KINDER'S COMMENTARY: JUDICIARY COUNSEL DURING NIXON YEARS SEES MANY CLINTON FLAWS

One of the most interesting developments of the last two years was the re-emergence of an elderly attorney named Jerome Zeifman. Who is this obscure gentleman? Well, for starters, he is a lifelong Democrat. Of far more importance is the fact that will be central when his obituary is written: In 1974, Zeifman was chief counsel to the House Judiciary Committee, the same committee that voted the articles of impeachment against President Richard Nixon. Zeifman is the author of a book entitled "Without Honor: The Impeachment of President Nixon and the Crimes of Camelot."

Among the young staff attorneys working for Zeifman in those historic days at House Judiciary was a young Yale Law grad named Hillary Rodham, who the following year would marry an aspiring young Arkansas politician. Another was Bernie Nussbaum, who served as the first White House counsel in the early days of the Clinton administration before resigning in disgrace.

Long before the current mess in the White House, Democrat Zeifman had had all he could stand from the Clinton crowd. Short days before the 1996 election, Zeifman penned a piece for The Wall Street Journal entitled "A Cancer on the Presidency." Contained in it was this arresting line:

"In my view there is now probable cause to consider our president and first lady as felons, who are likely to be indicted after the November election."

What crimes did Zeifman have in mind more than 15 months ago? He names "a laundry list of 30 or 40 felonies that may have been committed, ... including multiple counts of obstruction of justice, perjury, bribery, illegal campaign contributions, lying to the FBI, suppression and destruction of evidence ..."

Democrat Zeifman notes that he helped send Nixon aide Charles Colson to prison for fooling around with one FBI file, while the Clinton administration was doing the same with 900. Zeifman foresees a building tide of voter revulsion that could bury his beloved Democratic Party. Recalling a great British statesman and author, Zeifman says:

"I quote from Edmund Burke, the spiritual, legal, political spirit I invoke to talk with at night: `What profiteth a man to win an election and lose the precious jewel of his soul?'"

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Developments continue to unfold on the culture front, and this week's big news is from the great state of Maine. Voters went to the polls in an election this past week to consider an effort to repeal a so-called gay rights measure their legislature had passed. Result: By a vote of 52-48 percent, Maine voters repealed the measure. In order to achieve this result, voters had to make their way through what one commentator called "a massive media and political assault" from establishment forces opposing repeal. Those establishment forces outspent the grassroots, pro-repeal side five to one, and every major officeholder in the state opposed repeal of the measure the legislature had passed.

Against this formidable array of establishment, anti-repeal forces, the pro-family movement in Maine put together that state's Christian Civic League, Dr. James Dobson's Focus on the Family, the Christian Coalition and Gary Bauer's American Renewal organization. Score one for the often-beleaguered forces of traditional values. There should be no discrimination against homosexuals in a broadly tolerant America. Just as certainly, though, there should be no special rights, either. That's what the voters of Maine said last week.

~Peter Kinder is assistant to the president of Rust Communications and a state senator from Cape Girardeau.