Sapulpa Daily Herald (Sapulpa, Okla.), Vol. 83, No. 26, Ed. 1 Tuesday, October 14, 1997 Page: 4 of 10
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PAGE FOUR - Sapulpa (Okla.) Daily Herald, Itosday, October 14,1997
State Report
Tax-cut talk
Oklahomans who missed out on "targeted” tax cuts in the past
can take heart over discussions now under way at the Capitol.
Aides to Gov. Frank Keating are hinting the Republican gover-
nor will propose a broad-based tax-cut program when the Legisla-
ture reconvenes in February.
Options include some sort of reduction in income taxes and
repeal of the state sales tax on groceries.
Of course, such a general tax cut is a long way from reality.
First, Keating will have to settle on what kind of reduction will
appeal most to legislators. Republicans and Democrats alike.
Then there
will be resis-
tance to a tax
plan that will
significantly
reduce revenue
at a time when
per capita educa-
Statehouse
Focus
By JEAN PAGEL
Assoc iated Press
JJCI cuuva-
tion funding in Oklahoma remains near the bottom of the 50
states.
live*. ,
Education supporters have a lot of studies to support their argu-
ment that the state’s future depends more on a well educated work
force than lower taxes.
But key Keating advisers feel the time is ripe for a general tax-
cut push, with the governor nearing a re-election announcement
and state revenues coming in at a record clip.
In his first three years, Keating has proposed a wide variety of
tax cuts, some of which have been approved by lawmakers. Most
helped business, including the energy and agriculture segments.
None of the previous tax reductions was as broad in scope as
the ones now being discussed.
“1 think you will see fewer proposals than in the past, but my
instinct is it will be broader and more inclusive." says Secretary
of State Tom Cole, Keating’s top political adviser.
Retirees benefited from the biggest cut under Keating that
directly affects people — $25 million. The reduction comes from
a $5,500 income tax credit on pension income, phased in over five
years.
A cut in the grocery tax will touch every Oklahoman, to some
degree, while how many are affected by an income tax cut will
depend on how it is structured.
“There’s a preference inside the administration for an income
tax cut," Cole said, adding that much of that is coming from
“Daxon’s shop."
He referred to Tom Daxon, director of the Office of State
Finance, who has long advocated lower income taxes as a way to
boost the private sector and reduce government.
Cole said there is “somewhat less enthusiasm for removing the
sales tax on groceries, but we recognize that proposal is very
important to members of the Legislature — some type of phase
in.”
He said there is a strong argument for getting rid of what is
unquestionably “a very regressive tax," but there also are good
arguments for changing the income tax on the same grounds.
As the GOP gubernatorial nominee in 1982, Daxon proposed a
15 percent across-the-board cut in income taxes. Like today, Okla-
homa’s treasury was flush at the time, making Democratic Gov.
George Nigh’s re-election bid an easy one.
Nigh had won approval of a series of targeted tax cuts himself
in his first four years. Lumped together, the tax cuts totaled more
than $100 million a year. That money was sorely missed when
falling oil prices spurred an economic downturn in late 1982 and
1983, forcing budget cuts and tax increases to keep the state bud-
get balanced
The grocery tax proposal, by Rep. John Sullivan, R-Tulsa, is
getting grassroots support. Oklahomans United, a citizen-lobbying
group, has collected signatures supporting Sullivan’s bill in more
than 30 towns and cities.
The Oklahoma Municipal League is opposing the bill.
Although it applies only to the 4.5-cent state sales tax on gro-
ceries, officials fear it could lead to an assault on local sales taxes,
the main source of revenue for municipalities.
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Opinion
Reno must name prosecutor
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Before her attorney generalship
turns into a historic embarrassment or
worse, Janet Reno needs to appoint an
independent counsel to aggressively
prosecute 1996 violations of cam-
paign finance law.
Reno repeatedly has said that she
has yet to find the “specific, credible
evidence" of crime that would trigger
the appointment, but the evidence of
massive violations is so obvious and
public that most investigators are sim-
ply ignoring it. While the Justice
Department and various congressional
committees focus on pieces of the
puzzle — White House phone calls
and videotapes of coffee klatches
they’ve all but overlooked systematic
and willful breaking of the 1974 Fed-
eral Election Campaign Act, possibly
by both parties.
The law involves an explicit trade:
When a presidential campaign
receives federal money, it is prohibit-
ed from raising private funds to
advance its cause.
Yet, the Clinton/Gore campaign
raised tens or hundreds of millions of
dollars beyond federal limits and the
president himself approved and even
edited the television commercials paid
for with the money.
For “specific and credible evi-
dence,” Reno need look no further
than Clinton aide Dick Morris's book,
“Behind the Oval Office,” which
describes how from July 1995 through
the 1996 election, the White House
used TV ads paid for with soft money
to advance Clinton’s candidacy.
“In my opinion,” Morris wrote,
“the key to Clinton’s victory was his
early television advertising. There
never has been anything even remote-
ly like it in the history of presidential
elections.” In an interview, Morris
said, “When you run ads, you’re run-
ning those ads to affect a political
Capitol Roll Call
By
Morton
Kondrake
Newspaper
Enterprise
Association
race.
The evidence strongly suggests
that Clinton, Vice President A1 Gore
and former White House deputy chief
of staff Harold lekes — all covered by
the independent counsel statute —
were involved in a conspiracy to vio-
late federal campaign laws.
The best legal analyses of this case
were made in April by Common
Cause in a letter to Reno and by for-
mer Justice Department official Terry
Eastland in a recent article in the
American Spectator.
Common Cause director Ann
McBride said in a press conference on
releasing her letter that both the
Democratic and the Republican presi-
dential campaigns violated the law by
channeling illegal money through
their respective national committees.
She argued that spending money in
excess of federal limits is not made
legal by the fact that it came from cor-
porate and labor “soft money" contri-
butions to parties, nor by the fact that
the ads did not “expressly advocate”
-the election of Clinton or Bob Dole.
The controlling language in the
law, she argued, is that money raised
and spent “for the purpose of influ-
encing” a federal election is hard
money subject to federal limits.
“Campaign contributions and
expenditures were raised and spent,
and fully controlled, by the Clinton
presidential campaign and the Dole
presidential campaign for the purpose
of influencing’ a federal election,
namely the presidential election,"
McBride said.
Moreover, she said, the ads were
not issue-advocacy or party-building
ads, but election-influencing ads, even
though they did not explicitly urge a
vote for Clinton or Dole.
“The Supreme Court has never
held, and no one seriously argues, that
express advocacy, such as vote for - or
‘vote against,’ is required in order for
ads run by candidates to be treated as
campaign expenditures subject to fed-
eral law,” she said.
According to Eastland, Reno has
never responded to the arguments
posed by Common Cause. "Everyone
has taken bits and pieces of this, the
attorney general in particular, without
focusing on the whole thing, the con-
spiracy,’ if you will," Eastland said in
an interview.
Reno should appoint an indepen-
dent counsel not only because there is
"specific and credible" evidence ot a
conspiracy by persons covered by the
independent counsel statute, but also
because she is involved in real con-
flicts of interest.
So far as is known, the Justice
Department is investigating only 1996
campaign wrongdoing by the Clinton
campaign. There is evidence that the
Dole campaign also did what Clinton
did and deserves investigation. For the
attorney general of one party to decide
whether to investigate the opposition
as well as her own side is a conflict.
Reno also ought to appoint an inde-
pendent counsel because, as the Wash-
ington Post made plain in a brilliant
piece of reporting last week, the Jus-
tice Department has botched its inves-
tigation. Instead of aggressively
investigating whether top White
House officials violated the law, as the
FBI urged, the Post reported that Jus-
tice’s prosecutors collected newspaper
clips and "re-reported" the facts to see
whether evidence developed against
higher-ups.
Even though Justice began its
probe early this year, it was not until
late September that lekes finally was
interviewed, despite the fact that he
was the top manager of Clinton's cam-
paign.
Reno also has a conflict ot interest
because she is now so defensive about
and protective of the Justice Depart-
ment's jurisdiction over this case that
she is sacrificing the interests of even-
handed justice.
The 1996 presidential election was
conducted with money that surely
skirted and seems to have broken the
1974 law. Since Reno can’t see the
conspiracy, she needs to appoint an
independent investigator who can.
Kondracke is executive editor of
Roll Call, the newspaper of Capitol
Hill.
What I am, a solitary man
Sapulpa Daily
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NATIONAL NEWSPAPER
ASSOCIATION
The Promise Keepers have been
perhaps overscrutinized in the
media. 1 don’t see what the big deal
is. Bunch of guys go to a stadium
and whoop and holler? So what?
The only thing missing is a football
game.
Feminists, predictably, are in a
tizzy about this prototypical male
behavior. Supposedly, they fear, this
is some kind of right-wing front
group that will put women back in
the refrigerator and off the street.
So far, Patricia Ireland and her
stern ilk have been stranded high
and dry in their misgivings. Certain-
ly they’re represented at any discus-
sion, but their forebodings, so far at
least, have been received as quibbles
at best, hysterical whining at worst.
As for me, I could never join a
group that makes promises in con-
vention centers. 1 have a mistrust of
oaths made in public. Yeah, that
includes the Pledge of Allegiance
and the Lord’s Prayer.
A promise is a promise. Either
you give your word or you don t.
You keep it, or you don’t. It doesn’t
matter how many witnesses you
have.
You know what you promised.
You know when you broke your
word, don’t you? You know what
shame and guilt are, don't you?
Why do you need to stand among
a bunch of guys you don't know to
admit to crimes you know in your
heart you committed? Or to swear to
a true course you should have
steered in the first place? You
messed up? Eat your pain. Be a
man.
Duck's Breath
By
Ian
Shoales
O
Newspaper
Enterprise
A js,
Association
MSLJ
my time. I’m not good.
But I’m not the worst that ever
lived either. There must be millions
of guys like me out there, trying to
do right, who don’t see how going to
a football game without the football
accomplishes any kind of moral
goal. Call me superstitious, but I
view pretty much any organization
as an open invitation to fascism.
What’s wrong with the solitary
road? I’ve seen enough of the Mil-
lion Man Marches — and Take Back
the Night rallies, as far as that goes.
I henceforth take as my role
model Jimmy Stewart in his Jimmy
Stewart westerns, Robert Mitchum
in any movie, the continental op,
Philip Marlowe, Toshiro Mifune in
“Yojimbo,” the stand-up comic, the
mountainman, the toll taker, the
boxer; the spy, the drifter, the loner,
the man who's run out of options.
| will stand alone, and keep
myself to myself.
I will be the Norwegian bachelor
with his dogs and geese, the bicycle
messenger, the all-night security
guard, the old man on the porch, the
black rider, the troubled mercenary,
the unshaven man who mumbles to
himself at the bus stop, the autistic,
the orphan, the abandoned, the child
who plays alone, the reader, the
salesman watching soft-core porn in
his semi-posh hotel room.
I will be the power behind the
throne, the victim, the killer, the
solitary witness, the man without
qualities, the adviser, the runner sent
to get the cavalry, the interpreter.
I will not break on the rack, or
maybe 1 will. I will be the hermit. 1
will bring the nuggets back to town,
or return empty-handed. I will reject
the blindfold. 1 will command the
forces. I will say “I do.” I will sign
the papers. I will love you. 1 will
betray you. You know who I am.
You don’t know me at all.
I will keep bees. I will comb the
shores. I will build a shack in the
jungles of Hawaii. I will be tortured
by demons. Nothing will speak to
me. Everything will speak to me.
Bob Dylan will speak to me.
It’ll be just me and my guitar, me
and my thumb, the remote, me and
my shadow, me, myself and I. I am
W.C. Fields. I am not Spock. 1 will
never join the Federation, never.
The way 1 vote will always be my
business.
Watch for the Single Man March.
It’ll be easy to miss — just me,
walking down the street. And don't
try to join me, all right? Find your
own damn parade.
(To receive a complimentary Ian
Shoalcs newsletter, call 1-800-989-
DUCK or write Duck’s Breath, 408
Broad St., Nevada City. CA 95959.)
Jones-Clinton
attorneys get
started on case
By SANDRA SOBIERAJ
Associated Press Writer
WASHINGTON (AH) - Sworn
testimony in the sexual harassment
suit against President Clinton begins
this week with all sides scurrying for
damaging evidence and digging in for
a protracted standoff. Talk of an out-
of-court settlement is dead for now.
The depositions start off simply
enough, Monday in Little Rock, Ark.^
Paula Jones' mother and sister will
testify to what she told them of the
alleged 1991 hotel-room encounter.
Next week, former co-worker Pamela
Blackard and friend Debra Ballcntine,
both confidantes of Mrs. Jones at the
time, are to give depositions.
From there, scheduled testimony
veers from the principals Subpoenas
betray strategies: his to prove her a
profit-driven liar, hers to prove him a
chronic adulterer.
It is Clinton's often-ignored code-
fendant who w ill peer into Mrs. Jones'
sexual past - a defense the president's
team was forced to forswear months
ago after an uproar by women's
groups.
Some half-dozen witnesses to Mrs.
Jones' sexual reputation, including
past boyfriends and a former employ-
er, have been subpoenaed by Bill
Bristow, attorney for Arkansas state
trooper Danny Ferguson. They will
testify in depositions beginning Oct.
17.
Both Clinton and Ferguson are
named in the 570(1,001) suit, which
U S. District Court Judge Susan
Wright Webber scheduled for trial
next May.
Susan Carpenter McMillan, a Los
Angeles public-relations woman who
acts as Mrs. Jones' spokeswoman,
accused Bristow of doing the presi-
dent's dirty work.
"It disgusts me, and Mr. Clinton's
lawyers arc letting il happen. These
arc the same tired old tactics that have
been used against rape victims and
molested children," she said.
Clinton, who was Arkansas gover-
nor when he allegedly propositioned
the former state employee, stands
accused of sexual harassment. Mrs.
Jones sued Ferguson for defamation,
fingering him as the source of a pub-
lished account that depicted her as
eager to be Clinton's mistress.
Bristow said he is not influenced
by the president's lawyers. "I'm doing
w hat is best for my client. If one files
a defamation case, one puts one's per-
sonal reputation at issue," said the
attorney, who once defended one of
Clinton's major political foes in an
Arkansas criminal matter.
The president's defense team, led
by Washington powerhouse Robert
Bennett, served subpoenas in the last
two weeks on groups with ties to Car-
penter McMillan or Mrs. Jones' legal
fund.
The fund's former director, Cindy
Hays, will ask Judge Wright this week
to protect donor records for fear of
harassment.
But Bennett and his partner,
Mitchell Fttinger, say they the fund-
raising documents will lay bare Mrs.
Jones' motives. Their longstanding
theory that she is bankrolled by Clin-
ton's political enemies - a charge she
vigorously disputes -- seemed to gain
some credence Oct. 1 when The
Rutherford Institute, a Virginia con-
servative group, enlisted as her offi-
cial fund-raising arm.
"We believe she is being controlled
by people who are extreme right-wing
political Clinton-haters, and that's rel-
evant to issues of motive and bias,"
Bennett said.
As for an out-of-court settlement,
he said no negotiations had been held
since Mrs. Jones' Dallas firm, Rader,
Campbell, Fisher & Pyke, came on
board this month. Other sources close
to the case didn’t expect talks to
resume until closer to the judge's mid-
April decision on summary judgment,
if at all.
White I louse sources say first lady
Hillary Rodham Clinton believes her
husband's denials of misconduct but
wants a settlement in order to avoid
an embarrassing trial.
Calls to Rader, Campbell, Fisher &
Pyke were not returned.
Bennett’s team is also pursuing
suspicions that Mrs. Jones' income tax
returns showed she has treated her
legal fund as a business. "It will be
instructive to see how she's using this
money," Ettinger said. "If she is
gleaning profits from this case, it goes
directly to motive and credibility,"
Ettinger said.
Facing the judge's Jan. 30 deadline
for depositions, Mrs. Jones’ attorneys
dished out their own discovery
requests last week. They included,
Bennett said, one that would compel
the president to list "every woman
that he ever kissed outside of mar-
riage."
Bennett has until next month to
respond, and he vowed to object:^
"You think it's relevant to ask about*
every woman he’s kissed? Come on." ‘
As if the subpoenas were not testi-
mony enough to how uncomfortable-
the case could become for all parties,
Bennett appeared on CBS' "Face the
Nation" Sunday and discussed Clin-
ton’s genitals. t
Armed with a urologist's report^
from the president's annual physical,.
Bennett once again rejected Mrs.)
Jones' assertion that Clinton has "dis-
tinguishing characteristics" on hist
sexual organ
"The president is a normal man,"*
Bennett said
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Diehl, Don. Sapulpa Daily Herald (Sapulpa, Okla.), Vol. 83, No. 26, Ed. 1 Tuesday, October 14, 1997, newspaper, October 14, 1997; Sapulpa, Oklahoma. (https://gateway.okhistory.org/ark:/67531/metadc1500162/m1/4/?rotate=90: accessed July 17, 2024), The Gateway to Oklahoma History, https://gateway.okhistory.org; crediting Oklahoma Historical Society.