LETTERS: YOU CAN FOOL SOME OF THE PEOPLE...

To the editor:

As an average citizen who has too often stood on the sidelines and not spoken up, I finally feel compelled to say something after the release of the Starr report.

I opened the Sunday edition of our local newspaper and saw the article stating that there is backlash against the Starr report, and Clinton's approval ratings are up. I was reminded of the saying attributed to P.T. Barnum: "You can fool some of the people all of the time, and all of the people some of the time ... ."

This letter is to the people who are expressing anger at the office of independent counsel and Kenneth Starr while continuing to pledge their undying support to President Clinton. Many of you are overlooking the one crucial item in this whole sordid mess. That item is the fact that our entire democratic system in this country and all that it stands for are based on truth, honor and respect for our fellow citizens. It is these key principles that parents strive to instill within their children so that they may have strong moral values to guide them throughout their lives. Clinton has failed the country miserably on all three counts.

Mr. Clinton has lied to us repeatedly. Did anybody ever really believe that weak "I didn't inhale" story? Or the story he fabricated about his being granted a deferment from service for the Vietnam War? He danced all around the subject of his long-term affair with Gennifer Flowers. And he has done all he can to dodge and obfuscate all facets of the Paula Jones case. Does anybody truly believe that a man who holds women in a place of honor and respect would have allegations leveled against him like Paula Jones and Mrs. Willey have done? He lied to the grand jury in his original testimony as to the nature of his relationship with Monica Lewinsky. He lied to his Cabinet about the same matter, and he stood behind them during a news conference in front of the White House while they all told us how steadfastly they believed in their president's innocence because he had assured them the stories were completely false. He looked us in the eye in January and lied to the American people just one year after taking the oath of office to uphold the Constitution for a second time. This is the same Constitution that is based on the principles listed above. He has justified the lying and deceit for the Lewinsky matter only. He has done this by saying he was trying to protect his family. Any honorable, respectable person knows that these are the last people you treat in the manner he has, and they are the last people you lie to. President Clinton, while sitting in the Oval Office, has touched at the heart of America with many of his policies and objectives. Bill Clinton the man has shown himself to be a womanizer throughout his public life, and he apparently prefers this type as his closest advisers and friends.

I believe that President Clinton, like many other people of both high intelligence and high achievement, is an extremely complicated person with a voracious appetite for many things, power and sex being just two of them. He has shown exceedingly poor judgment in all actions relating to the Lewinsky matter. While poor judgment is not an indictable crime even for a president, it does reflect negatively on his office and certainly on the American people when it is allowed to continue. The bottom lime is that the one person we placed in the highest office in the land and entrusted with the authority of the greatest power on Earth has lied to everyone under sworn oath. If his words mean nothing to him under sworn oath, and he has lost the respect and trust of his own people, how can we truly believe he will be respected and trusted to truthfully negotiate with others around the globe.

The president has lost it all, not because of Monica Lewinsky or Ken Starr's thorough research, but because the continued lies and deceit of his personal behavior have expressed themselves in his lack of honor and respect for the women in his personal life and the American citizens as a whole.

JAY C. FAIRBANKS

Cape Girardeau