Our Little Secret

IT’S NOT THE ECONOMY, STUPID: Contrary to the media, it doesn’tseem to be the beneficiaries of the so-called booming economy that’s keepingPresident Bill aloft. Our Little Secret digs into the numbersand shows that the wealthier Americans are, the more likely they are tosupport Clinton’s impeachment…

IN LIKE FLYNT: Hustler’s publisher Larry Flynt providedthe nation with some salutary dirt on Rep. Bob Barr, the former CIAman and federal prosecutor from Georgia. Now everyone’s guessing as to theidentity of the Republican senator who is alleged to be a cross-dresser:Last issue OLS suggested Sen. Arlen Specter. Now Dick Lugar’sname has popped up.

STROM UND DRANG: The Nonegenerarian from South Carolina, StromThurmond, may have the most voracious sex drive in the Senate. FormerSen. John Tower–himself a seasoned veteran of the DC party circuit–remarkedof Thurmond, “When he dies they’ll have to beat his pecker down witha baseball bat in order to close the coffin lid.” OLS digs intoThurmond’s past and reveals his trysts with a convicted murderess and hisfinal dalliance with her on the drive to the death house.

BRIBES AND JUSTICE: Last year, a three-judge panel on the 10thCircuit Federal Court of Appeals struck a major blow at federal prosecutorswhen it ruled that the offer of leniency to co-defendents in exchange fortestimony constituted an unlawful bribe. The ruling went to the full courtwhich reversed the decision on January 8, 1999. OLS examines thecase that prompted the decisions and the absurd grounds of the ruling itself,including the opinion of Judge John Portilio that federal prosecutorscan’t be sued because of “sovereign prerogative…the special rightof kings.”

LAST WORD FROM LBJ: When Lady Bird Johnson caught LBJhaving sex with a secretary on the couch in the Oval Office, he orderedthe Secret Service to install a buzzer system in the White House, that wouldwarn him when the First Lady left the domestic wing of the residence.

CORRUPTION OF JUSTICE: OLS interviews one of the nation’s topdefense attorneys, Tony Serra. For a taste, here’s Serra on snitches:”we probably have more nomenclature for informants than does any otherculture. We have citizen informants, confidential informants, informantswho are precipient, informants who are participatory, informants who areco-defendents, informants who precipitate charges by reverse stings. Oursystem is permeated by the witness or government provocateur who is paidby govern for a role in either revealing or instigating a crime.”

Jeffrey St. Clair is editor of CounterPunch. His new book is The Big Heat: Earth on the Brink co-written with Joshua Frank. He can be reached at: sitka@comcast.net. Alexander Cockburn’s Guillotined! and A Colossal Wreck are available from CounterPunch.