10,1998 _
- -■— - <
Lott urges Clinton to tell ‘whole truth’
■ The senator also
advises Starr to conclude his
work in the investigation.
WASHINGTON (AP) - Senate
Majority Leader Trent Lott Monday
urged President Clinton to do by end
ing the “stonewalling” and telling
“the whole truth” about his relation
ship with Monica Lewinsky.
He also said the administration
should stop its “smear tactics”
against independent counsel
Kenneth Starr.
“I today call on the president to
come forward. Tell the American
people what has happened in these
cases, particularly the Lewinsky
case,” Lott, R-Miss., told reporters.
“What is the whole truth? Tell
that to the independent counsel,
call off his attack dogs, get this
behindlis so that we can go on with
the people’s business.”
Lott had come under fire by
House Speaker Newt Gingrich, R
Ga., and other Republicans over the
weekend after saying Starr should
accelerate the long-running
Whitewater investigation into the
president’s private land dealings and
allegations he had an affair with for
mer White House intern Lewinsky
and covered it up.
Monday, Lott told a packed
Capitol meeting room Starr “is doing
a great job under very difficult cir
cumstances.” He criticized Clinton
and the White House for hindering
Starr’s work with “stonewalling and
smear tactics and attack methods
being used by his attorneys and by his
allies.”
Lott said he hoped Starr would
wrap up his work “sooner rather than
later” because of the effect it is hav
ing.
“It is beginning to have an
impact on the presidency, on the
president and on his ability to deal
with many very important issues for
the future of our country - from
Social Security to what’s going on
in Iraq to now what’s going on in
Kosovo,” Lott said.
He offered few specifics about
how Clinton’s problems were affect
ing those issues, but said, “I think
maybe there would have been more
communication, particularly by the
president himself.”
Lott acknowledged that during a
conversation over the weekend with
Gingrich, the speaker asked him,
“What was your thinking”^when he
called on Starr to quickly complete
his work.
Earlier, Sen. Arlen Specter, R-Pa.,
criticized Lott’s comment that
Congress take the less drastic course
of censuring the president if Starr
cannot prove Clinton engaged in any
thing illegal.
“I don’t think a censure resolution
would be worth a tinker’s dam,”
Specter said on “Fox News Sunday.”
“I don’t think the Congress is in die
business of censuring the president,”
a move that would have no legal ram
ifications.
One option for Starr, if he does
not find credible evidence that
Clinton obstructed justice or other
wise broke the law, is to report his
findings to the House and let it decide
whether to begin impeachment hear
ings.
If there is credible evidence,
Specter said, “so be it.” But “I don’t
think there ought to be an impeach
ment proceeding brought unless there
is an open-and-shut case. America
cannot stand the trauma of an
impeachment matter unless it is cut
and-dry.”
Rep. Bill McCollum, R-Fla., a
member of the Judiciary
Committee responsible for
impeachment proceedings, said
hearings would be necessary if it’s
proved Clinton lied under oath or
«
It is beginning to have an impact on the
president... and on his ability to deal with
many very important issues. ...”
Trent Lott
senate majority leader
obstructed justice.
But, he added, “Ken Starr could
just as easily report to the Congress
in a few weeks that he does not have
the evidence, and that will be the
end of it.”
Most Republicans have tried to
stay out of the fight between the
White House and Starr over the meth
ods and extent of the independent
counsel investigation.
But differences came to the sur
face this weekend when Lott suggest
ed that Starr “show his cards” and
wrap up the investigation. He also
proposed that Congress consider a
resolution to censure the president if
it lacks the evidence to move on
impeachment.
Specter backed Lott’s comments
on fee pace of Starr’s investigation. “I
think a gentle nudge by Trent Lott is a
good thing.
But other Republicans were open
ly critical. House Speaker Newt
Gingrich on Saturday said Starr
should consider die needs of justice,
not public relations, in carrying out
his duties. Sen. Fred Thompson, R
Tenn., said while “we’d all like to see
it over with one way or another... we
need to leave him alone and let him
do his job.”
“I don’t know what Senator Lott
has in mind,” former Education
Secretary and conservative leader
William Bennett said Sunday on
NBC’s “Meet the Press.”
“Ken Starr is down, he’s being
kicked by every Democrat from here
to California, and Trent decides to
throw something on him too.
Doesn’t seem to me to make much
sense.”
El Nino apparent cause of
■98 winter.weatherrecords
WASHINGTON (APf-m fust
two months of 1998 were the warmest
and wettest on record for the continen
tal United States, according to a report
Monday from government weather
watchers, who predicted El Nino will
bring more of the same for March and
April.
The National Oceanic and
Atmospheric Administration reported
the national average temperature in
|anuary and February \mis.3!#,5
degrees Fahrenheit, compared with
tiie normal 32.1 degrees. The previous
record, set in 1990, was 37.0 degrees.
An average 6.01 inches of rain
fell, beating the record of 5.7 inches
set in 1979. Normally, 4.05 inches fall
during the first two months of the
year.
“These are the patterns one would
typically expect during a strong El
Nino event,” said Ants Leetmaa,
director of NOAA’s Climate
Prediction Center.
While the precipitation and tem
I
peratures in January and February
beat records for the first two months
of any year since such measurements
were first recorded 104 years ago, this
winter didn’t set a new record when
December was included.
According to NOAA, the
December-through-February period
was the second-warmest and the sev
enth-wettest on record.
The agency also said it expected
tion patterns to continue through
March and April and much of the
nation to experience warmer than
usual temperatures this summer.
El Nino is a periodic warming of
the eastern Pacific Ocean, accompa
nied by changes in air pressure over
the ocean, that can change weather
patterns over much of the world.
Its causes remain mysterious, but
government forecasters accurately
predicted its arrival and impact for the
first time this season.
--
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AU. MATERIAL WPYW&fT 1998
THE DAILY NEBRASKAN
\ • f. [ ‘
OPEC faces internal strife
as oil prices drop markedly
LUNJJUN (ArJ - Ull prices
plunged Monday to levels unseen
in nearly four years, as traders
decided OPEC won’t try any
quick fixes for the depressed
market.
The Organization of
Petroleum Exporting Countries
was considering holding an emer
gency meeting next week, but
Saudi Arabia’s oil minister, Ali
Naimi, seems to have shot down
the idea. He says he won’t cut the
kingdom’s production only to
lose market shares to other OPEC
members who are pumping more
than they agreed.
The main question now hang
ing over the market: How low will
the price of oil have to go before
one of the two protagonists in the
latest internal OPEC squabble -
Saudi Arabia or Venezuela - will
blink?
I m sure there is a level
below which they cannot contin
ue the status quo,” said
Manouchehr Takin, a senior oil
analyst at the Center for Global
Energy Studies in London.
“When it gets to a really critical
stage, they will get together. What
level of pain can they endure?”
Takin was not making any
bets on what the magic number
might be for the 11-nation OPEC.
He predicted current prices would
force some small operators in
places like Texas and Oklahoma
to shut down high-cost, low-vol
ume oil wells, however.
Brent crude oil to be delivered
in April fell 47 cents a barrel, to
$13.12, late Monday afternoon on
the International Petroleum
Exchange in London.
Light sweet crude oil to be
delivered in April was off 48
cents at $14.43 a barrel on the
Although several of the
group’s smaller players are clam
oring for cutbacks, they may have
to Wait to see whether die Saudis
or the Venezuelans back ddwn
first in the face of sharply lower .
revenues that will prove devastat
ing to all the oil producers.
Libyan oil minister Abdalla
Salem el-Badri said last week the
crisis has cost the organization
some $8 billion in lost oil rev
enues.
In Baghdad, a senior Iraqi
official said Iraq would not attend
the OPEC meeting.
Iraq has been barred irom
freely exporting oil since its 1990
invasion of Kuwait. Under a spe
cial program, the United Nations
has allowed it to sell limited
quantities of crude to buy food
and other needed goods for its 22
million people.
The Iraqi official, who spoke
oh condition of anonymity, said
his country would not reduce its
U.N.-authorized pumping
because it had to “produce and
produce” to feed its people.
Iraq's Foreign Minister
Mohammed Saeed al-Sahhaf was <
in New York to discuss a U.N.
plan to expand the oil-for-food
program so Iraq may sell $5.2 bil
lion worth of oil over six months,
instead of the current $2.1 bil- U 1
New York Mercantile Exchange.
On Friday, the spot month con
tract in New York had plunged
below $15 per barrel for the first
time since April 199*4. i
Oil prices have been sinking
since OPEC decided in November
to increase its stated output ceil
ing by 10 percent - just as world
demand for crude was slowing
because of the Asian economic
crisis. A relatively mild winter in
parts of the United States also has
reduced demand for home heat
ing oil.
in the past, Saudi Arabia has
acted as a “swing producer” with
in OPEC, adjusting its own mas
sive production to stabilize often
volatile global markets.
Naimi told the state-run Saudi
press agency Sunday he will not
do this “only to find out that other
countries, especially those who
do not adhere to their quotas,
flood the market, undermine
prices and take our valuable cus
tomers.”
Saudi Arabia, he said, has
“abandoned once and for all the
role of swing producer.”
Venezuela is by far the biggest
quota-buster in OPEC, but oil
minister Erwin Arrieta said last
week that his country won’t cut
production by even one barrel.
iTIiMirWiTi-rr H**irTT~ ~~*r ~ -y- -''—^
«
When it gets to a really critical stage,
(OPEC nations) will get together. What
level of pain can they endure? ”
Manouchehr Takin
Center for Global Energy Studies