July 18, 1995 - Part 2
July 18, 1995 - Part 2
(11:45:34) Now, it's essential for this Committee to make its best determination of who had access to the documents from Mr. Foster's office Fee, which documents were involved and at what times. Were any documents removed? If so, who removed them and why? These are legitimate questions, important questions, but they are made even more important by the virtue of who Vince Foster was and what his duties were, separate and apart from his position as personal lawyer to the Clintons. It's my sincere hope that, in this hearing, we will get one set of answers to this varying set of descriptions of what happened several days after the initial impact of the grief had hit these people and they had had time for a little sleep and a little reflection and then went about this particular activity. I thank the Chair. The CHAIRMAN. Thank you, Senator Bennett. Senator Sarbanes. Senator SARBANES. Senator Simon. OPENING STATEMENT OF SENATOR PAUL SIMON Senator SIMON Thank you, Mr. Chairman I differ from the others here in two respects. One is I'm a Member of the Judiciary Committee, along with Senator Hatch. We were designated to be here. I differ from everyone else in the Committee in that I was one of three to vote against the resolution setting up this Special Committee. Senator John Glenn, Senator Jeff Bingaman and I voted against it, Why did I vote against it? Number one is the money problem that has been mentioned. The Wall Street Journal said on June 7, 1995, $10 million has been spent by the Special Counsels. Newsweek says on July 3, 1995, $11 million. I don't know if that means $1 million a month is being spent. Resolution Trust Corporation is spending another $3-4 million, $3.6 million. I'm not sure the public is going to get $1 million worth out of this additional hearing. I hope my judgment is wrong on that. A second reason for my voting as I did is in your opening remarks, Mr. Chairman. You said this should not be a partisan issue, and I agree completely. I do believe there are some who view this as an opportunity simply to throw mud at the President. Senator Grams, in his remarks, said people are losing faith in Government. I think one of the reasons people lose faith in Government is that we are becoming increasingly partisan. I'm in my 21st year here in Washington. We're more partisan today than we were when I came here. I don't think the public is well served by that. If in this' process we end up throwing some mud at the President, we demonstrate more and more partisanship, and I don't think either political party is going to be well served, nor is our system going to be well served, A third reason for voting against the resolution is I'm concerned about what we're doing, not just in this Committee, but in others, to innocent people. Senator Murray quoted Vince Foster as saying,
July 18, 1995 - Part 2
( ruining people is considered sport here in Washington." We I re going to be hauling people before the television cameras, people who are little people in Government, who are going to be fright- 37 ened. I hope we'll try to be fair to people in the process of all of this. What we know is that mistakes have been made and we'll probably find some more mistakes that were made, In part, people were in shock, as has been pointed out. Mistakes, I think, were made by the White House in not disclosing everything quickly. If there is not full disclosure at this point, I think it ought to be as full as possible as quickly as possible.