Linda Tripp
Re “Scandal’s End Could Find Tripp in White Hat or Black,” Sept. 24: Let me see if I got this straight. It was the content of those taped conversations--about President Clinton’s help in getting Monica Lewinsky a job and about how Linda Tripp would testify in the Paula Jones case--that helped persuade Atty. Gen. Janet Reno and a three-judge federal panel to authorize Kenneth Starr to investigate the Clinton-Lewinsky relationship. Now we are told that those tapes may be spliced.
The attempt to blame Tripp sounds reasonable until one considers who stood to gain the most by doctoring those tapes. How about Starr and his staff?
SHIRLEY D. LINDE
Los Angeles
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We are outraged! Starr now says he’s not sure if any of the Tripp tapes have been altered. Surely he could have spent some of the $40-plus million to find out before he sent his report to Congress.
Are we taxpayers ever going to get an item-by-item accounting of our money spent by Starr on Wastegate?
BETTY and JERRY DECTER
Beverly Hills
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Let’s see, Tripp makes $88,000 a year, coaxed Lewinsky on how to prepare a spreadsheet and is “a highly efficient office manager,” yet according to Lucianne Goldberg, “Linda did not know how to copy. She was terrified of doing anything that would erase stuff.” These two opportunistic liars deserve each other.
FRANK THOMAS
Glendora
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Clinton’s approval rating rises even as the evidence revealing his lies continues to mount. I believe a major reason is the reluctance to upset the apple cart. People so fear change that we are willing to surrender our values and expectations for the familiarity of a dishonest president. This says less about Clinton than it does about the lack of character of our republic.
BURNIE THOMPSON
Fullerton
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I haven’t voted for a Democrat in 15 years, but I’m going to in November. Starr has wasted the country’s time, money and energy for too long. Clinton’s place in history is secure. Let him finish his term. We Republicans should abhor waste. If it takes a Democratic majority in Congress to end this nonsense, so be it.
BILL SERANTONI
Thousand Oaks
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If Democrats in Congress lack the intestinal fortitude to join Republicans in ousting the Sultan of Sleaze from our White House, they will rightly face the wrath of the electorate on Nov. 3. Like it or not, this election will be a referendum on Clinton. Members of Congress seeking reelection who stall, impede or otherwise oppose removal of Slick Willie from office may well find themselves on the outside looking in on Nov. 4. It is impossible to straddle the fence when it comes to unconscionable behavior by a president. You either oppose it or you condone it. Period!
CHARLES HAIGH
Redondo Beach
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Don’t kid yourself that the Clinton affair hasn’t become a partisan issue: America’s politics, law and media are on trial and the rest of us are the grand jury.
CURTIS M. BRUBAKER
Los Angeles