Reel

August 4, 1994 - Part 10

August 4, 1994 - Part 10
Clip: 460788_1_1
Year Shot: 1994 (Actual Year)
Audio: Yes
Video: Color
Tape Master: 10095
Original Film: 104559
HD: N/A
Location: Dirksen Senate Office Building
Timecode: -

(20:50:24) Senator DOMENICI. Clever in the good sense of the word. Senator KERRY. I didn't characterize it in any way. You can in- terpret "clever." And if I was being pejorative, I might have found a different New York word for it. The point is that in the political climate with day after day of front- page headlines, with this incred- ible countdown going on, could the Senator or anybody really believe that if Ms. Kulka came and said we're not ready, we've got to file a protective suit or we're going to have we need a tolling agreement, that the White House could conceivably have withstood the political pressure and not have signed a tolling agreement? Now you have to disbelieve Ms. Kulka completely and Mr. Ryan and the independence they asserted here to believe that they would not have filed a protective suit or have asked for the tolling agreement. I respectfully suggest to my colleague that the factual situation he drew is, therefore, number one, incorrect. Number two, it simply could not have happened because of Ms. Kulka. Number three, it Sim ply couldn't have happened because of the politics and 51 the reality of the public scrutiny of any tolling request and the sit- uation. The fourth reality is the President understood this and what did he do, he previously had a pointed a Special Counsel. He. subsequently signed the statute of limitations and effectively ren- dered moot any of these other issues So all I want to do with my friends, you know, we're tired, we 've been here a long time, we've done this I think with mostly the dig- nity that it ought to have and I think we all want to try to continue that. But I would simply say that we've got to deal with the facts and we probably shouldn't even be arguing them now. We should! simply be gathering them and then sit down amongst ourselves and try to deal with them rather than argue the theory first and then chastise the witness because they don't give you the answer you want to fit the theory. Senator SARBANES. Senator Kerry, your time has expired and, Senator D'Amato, we'll go over to your side Senator D'AMATO. Senator Domenici for a moment and then I know Senator Hatch is going to follow up. Senator DOMENICI. Senator Kerry, first of all, I appreciate ever knowledge you have attributed to me about this place tics. But I want to respond by telling you that Mr. Altman's 441 Assistant, Mr. Nye, was also deposed. My point is that Roger Altman remained in a very serious decisionmaking position regardless of what's said about de facto recusal and everything else. And let me tell you that Mr. Nye agrees with that in spite of Ms. Kulka's statements about the case. I'm just going to read two questions and two answers in that regard. Question- What did Ms. Kulka say about the imperfections of the information at that point? Answer: Just that she wouldn't have enough time between-her feeling was that she wouldn't have enough time between then, the date of the meeting, and the 28th, the statute of limitations expiration, to make as informed a decision as she would need to make-in her opinion, that wouldn't be enough time to sort of go through all of these mountains OF documents, and so forth, or for her staff to do so, and that ultimately she would have to be making a decision with the best information possible at the time. Then I want to skip right down one line and say: Question: Did Mr. Altman or Ms. Hanson offer any advice or discuss those issues with Ms. Kulka? Answer: Only-it wasn't so much a response as a sort of informing him. And now "him" is in quotes meaning Roger Altman. So "informing him" of the situation and making him realize that the recommendation would be coming to him. Did you hear the last part, Senator? Senator KERRY. Yes, I did. Senator DOMENICI. The recommendation would be coming to him. On the question of whether or not to file one of these early suits, (20:55:05) Hearing hosts KEN BODE and NINA TOTENBERG close out coverage of hearings from tv studio **** FOOTAGE OF HEARING CONTINUES LATER ON THIS TAPE (20:56:41) WETA logo, PBS funding credits (20:57:01) Black screen