Letters to the Editors

The president's attackers miss spirit of the law

© St. Petersburg Times, published September 26, 1998

---

he politicians in Washington are baffled by the public's continuing support of our president. This is because they have forgotten something we have not: the distinction between the spirit and the letter of the law.

While, in their black and white world, the Republicans chant their mantra of "he lied under oath," most Americans realize that the law is not chiseled in stone. Instead it is created by people and should be tempered with reason and common sense. If the original act was not criminal, how can "vague and legalistic" answers about it suddenly rise to an impeachable offense?

This is the same thinking that frustrates judges around our country by imposing mandatory sentencing guidelines on them. The cumulative effect of all this political mudslinging is that even reasonable people are burying their heads in the sand and suggesting that a presidential resignation might make it all go away. This would be a real crime against our nation and humanity.

I would urge all Americans to contact their legislators and explain to them the difference between overzealous prosecution and reasonable judgment.
-- Jack Coletti, St. Petersburg

It is our business

I am compelled to write in response to the many who over the last few days have said, "What the president does behind closed doors is his own business."

Here's why I believe it is our business.

When every officer in the U.S. armed forces knows that having a sexual relationship with an enlisted person is grounds for court martial, shouldn't the commander is chief of those same armed forces be held to like standards? I don't believe you can get any further apart in rank than the president of the United States and an intern. It is our business.

When every officer in the U.S. armed forces knows that having an extramarital affair is grounds for court martial, the president, again as commander in chief of the military, should have to live by the same rules. It is our business.

When every employee in just about any job in America understands that having sexual relations while "on the clock" would be grounds for termination, shouldn't the president have to answer to his employer "the taxpayers" for that kind of behavior as well. It is our business.

Whether or not the lack of honesty while under oath is an impeachable offense, certainly the fact that President Clinton engaged in illicit sexual behavior during working hours, in the Oval Office, while speaking with senators on the telephone, is reason for dismissal. And it is our business.
Melinda S. Dickey, Odessa

It's a costly witch hunt

What the president did was wrong but it's a family issue. Kenneth Starr has taken this country back several centuries and put us all through the most expensive witch hunt in history. Bill Clinton, like everyone of us, is not perfect.

Who are we to judge? He has been a good president, he has put this country in much better shape than it was before. Let's let him get on with what he was elected to do and cut all the soap-opera drama. All the money that has been spent to crucify him could have surely been spent more wisely.
Sheryl O'Connor, Pinellas Park

Don't toss aside integrity

Re: This spectacle demeans us all, by Anthony Lewis, Sept. 23.

Lewis can quote every Czech writer he wants to legitimize his pathetic view of this whole Clinton thing -- and to show us how smart he is. But to suggest that any day now Newt Gingrich is going to break down the doors of my bedroom to catch my wife and I engaged in illicit . . . Well, you get the point.

While Kenneth Starr, on the face of it, appears to have used a pretty big "can" to spray poor Bill with, one needs only to listen to all of the legal hoo-ha to know that Starr had no choice but to find the biggest earth mover possible to budge, even if only an inch, the mound of garbage that Clinton tossed on America's front yard.

Yes, the tape of the grand jury proceedings was demeaning, and rightfully so. Witnessing someone in a position of responsibility evading the truth like an eighth-grader getting caught with a cigarette ("That depends on what you mean by "Is that a cigarette?' Besides, it's not mine . . .") should be painful. Maybe Americans will think twice before we decide to toss the integrity issue aside when next we vote.
Dana J. Gordon, St. Petersburg

Starr is the real culprit

I read in disbelief that people think it is President Clinton's fault that their children are getting to read all this garbage about his sexual activities. President Clinton did not want this made public.

Why do you think he lied? To save humiliation to his wife and daughter, which any man would do if put in that position.

Blame the real culprit: Ken Starr and his little helpers using Gestapo tactics. The public should start worrying about people like this holding office. There was no reason for Starr to make all this sex public once President Clinton admitted his mistake. That should be enough. It certainly shows the Republican Party has some pretty nasty people on board, who will stop at nothing to demean the Democrats.
-- M. Sulla, Tampa

Resignation or impeachment

We are writing because public opinion is apparently playing a large role in the outcome of President Clinton's presidency and the polls do not reflect our views. First, we do not intend to read any transcripts or watch the video of testimony given, because the subject matter is offensive to us. We feel the pertinent facts have already been revealed.

We feel President Clinton should resign. He is guilty of lying to the American people, lying to a grand jury, participating in a coverup, and abusing the postion and power of the office of president of the United States of America. If he refuses to resign, then impeachment proceedings should be carried out.
Greg and Gayle Beaton, Seminole

What are we doing?

Now that we have publicly humiliated our President in front of the whole world, now that he has apologized for everything and to everybody, admitted his sin, asked for forgiveness, what next? Impeachment for lying about his sexual affair? I think most people have heard more about the sexual details of his affair than they cared to know. Do we need more?

Of course, I do not think that he should be having affairs in the White House, but then no one seemed too upset that he was renting the Lincoln Bedroom for overnight stays to whomever could afford it.

Congress, the media and the people, I believe, need to step back a moment and consider what we are doing to this country and the presidency by pursuing the Lewinsky-Clinton affair. Is this how great a nation we are that we want to know all the sexual details of the president's extramarital affair? I think this borders on perversion. I am sure the rest of theworld is wondering, what are we doing?
Vincent Paradis, Seminole

Half-truths are the worst

Re: Clinton's folly.

"A lie which is half a truth is ever the blackist of lies." -- Alfred Lord Tennyson
-- Gail Maguire, Clearwater

Share your opinions

Letters for publication should be addressed to Letters to the Editor, P.O. Box 1121, St. Petersburg, FL 33731. They also can be sent by fax to 893-8675.

They should be brief and must include the writer's name, address and phone number. Please include a handwritten signature when possible.

Letters may be edited for clarity, taste and length.

For e-mail users: Letters can be sent by e-mail to letters@sptimes.com. E-mail messages must be text only and cannot include attachments. If you're using a word processing program to write the message, you must use its ""Save as'' function to save it as a text file, then import it into your e-mail program. Please include your return e-mail address, as well as your name, mailing address and phone number, in the text of the message.