-Caveat Lector- "The jury's out in terms of whether Quinn blew one by Clinton, or Clinton blew one by Quinn, or whether they're both laughing about it," says one lawyer. <http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A1928-2001Feb13.html> Jack Quinn's Sin By Marjorie Williams Wednesday, February 14, 2001; Page A25 One curious aspect of the widening scandal over Bill Clinton's pardon of Marc Rich is the fury directed at Jack Quinn, the former White House counsel who secured the prize for the fugitive billionaire by a personal appeal to the departing president. The capital is suddenly full of sagacious lawyers who wouldn't have touched the Rich case with a 10-foot pole. Not that they'll say so for the record. But obviously, they say, Quinn stepped over the line in representing a client as controversial as Rich before a former client (the president), when his success turned out to do so much damage to Clinton's reputation. Their verdicts on Quinn's role in the affair range from "inappropriate" to "filthy." "I'm not saying there's an ethical fault here for which he could be censured," sniffs one of D.C.'s legal mandarins. "It's more a question of taste." Leave aside, for a moment, the fact that the condemnation of Quinn casts Bill Clinton as the gulled innocent in the Rich affair. The backbiting offers a rare glimpse at the unwritten tenets of the Washington access culture. In truth, according to the facts known so far, Quinn appears to have behaved with impeccable lawyer's ethics here, advocating as strongly as possible for his paying client -- so strongly as to jeopardize his ties to his party's power brokers, including Clinton. His real offense has two parts, neither of which has anything to do with ethics. The first sin was to get caught at a game that is played every day of the week in Washington. In seeking a pardon for a notorious fugitive who had never been tried, Quinn may have played a gaudier hand than most do. But it was still just a daring version of the trade that is plied by every lawyer in Washington who claims a practice in "government relations." Former congressional aides press their clients' interests over cozy dinners with the committee chairs who have relied for years on their advice. Former prosecutors take on criminal clients who hope to strike advantageous deals with the lawyers' erstwhile colleagues. Political fundraisers and consultants go into business selling corporate access to the politicians they helped put in office. "Obviously, the majesty of the White House sort of changes the cosmetics. But it's not really different," concedes a former government official. "I advocate all the time on behalf of clients, before people I worked very closely with. And I do it before friends. People I have dinner with. It's not a big deal, in Washington. If you eliminated the revolving door, you'd eliminate 75 percent of the jobs in Washington." The second part of Quinn's offense was made clear in last week's House hearing chaired by Rep. Dan Burton (R-Ind.). In questioning Quinn, panelist Paul Kanjorski (D-Pa.) cited the sacred principle that "if my chief of staff or former legislative director, who was a lawyer and left my office, would come to me to present a petition, I would make the assumption that it wouldn't be just an advocate's position, that they would arm me with the negatives also, or make certain at least that they, in their own mind, were going to be certain that I would gain that information that was important to make that judgment." In other words, When you guys come around on behalf of your clients, you're supposed to be looking out for us, too. You don't ask for anything that's too hard to give. You don't put your former boss in harm's way by squeezing him for anything that could end up on the front page. The outrage, then, isn't over a former government employee using his personal relationships for ends that have nothing to do with the public interest; it's over his failure to take care of his former patron in the process. In Washington, though this is never openly stated, the need to protect one's old relationships trumps even the obligation to a client. This story is changing so fast, under the impetus of three separate investigations, that opinion about Quinn's role in the affair could shift. Certainly, news of large donations to the Clinton presidential library by Rich's ex-wife, Denise, makes it harder to cast Clinton as the clueless pawn of a determined lawyer. "The jury's out in terms of whether Quinn blew one by Clinton, or Clinton blew one by Quinn, or whether they're both laughing about it," says one lawyer. What you can count on is Quinn's eventual rehabilitation by his peers. The outcry over his role in the affair will surely vanish, just as soon as he fades from view as the awkward public reminder of the capital's lucrative private culture. ================================================================= Kadosh, Kadosh, Kadosh, YHVH, TZEVAOT FROM THE DESK OF: *Michael Spitzer* <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ The Best Way To Destroy Enemies Is To Change Them To Friends ================================================================= <A HREF="http://www.ctrl.org/">www.ctrl.org</A> DECLARATION & DISCLAIMER ========== CTRL is a discussion & informational exchange list. Proselytizing propagandic screeds are unwelcomed. Substance—not soap-boxing—please! These are sordid matters and 'conspiracy theory'—with its many half-truths, mis- directions and outright frauds—is used politically by different groups with major and minor effects spread throughout the spectrum of time and thought. 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