T A B L E+T A L K Another fatal schoolyard shooting, brought to you by the gun lobby. Join the discussion about the Kentucky school shooting in Headlines. D A I L Y+Q U O T E Human cloning? Sure, why not? R E C E N T L Y A tale of two families By Earl Ofari Hutchinson Why is a white "miracle birth" a major news story and a black "miracle birth" a non-event? (12/02/97) America's Asian "Berlin Wall" has crumbled By Jonathan Broder Thanks to American Cold War politics, Asia has been fed a steady diet of undemocratic regimes and corrupt leaders. No wonder the current economic turmoil has been such a shock to their systems (12/01/97) All in la familia By Barbara Renoud-Gonzales Drugs -- dealing, using, addiction -- are rampant in America's Latino families (11/26/97) Been there, Dunne that By Karen Grigsby Bates Dominick Dunne's gossipy, glittery O.J. "novel" only tells half the story (11/25/97) Once more to the death squads By Andrew Reding A $50 million U.S. aid package marked for the "war on drugs" in Colombia will help drug-trafficking right-wing killers (11/24/97) - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Browse the Newsreal Archives - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
		THE GREAT ARLINGTON NATIONAL CEMETERY SMEAR | PAGE 2 OF 2 - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Now for the facts: On Nov. 21, Secretary of the Army Togo West issued a statement -- which somehow got lost amid the media feeding frenzy -- that listed the names of 69 individuals who received waivers to be buried at Arlington National Cemetery since 1993, when Clinton took office. Of the 69, Clinton granted a total of four waivers -- for former Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall; Elvera Burger, the widow of Supreme Court Justice Warren Burger; J.W. Seale, a U.S. Army veteran killed while on an undercover mission in Peru as a Drug Enforcement Agent; and Henry Daly, a Marine Corps veteran killed in the line of duty while serving as a Washington, D.C., policeman. It was West who granted the other 65 waivers, the majority to spouses who, like Mrs. Burger, were buried with their husbands, or to individuals whose distinguished military or other government service warranted exceptions. Moreover, a check of Federal Election Commission records showed that of the 69 names, only one -- former Ambassador Larry Lawrence -- was a donor to the Democratic National Committee. Lawrence's family received permission to bury him at Arlington because he had served in the Merchant Marine during World War II, had been wounded in a German torpedo attack on his ship just prior to D-Day and had died while serving as U.S. ambassador to Switzerland. One more thing: Rep. Everett, who raised the unfounded smear to the level of congressional concern, admitted that he has known about the 69 waivers since June, when the Pentagon routinely turned over its records to Everett's subcommittee. Amazingly, as Rep. Everett further acknowledged, he never bothered to check the names against Federal Election Committee records to corroborate whether any had actually been political donors. And what of RNC chairman Jim Nicholson? Did he try to check his facts before calling the late Ambassador Lawrence, the wounded World War II veteran who died at his diplomatic post in Bern, "a major Democratic donor who never served in the Armed Forces"? And come to think of it, whatever happened to Insight's "dozens of big-time political donors or friends of the Clintons" who supposedly received waivers to be buried at Arlington National Cemetery? When I got back to Washington from the Thanksgiving holiday, I called Rep. Everett, RNC chairman Nicholson and Rodriguez, the author of the original story. And I called and called again. I left four messages on the voice mail of Everett's spokesman, Mike Lewis, and two each with the secretaries of Nicholson and Rodriguez. To date, they have not returned my calls. And why should they? They've already accomplished what they intended -- to sow another seed of Clinton scandal in the American public's mind. Who cares if it's true? The real point is, will it stick? Maybe the next time I call the Republican National Committee or Rep. Everett's office, I'll tell them my name is Jim, that I'm an Air Force veteran from Connecticut and that I want to make a campaign donation in support of their efforts to keep Arlington pure and unpoliticized. That ought to get my calls returned. SALON | Dec. 3, 1997 Jonathan Broder is Salon's regular Washington correspondent.