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Clinton's White House is acting like Nixon's during Watergate

There are situations such as national security where executive privilege makes sense. We can't have the news media spreading nuclear secrets or critical troop movements or White House security procedures. We can't expose the agents of the CIA throughout the world. We can't reveal our military strengths and weaknesses to the world. We can't tell the world about new weapons that we are developing. There are other justifiable reasons to claim executive privilege, but they do not include dreaming up cover stories, investigating opponents, suborning perjury, accusing opponents of numerous crimes and planning personal defense strategies.

For the President to claim that Bruce Lindsey and Sid Blumenthal deserve executive privilege is an insult to other American people. It is bad enough that Lindsey shows up to the hearings with more lawyers than O.J. Simpson, all paid for with tax dollars. But to claim executive privilege is an outrage. We are not talking about national secrets. Rehearsing stories about sexual revelations has nothing to do with the lives and security of American citizens.

For the life of me, I cannot understand why the White House would use this defense. It only reminds us of the Nixon White House during the Watergate scandal. What could these people possibly know that the White House is afraid to have the public know about?

Keith C. De Filippis
San Jose

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This article appeared in the Sunnyvale Sun, March 4, 1998.
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